Weekly journal-miner., 1922-11-08
GO UP AT THE COPPER
 QUEEN MINE

BISBEE, Nov. 7. - The popular
 theory that miners usually "go dowr
 in the mines" when the shift begins
 is being smashed to smithereens by
 several hundred men here who are
 employed in the southwest division
 of the Copper Queen branch, Phelps 1 Dodge corporation. Miners and
 muckers in the southwest division
 "go up in the mines" 600 feet to get
 20 feet below the surface. And,
 while working underground, they are
 actually 600 feet above the city of
 Bisbee.
 This peculiar state of affairs is not
 as complicated as it may seem. South
 west division employees enter the mine by what is known as the Cop per Queen tunnel level. Walking several hundred yards in the tunnel they reach the Sunrise shaft. Here they board a huge elevator-hoist and are taken up 600 feet above the tun- nel entrance to the mine, which is located in a high mountain that tow CTS above the Bisbee district When the shift is over and the mine forces, instead of being carried to the sur face, are lowered again to the tunnel level.
 Mining engineers, veteran employees of the company and many new, ex- perienced copper miners, working in the district for the first time, declare that the Sunrise shaft elevator-plan hoist is one of the biggest, and most modern, in the southwest. Improve ment of the hoisting facilities at the Sunrise shaft is the most recent of the many improvements that have been made in the Bisbee district mines during the last two years.
 The "cage" of the new hoist is four feet eight inches wide and ten feet two inches in length. It accom- modates 36 men comfortably and can lift or lower load of four tons with ease at a speed of 800 feet per min ute. The cage can be controlled either from the hoist, at the top of the shaft, or from the cage itself, along lines similar to the control of a passenger elevator in skyscraper. The hoist motor, of 120 horsepower, is located in the huge steel tower directly above the top of the shaft, the drum of the hoist taking the place of the usual sheave-wheel. A huge counterweight of 11,650 pounds makes the action of the hoist almost identical with that of an elevator.
 In addition to hauling men be- tween the tunnel level and the south west division workings, the Sunrise hoist is used to handle all the sup plies for the division. The length of the cage makes 1t possible to roll loaded timber trucks directly into the cage, raise or lower them to what ever level is desired, and roll the trucks off again. This has speeded | up the transmission of timber and other supplies. Formerly the timbers were unloaded from the trucks, placed on end in the smaller cakes, taken up or down, removed from the cage and again loaded on trucks.
 The southwest division, for years a great copper producer, is now also producing between 1,200 and 1,500 tons of lead ore a month. This ore is being handled at the EI Paso smelter.
 Many former employees of local copper producing companies, return ing after absences of from several months to more than a year, are finding that the Bisbee district has been far from inactive during the depression in the copper industry. of dollars have been ex- pended by the Copper Queen branch and Calumet & Arizona Mining com pany. in improving their surface and workings, and these i'm provements are continuing, in spite of the fact that many men formerly on development work have been shift ed to actual mining with the resump- ton of ore production.
 MEN ARRESTED