The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-09-08
Slate Pickers at Work.

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shaft appear fairly to fly upward past
us. Up, up, up they fly, disclosing
this stratum Of rock and then that.
Planned Like a City.
Arriving at the bottom, we soon find
that a coal mine is planned like a city.
There is one main street, or entry, and
1t has been laid out with the nicely Of
n grand boulevard. Parallel with this
are the other entries, and across these
entries run other streets. at right an
giles 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 ut the bottom we feel
ourselves In a small-siZed hurricane.
1t is the air rushing down the shaft
and starting through the mine on it's
mission of publication. Setting out
down the main entry, along a railroad
track, we Soon hear a changing bell
and n whistle, and presently there
looms out Of the darkness a yellow
light. AS 1t approaches, we see he
outlines of what appears to be a long,
round boiler creeping along the rails;
but in reality it is z compassionate
engine-for compressed air, rather
than electricity, is the haulage power
in this mine.
When the miners go down to their
work in the morning they are checked
in Inv thn Giro hncSo un ic an fnrn,cnn
who has charge of fire prevention and
of the safety Of the miners while at
their several tasks. During the night
every section Of the mine has been in
!, spected to see whether there is gas
anywhere. If there should be an entry.
n heading, or q room that Is laden with
gas, the fact Is noted on n slate which
is shown to the men as they file past.
The brass check Of every miner who
enters the workings is taken and hung
up on q board, opposite the number Of
the roO in which he is digging coal.
If he has a helper, his c~heck-some-
what differcnt-gOes up, too; and If
there are two men working as part
nears, that the fact is shown also.
We walk and walk until we begin
to feel as though we might be coming
out over In China or France, and then
we come to the rooms or chambers
for all the coal in the neighborhOOd Of
the hosting shaft has zone up in neat
and smoke long before now and this
mine is far-flung.
Where the Miner Works.
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 and
loads it into the mine cars. If he has
q helper he does not need to do the
loading himself. The car holds about
5000 pounds Of run-of-the-mine coal,
and u miner is supposed to fill two OF
them a day.
When the car is loaded the miner
puts his number on it, and presently,
with much ado, there comes up the
heading and inv the ~passageway lead
ing TO the chamber q string Of mules
walking tandem, or single file, and
dragging an empty car behind. They
pull out the loaded car, set the empty
one where the miner wants 1t. and 90
back with the load of coal.
There are other strings Of mules,
also, and they distribute the emptieS
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
hosting shaft, and one by one the cars
go to the surface, an empty coming
down as a loaded one goes up.
When we reach the top again, we
note the layout Of the breaker plant.
where the coal is cleaned and sorted
into the several commercial sizes.
The first thing that impresses us is
that the mine owners are almost as
careful in saving coal as a miser is in
boarding his gold.
Going up to the top Of the breaker,
we see the coal as it comes from the
mine with all It's slate and culm, me-
chanically dumped, a carload ut q time.
upon the oscillating bars, which begin
the process Of separating the coal from
the worthless material and the assert
ing of the former into groups accord
ing to size.