Evening journal., 1922-08-28
PLAN HARD COAL
MINESLIKE
Has Main Street, Cross
Thoroughfares and Cham
bers or Rooms
IS MILES OF RAILWAY
IN ONE BIG DIGGING

The householder is not shovelIng
coal in these piping times OF sum-
mer, but because Of the strike and
fears that his favorite winter in
door sport will be interfered with
when the snow flies. coal has been
uppermost in his thoughts, none the
less.
A bulletin from the Washington
headquarters Of the National Geo
graphic Society presents a little
known aspect of the coal industry
to stay -the-surface uses OF this
modern necessity-the working OF a
big anthracite mine when operating
at full blast. Describing a visit to
a mine in which there are eighty
five miles OF underground railway,
the bulletin says:
zone thing above ground we will
be even more vitality interested in
when we go below-the ventilating
fan, for without It we would be in
danger of being 'gased' in times Of
peace. The fans IN this mine fly
around with a rim speed of a mile
a minute. Every mine has two
shafts; the hoisting shaft and the
air shaft. To keep the mine free
enough from gas to permit work in
safety, enormous quantities OF fresh
air must be sent down the one open
ing and corresponding quantities OF
gas-laden air drawn out the other.
ITO start on our downward jour
ney we step on the cage or eleva-
tor the mine superintendent gives
a signal. and the floor drops. Down.
down. down we whiz past stratum
after stratum Of rock.
Catacombs of the Living.
ARRIVING at the bottom, we soon
find that a coal mine is planned like
a city. There is one main street.
one entry, and Il has been laid out
with the nicely of a grand boulevard.
Parallel with this are other entries,
and across these entries run other
streets. at right angles, usually.
which are called headings. Lining
all these headings as houses line the
streets are the chambers. or rooms.
in which the miners work.
when we stop at the bottom we
feel ourselves in a small-sized hur-
ricane. II IS the air rushing down
the shaft and starting through the
mine on its mission OF publication.
I'VE walk and walk until we be-
gin to feel as though we might be
coming out over in China or France,
and then we come TO the rooms or
hambers-for all the coal in the
neighborhood Of the hoisting shaft |
IL. -
before now and this mine is far
flung.
These rooms or chambers might |
be monks cells in some catacombs |
for the living. Here the miner bores |
and blasts and digs away the coal I
and loads it into the mine cars. II |
he has a helper he does not need |
to do the loading himself. The car
holds about 5000 pounds Of run-of- |
the-mine coal. and a miner is sup /
posed to fill two of them a day.
when the car is loaded the miner
puts his number on It, and present
". with much ado, there comes up
the heading and into the passage
way leading to the chamber a string
of mules walking tandem. or single
lAts anu III AE hAAAn 1A fAAAHAt NAA hNN
hind. They pull out the loaded car,
yet the empty one where the miner
wants It. and go back the way they
came with the load OF coal.
There are other strings of mules.
also, and they distribute the emp
ties and mobilize the loaded cars
from and at given points. Then the
compressed-air engine comes along
and makes up a train of loaded. cars
after dropping one Of empties ready
for distribution. The coal trains
are pulled down to the hoisting
shaft, and one by one the cars go
to the surface. an empty coming
down as a loaded one goes up.
How the Coal Came TO Be.
Having seen the harvest in the
coal field, let us turn to the seed
time. Millions Of years ago Nature
stored away billions of tons OF coal
for US, and then left us record of
her processes written in a language
that all ages and tongues can under
stand. It is a story so wonderful
as almost to defy belief. and yet one
so plain TO him who reads it as to
defy unbelief.
vegetation grew rankly, leaves
and stalks settled into marshes, and