New Britain herald., 1928-03-03
Preparing for Market

all the liuIa.
 Preparing for Market
 Going back 10 the rop chut., N. , find that everything has been elm 1 mated by means ut these ,icYten.s ,N- ! C@pt the large humps. q size N-w
 Britain peopl. n,v-l sa.,. known |; steamboat sig. Stcumnoat ,iz, n,uns the naNimGu Iil. ot anthracite coal ; There is nr St.l. for steamboat Sl... 20 il never goes on tla market. Til, . cuu1" ~ad., ~ 1T top ot ;t B poI n up. about u" ~.I, O an ordinary uftics ,irsh. Tn 'ar-+, lurnus ot coal. ruc.; and ~...,a iroy into 1h,.s,- boxes. and lhfr, 'us-,s a crashing ;.ii grinding sonAa u.U"h resembling tlat ot @ >tott Tr,!sn.r.
 !r, os r"myN lt. eo..r oi h.. r,H. jIer~ wr ind tRo cast iron arGt.> uhout the sl~. q. ordinary ~pal barrels. i'll v uicr arL .-t le"l.. two incl.ys suuars and tour .4c4..s loMg, "n1lu@ lu sharp points. Ti.-s- i-. tu are clos together. The ,.r7.us r,ypI', toward ",.cl other. ,it4 teeth u"shus &n tn, time. Th | t. hole outfit ls hLon'a u.. ".ha crus1l-
 r" which accurately describes its Y ork.
 The l4rse !u.-D~ are crushed iutc smaller on S- A s'r,.s of onutes be low carry t.. pI'c.s through screens or -radually growing smaller crush CTS. their destination being guided ,ntiryIy hy t..v S.- ot the pieces.
 Motive power for transporting coal 1hrougi. th, yhurea consists en- nrvly of water. Four inch water pipes su>peuiyl over chutes, which hol's open and clos. valves ;4s ne"i- ,i. supply Water to keep the coal moving, On tIu, where the steamboat ajzs com "S through. armed m n Nitl long iron hooks with two VroncS. som times give tn" humps q push. Gravity helps move thcsa siz"s. rrcasion1liy |, lump of steamboat is too Nic for the crusher. :. man with a sIcdsv hammer then breaks t up.
 When iH- coal finally gets down 70 coluicrc.tl sizes it talks several directions through the breaker. Egg and stoV" sizes 20 through rnutcs flank hv rough boards upon which boys ranging from IA years up arc seated Th~s, boys k"sp their hands in the chutes all the timN. feeling the weight of zach lump %s il goes by So Ielicatoly have they trained their sons" of feeling that they can tell immediately wh"th.r it is coal, rock or slate. although they ali look ahko in 1h" chute. Rock and .alat" arc pick~l out and thrown into one chut". Honey or miErd pieces are thrown into anoth,r
 The coal goes on it's WY uumo o'ost- cll. These boys are breaker boys or 'slat" pickers." Their ioh requires iorli,ulo and indifference to pain which Is almost stoical. I'll" first day on the job leaves a boy with every finger cut and bleeding in q a dozen different places Gloves arc of no us.
 I. h" ie "gronnhorn' and per nlits his fingers 10 touch the bottom of the chute as he works. the cNi of the day secs him with "igh, Rcd tips" which translated literally n nans he has worn through the skin on his finger tips. Sometimes a boy will cut leather or heavy canvas and improvlS" q sort of hand protcr- ton. but eventually he 1iscards tt. He cannot work wltn his hands GOV ; cred II" has only one choice. He must get tough.' He does. The 1 hands of a slate picker. after q short time on the job arc a!s tough 1 ~s leather. with callouscs as hard { as the hob nails in his fathers boots. : If he lives in q mining town. he !. must either do this work or s'arNr. ! There generally just isn't any other ! job.
 After passing tho slate pickors, ! inc coal goes into "pockets' or ! storage bins over d standard rail- l way track and is ready for shipment , to market.
 But there is a smaller type Of coal , which cannot he handled this way. | Nut. form arly known as chestnut, r. a, buck wheat rice and barley arc handled by s"parators and jigs. , Suparators are spiral shaped sheet . iron plates one inside of the other ! winding around 8 pol" about lo feet :. high reaching to the floor. One chute enters the top 10 the inside | spiral. Two leave al the bottom. one . ts. poured in and the same principle. 1 that of rock and slate being heavier than cod. does the trick. The con- tents fly around these spirals so rap idly that the heavier pieces fly off and are caught by the outside and larger spiral thus going into the discard. The coal. eventually goes into q pocket
 Into the jie-s. which resemble large boxes about the size Of a small garage, the mixture is poured from fhe top. 4 brass rlatc like 2 flat furnace grato forms the floor of the jig. Dasher poles. running from an eccentric overhead shaft, shake these plates up and down continual ly. The box is filled with coal, dirt, slate. rock and water. The water keeps the mixture from settling. Rock. slate, and refuse settle on ihc | bottom. Coal automatically is shak- en 10 the top of the heap Scrapor lines. consisting of flat iron paddles operated between parallel lines of chains. carry the coal back up chute. across the breaker and . eventually into a pocket, from where II goes 10 market
 This in brief, is a condensed view of anthracite coal mark eting. There r are no rooms in a breaker. There . arc no floors. There arc 'leyols," reached by crude steps. Floors consist of blanks. laid far enough | co fI1f 1rc,,y, ,iIatoI Jyst C, .