Year: 1877

80 ~


Sometimes, and quite often, there is
a seam between the coal that we mine
out and the roof of the mine that
renders it very easy to get the mass of
coal down, and sometimes it adheres
very closely to the roof, and requires
a great deal Of wedginS before it can
be got down. In falling the mass Of
coal is more or less broken. This coal
is then loaded into the cars, the larger
Jumps being broken with pick into
such sized pieces as can be conven-
iently handled before it is loaded.


The vein of coal between the under
mining and the first vein of slate be-
low is then excavsted with pick and
loaded into the car; after which, the
vein of slate rock is excavated and
cleaned off from the coal beneath it.
The slate so excavated is deposited in
the ''gob, then the next vein of coal
below it is excavated, then the next
vein of slate, and so on to the bottom.


In most cases the slate is readily
separated from the coal, in all the
veins below the undermining, but
sometimes the slate will adhere to the
coal lying Immediately over it, and
in such cases it has to be separated
from the coal, piece at time, or throw
the coal, slate and all into the "gob.


When the breast Of slate occurs,
the breast slate and coal are apt to
fall together Sometimes you can
get down the coal lying Immediately
under the breast slate before you
take down the breast slate and the
coal lying above it, but as general
thing more or less of the breast slate
falls with the masses of the coal as it
comes dewn, and of a part of the vein
of breast slate is very brittle and
breaks into small pieaes, l have never
found it possible to get the miners to
separate it entirely from the coal. |
have tried the operation Of making
the undermining in the vein of slate,
and in this way taking out the slate
first and throwing it into the "gob,'
to entirely separate it from the coal;
but | found this operation was so ex-
pensive that coal could not be taken
out in this way at profit


Where there is no breast slate, we
get the largest Jumps of coal from the
falls of the breast, and the larger part
rather Of the coarse coal, where there
is no breast slate, comes from breast
fall.


The Jumps Of coal taken from the
breast are much more tenacious, and
will stand more handling and bruis-
ing than those taken from the strata
lying under the slate, which is i'm
mediatelY below the undermining.


The Jumps of coal which come out
from between the veins Of slate, be-
low the undermining, are a little
stained or discolored where they come
in contact with the slate, and do not
present as handsome an appearance
in a pile Of coal as the Jumps taken
from the breast.


Where the vein Of slate in the
breast is the coal is very much broken
up in getting down the falls and sep
arating it from the slate.


My experience is, that the coarser or
more lumpy the coal is when sent or
put into market, the better it satisfies
customers and the more valuable it is,
especially if it has to be kept on hand
any length of time before it is used.
A pile of fine coal that has been kept
in the pile for some time does not
make as bright or hot fire as Jumps
or fine that have been recently mined.


The water headings are usually
driven ten feet wide. The object in
driving them wider than the railroad
headings is, that we can get the coal
mined cheaper in heading ten feet
wide than in one eight feet wide; and
there is little or no danger of a fall
occurring in heading ten feet wide
that will prevent its usefulness as a
drain in the mines, as the debris which
falls is in Jumps, and is not a fine or
powdered material, and as there is no
frost in the mine, the process Of de-
composition or disintegration goes on
very slowly,


After the rooms are cut, they drive
galleries from one room to another,
through the walls that have been left
between them.