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NEW YORK, MAY 18, 1912 No. 32 





VENTS of the past few weeks have proved that 
the foreigner at our coal mines is a factor to be 
reckoned with. If John White and his lieuten- 

ants can’t control this hot-headed, lawless element 
in their organization, certainly no lasting good can 
ever result from even the slightest recognition of 
the Miner’s Union. 


Innocent people have been slaughtered, bad feeling 
engendered and public confidence in the power 
of labor leaders to negotiate a contract destroyed— 
all because an ignorant and excitable body of men 
have been herded into our anthracite collieries through 
the short-sighted economic policy of mine owners. 
The future of native labor has been seriously injured, 
and a soil adapted to the cultivation of radical social- 
ism and anarchy has been provided. 


In handling our most recent controversy, one 
or two anthracite managers acted unwisely in attempt- 
ing to load coal with men drafted from their engi- 
iicering department, but there was no sufficient and 
“xcusable reason for the riots that occurred when 
‘epair men were sent underground, and surely no 
cue believes that an operator must allow his mine 
i» flood when only a suspension is in force and a 
strike not yet ordered. The course of conduct 
i llowed by the American members of the Union 
‘s been admirable, and we begin to wonder whether 
this matter of alien labor, the industry has not 
“owed a wind from which it will reap a whirlwind.” 


in 1910, only 27 states exceeded in population the 
1 inber of immigrants who came into this country. 
(» until 1880 these newcomers were mostly from 
te countries of Northwestern Europe. They were 
1. ¢ dissimilar to our early colonists, were skilled 

isans and were accustomed to a representative 
l,m of government. During the past 30 years, 
tide of immigration has begun to flow from 
‘thern Europe, bringing people trained under an 
« ocratie government, and not far removed from 


seii:dom., 


o> 


Q 
‘ 


T 


_ ‘a 1860, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland 
lutnished 88 per cent. of the total immigration, while 
Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia and Poland sent 
only four-tenths of one per cent. During the decade 







1881-1890, the percentages were 55.6 and 17.6 
respectively. Then the balance turned; industries 
were centralized and employers called for the unskilled 
peasants of Southern Europe. During the period 
1891-1900, the percentages were 31.6 and 51; in 
1909 the figures were 13 and 63 respectively. 


Advocates of unrestricted immigration contend 
that large-scale industry requires a floating and 
unemployed labor force. It might be better, how- 
ever, to dovetail industries so as to spread the demand 
more equally over the entire year. Irregular working 
habits demoralize labor. It is also a fact that wage- 
earners having a low standard of living delay the 
introduction of improved labor-saving machinery. 
Today we are more dependent upon the utilization 
of mechanical ingenuity than upon the presence 
of a mass of unskilled workers. 


The immigrants who came to this country in 
1909 brought with them $17,331,828, and more than 
one-half of them brought less than $50 apiece. Dur- 
ing one year of ordinary prosperity the total amount 
of money sent abroad by foreigners is approximately 
$200,000,000. That ablest of labor leaders, John 
Mitchell, says: ‘“The American people should not 
sacrifice the future of the working classes in order 
to improve the conditions of the inhabitants of 
Europe. Unregulated immigration is certain to 
degrade labor in this country.” 


The only way the native American has been able 
to rise has been by delaying marriage, and by reducing 
the average size of families. One authority goes 
so far as to claim that immigration has not increased 
the population, but merely replaced the native with 
foreign stock. Furthermore, unrestricted immigra- 
tion aggravates cycles of overproduction, produces a 
sort of caste system, and generates political evils. 
It would be better to raise the standard of living in 
this country and let our influence spread by contact 
and example, rather than to try and lift all nations 
at once and only a little way. 


Our mines can produce 50 per cent. more coal 
than we can consume or export, so why flood the 
market with alien labor that cannot be controlled 
by employer, nor led by fellow worker? 





1032 





COAL AGE 





Vol. 1, No. 3: 


The New Buck Mountain Breaker 


The Lehigh Valley Coal Co. has just 
completed the construction and equip- 
ment of the surface plant for its new 
Buck Mountain colliery. This is located 
on top of the north spur of the Broad 
Mountain, 1642 ft. above sea level, two 
miles east of Mahanoy City, Penn. 

The new plant has been erected for the 
purpose of handling the output which was 
previously prepared at the old Buck 
Mountain and Vulcan breakers, situated 
about three-quarters of a mile east and 
west respectively from the present oper- 
ation, and these older structures have 
now beén abandoned. The Buck Moun- 
tain, Seven Foot, Skidmore, Mammoth 
and Primrose seams are worked in this 
locality. 

The plant, as a whole, is thoroughly 
modern and complete. It comprises a 
breaker, boiler house, shop, warehouse, 
office, etc., all of concrete and steel fire- 
proof construction. The general layout 
of buildings and tracks is shown in the 
plan, Fig. 1. The feature of greatest in- 
terest, however, is the breaker. This is 
built beyond the outcrop of the underly- 
ing coal and adjacent to the tracks of the 
Lehigh Valley R.R. 


NovEL DEPARTURE IN BREAKER DESIGN 


The Buck Mountain breaker embodies 
a number of new and unusual features, 
notably the loading of all transportation 
cars, one at a time, by means of a beit 
conveyor, which serves a double row of 
storage pockets running at right angles to 
the loading track. In this respect, and 
in general design, it is similar to the Le- 
high Valley company’s Mineral Spring 
breaker near Wilkes Barre, Penn., which 
has been in successful operation for 
nearly a year. In construction, however, 
it differs from the Mineral Spring plant, 
in that the pockets and entire substruct- 
ure, up to the level of the jig floor, are 
of reinforced concrete, instead of steel! 
and timber, as in the previous design. 

Some apprehension was felt by the de- 
signer in regard to the disintegrating ac- 
tion of acid water on the concrete of the 
storage pockets, and to adequately pro- 
vide against such action, the bins were 
lined as follows: The concrete sur- 
faces first having been coated with a 
special waterproof paint, a layer of 2-in. 
plank was laid down and covered with 
prepared roofing, and on top of this was 
placed a flooring of 1-in. boards. The 
whole was then covered with 1-in. hard 
wood to take the wear of the sliding coal. 

Above the jig floor, the breaker frame- 
work is of structural steel, sheathed with 
carrugated iron. Timber is used to some 


extent for supperting machinery, in the 
construction of chutes, and in some in- 
stances for walk ways and stair treads. 
But taken as a whole, the structure is ob- 





By E. L. Cole 








A thoroughly modern anthra- 
cite plant of 1800 tons daily ca- 
pacity is here described. The 
breaker embodies several new 
and important features of design, 
notably a belt conveyor for load- 
ing out all coal, and requires 
only 36 employees for its opera- 
tion. The structure is of con- 
crete and steel fireproof con- 
struction, thoroughly equipped, 
excellently lighted and practi- 
cally free from dust. 




















viously non-inflammable and practicaliv 
fireproof. Too much emphasis cia 
scarcely be given to the desirable results 
obtained by the liberal provision of iarge 
steel-framed window sash. These afford 
ready’ means of ventilation, in addition 
to an abundance of light which is re- 
markable in comparison with the murky 
interior of the average breaker. 
METHOD OF PREPARATION IS “WET” 
The method of preparation adopted at 
Buck Mountain is in some respects dis- 
tinctly different from that usually em- 
ployed. In the first place, it was not 
desired to make any size of coal larger 


comotives from the Vulcan and Buc’ 
Mountain slopes, located, as previously 
mentioned, about three-quarters of a mik 
east and west respectively from the ney 
operation. The cars enter the double 
tracks, under the extreme northern side 
of the breaker, which is partitioned oii 
from the rest of the building by a waii 
of vitrified tile. This serves the dual 
purpose of a fire wall, and an inclosure 
for the under part of the breaker struct- 
ure. 

The coal cars are hoisted to the top 
of the breaker, a distance of 162'% ft. 
on single-deck self-dumping cages, oper- 
ating in a double-compartment  stec! 
tower. During a recent trial run, 22 cars 
were hoisted and dumped in 16 min. The 
coal empties from the mine cars into a 
dump chute or hopper and is fed, under 
control of hand-operated gates, onto a 
pair of 4x16 ft. double-deck shakers. 


PICKING DONE AT HEAD OF BREAKER 


Steamboat and lump sizes are taken 
off the top deck of these shakers and 
led to a moving picking table, 5 ft. wide 
and 28 ft. long, which is centrally lo- 
cated on the headroom floor. Stationary 
platforms about 6 ft. wide are built up 
flush with the moving table on each side. 
and the four pickers who are stationed 
here to examine the coal (two each on 
the right and left) work in pockets about 


















than egg at this plant, and consequently 2 ft. deep. This arrangement enables 
| 
Fan House 
0’ 50’ 100’ 150° 200’ 250’ 
4 rer fan \ 
: = ere 
wwe 
ot’ 
Loerieuse 
es 0? 
gee roree 
& ny ENB ovse 
Clas Z 
Stable a/s 
Le § 
i veo 
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Fic. 1. LAYouT OF COLLIERY BUILDINGS AND RAILROAD TRACKS 


4 

the lump, steamboat and broken sizes, 
separated at the head to facilitate clean- 
ing, are immediately broken down. More- 
over, it was determined that the most de- 
pendable results could be obtained by 
submitting the entire output (excepting 
the smaller steam sizes) to a jigging pro- 
cess, and this results in a system of pre- 
paration which is consistently “wet” 
throughout. 

Coal is hauled to the breaker in mine 
cars by two Vulcan Iron Works steam lo- 





the men to slide the coal or rock fron 
moving band without any lifting. 
lightening their task and increasin: 
efficiency of their labor. At the cen 
table, the headroom floor slopes ur 
either side to provide alleyways | 
removal of particularly large pieces ©" 
rock. Doubtful coal is pushed ®) ‘"¢ 
pickers to the right and left of the "0. 
ing table, and the slate is here ©) 
off by four men and thrown in 
rock chute. A clutch lever, near the end 






































May 18, 1912 





of the picking table, affords a_ ready 
means of stopping it when desired. 

A diagram indicating the flow of coal 
through the breaker is shown in Fig. 2. 
When the steamboat and lump coal leaves 
the picking table, it enters a set of 
compound-geared crushing rolls, which 
have a peripheral speed of 300 ft. per 
These rolls are of the segment 






























































min. 
| A 
| (1) 
| \B 
| | 
| ( 
\ 4 
0) 
& v 
< Ie Ss 
S : | 
[F] | 
| © 1, 
| Fam hd | CS 
ated Chute e J 
| | H }—£ 
| a ar 
eon ee See, eee ~~ 
a. th Th te tS 2} | 
Egg |Stove} Nut | Pea |Buck m 
i 4 | = 
nee 
ill 4 
N 
= ABER | 
i—?eP “ > 
55 — 
| 5 rt | © 
ma ee UCU ee PPPAA Ly = = G6 
=) Bl Barley 
y = A > PPRPRAA 5 5] 
es - c dss al ng 
S| s __ Buk" Pele 
=| 8 [MJ] Le he) 
| M S Lif +\s 
-k 1M : M|+—42 
4+ nt LM Fs PA }- 4s! 
| O1M S Mio | o|8 
KOM S 1M FO} 2 ik 
| off iS TM }O (215 
| (oR |x Mio 
OTM = TM }O+a & 
| ofM & apo [4 
: N n — — 
Loa Plattcrm R 
Sh 
Railroad Tracks S 
¢ J-Automatic Feeders 
te K- 5-Deck Shakers 
L-Jig Bins 
M-Jigs 
N-Jig Shakers 
P - Rice and Barley Shakers 
Q-Refuse Lines 
R - Condemned Coal Elevator 
er S-Bin under Car Tracks ‘ 





2. DIAGRAM SHOWING. RUN OF COAL 


. 2ffording a convenient mears for 

‘ging their size and facilitating re- 

work when needed. 

‘om the crusher rolls, the coal drops 
‘ough a waterfall chute, a distance of 
it. to a single deck shaker, which 
| S off coal of egg size. This may be 
= “rectly to the pocket H or sent to the 
‘©. 3 rolls and broken down. The under 


“Ize irom the above mentioned shaker 








COAL AGE 


and the broken-down egg go to the hop- 


per H. 


BREAKER AUTOMATICALLY FED FROM A 
LARGE RECEIVING HOPPER 


The broken coal, which is made over 
the lower deck of the dump-chute shak- 
ers, passes to a pair of Ayres pickers and 
coal 
smaller than broken drops into the hop- 
per H. There is thus collected in the 
hopper, all the coal which passes through 
it reaches the 


then enters the No. 3 rolls. All 


the breaker and when 
hopper it is all of egg size or smaller. 


From the hopper, the coal is fed out 
through three Tench automatic feeders tc 
four banks of shakers of the five-deck 
Parrish type, which separate it into egg, 
stove, chestnut, pea and buckwheat sizes. 
conducted 
through water-fall chutes to its proper 
30-ton pocket, five of which are located 


Coal of each size is then 


immediately above and behind the jigs. 
The jigs are of the standard Lehigh Val- 
ley type and are 20 in number, 10 on 
each side of the breaker, and, as to serv- 


ice, are divided as follows: 5 egg, 5 siove, 





1033 


water, which is used for flushing ashes 
from the ‘boiler house. 

Fru:. the egg, stove and nut jigs, the 
coal is discharged by the individuai jig 
scraper lines onto small shaking screens, 
which remove any undersize material that 
may have resulted from breakage in the 
chutes and jigs. It then passes to the 
pockets after examination by pickers sta- 
tioned on the jig floor. The jig refuse 
is carried away by two scraper lines, one 
in front of each battery of 10 jigs, and is 
conveyed to the rock chute. Rock from 
all parts of the breaker is collected in 
this chute and led to a No. 6 Gates 
crusher, furnished by the Allis-Chalmers 
Co., Milwaukee. After passing through 
the crusher, the rock is conveyed, at the 
present time, by a scraper line, about 125 
ft. to a rock dump on the mountain side. 

The jig tanks are flushed out by means 
of hand-operated gates, which discharge 
into concrete hoppers and troughs under 















Dump Chute Shakers: ...' 
Steamboat & Broken 


























Liat Storage Hopper 
; —— eo 


f 5 Shakers;-*. ae 
a= === ieee 
and Buck = un 
Tench 
Feeders 

















— 


~~ 
—————— 






—— 











with corrugated iron 
tor 


4 : om: a es os 


f 10 Lehigh Valley Jigs 
ae Po 









4 Double Deck Shakers, 
Rice and Barley ——~« 




















-=~—=-Steel frame superstructure sheathed ------= 


“Condemned Coal Fleva 











ITIP III SII 
















= 

HK I 
S | 
¥ 


| 
ty 


1. Breaker Hoist 











Breaker Hoist 











| 

i 
eh 
y 


¢ 
Ss 
£ 


ITT 


> 


Fic. 3. Sipe ELEVATION, BUCK MOUNTAIN BREAKER 


6 chestnut, 2 pea and 2 buckwheat. The 
pea and buckwheat jigs are interchange- 
able, so that four jigs are availabie for 
either size. 

All coal screened through the buck- 
wheat shakers passes to four sets of rice 
and barley shakers, having #:-in. and s- 
in. round mesh on the upper and lower 
decks respectively. Coal passing through 
the --in. mesh goes out with the wash 


the jigs. This slush is carried over a 
shaking screen, and the material screened 
out is returned to the breaker by way of 
a scraper line, which discharges into the 
condemned-coal elevators. 


Cars LOADED BY BELT CONVEYOR 


A view of the loading headroom, looking 
down on the 36-in. conveyor belt and oper- 
ator’s platform is shown in Fig. 5. This 





1034 


conveyor belt runs centrally between the 
two rows of storage pockets, which are in 
duplicate, so that every size of coal is 
stored symmetrically on both sides of the 
belt. Coal is led to the belt by curved 
chutes, which deliver it longitudinally in 
line with the direction in which the belt 
moves. Its flow from the pockets is regu- 
lated by a number of pivoted lift gates, 
all of which are operated from the load- 
ing head through a system of shafting 
and levers, under the control of the one 
inan emploved there. 

The belt conveyor is provided with a 
steam-operated boom end for adjustment 
to suit the several sizes of railroad cars, 
so that unnecessary breakage is avoided. 
All this mechanism, the belt itself, pocket 
gates and the boom end, is run and con- 
trolled by one man, who is thus enabled 
to load seven cars an hour without other 
assistance than a man outside to drop the 
cars into place. It will be noted from 
Fig. 5, that the operator’s position at the 
head of the loading platform is inclosed 
by large windows, which protect him 
from inclement weather and at the same 
time afford an unobstructed view up and 
down the tracks. 

To provide for the economical handling 
of condemned coal, hoppers are built un- 
der the railroad tracks, a short distance 
below the breaker, and cars which fail to 
pass inspection are brought here and 
dumped. The coal passes from the hop- 
pers to a slightly inclined scraper line 
that carries it to the elevators R, in the 
front of the breaker, whence it travels 
to the hopper H, or No. 3 rolls, as the 


case may be, for repreparation. It will 
he noted that there is but one set of 
elevators in the breaker. This handles 


all screenings, pickings and material from 
the jig-slush shakers as a usual load, but 
is of ample capacity to take care of the 
condemned coal in addition, and this lat- 
ter material is thus prepared at a mini- 
mum of expense, since no additional la- 
bor is involved, except possibly one man 
to handle the railroad cars. 


RAILROAD CARS HANDLED BY CONTINUOUS 
CABLE HAULAGE 


Transportation cars are handled to and 
from the breaker by a continuous cable 
naulage, which is driven by a Litchfield 
compound-geared endless-rope haulage 
engine. This cable runs up and down 
throughout the length of both empty and 
loaded storage yards, and is so arranged 
that a car on any track may be moved 
hv it in either direction. The cars are at- 
tached to the rope by a Morgan patent 
cable grip, carrying a 25-ft. length of 
chain for hooking on to some handy part 
of the car. The tracks throughout have 
a grade of about one-fourth of 1 per cent. 
in favor of the loads. This method of 
handling cars eliminates the delays con- 
sequent upon dropping them down by 
gravity in severe winter weather and en- 


COAL AGE 


ables one man to keep the plant sup- 
plied. 

The breaker is driven by two separate 
engines, a 12 and 16 x 24-in. tandem- 
compound Corliss jig engine and an 18 
and 36 x 30-in. cross-compound Corliss 
engine for the main drive, both built by 
the Vulcan Iron Works, Wilkes-Barre, 








measure to the fact that all shaki 
screens are balanced. An item worthy 
special mention is the careful manner :; 
which all bearings are housed, each be- 
ing provided with a Philadelphia aut 
matic grease cup. 

A notable feature of the electric signa! 
system in the breaker is the construction 





Fic. 4. AYRES PICKER FOR BROKEN COAL, AND SHAKING SCREENS 















































Fic. 5. LoApDING CONVEYOR AND OPERATOR’S PLATFORM, SHOWING 
CONTROL LEVERS 


Penn. Rope and belt transmission sys- 
tems are employed, there being about 
1670 ft. of belting, as compared with 
3500 ft. of 1%-in. manilla rope. 

There is in this building a noticeable 
absence of the vibration usually encoun- 
tered in breaker structures, due in great 


of the push buttons. These are made of 


two pieces of No. 12 sheet brass, mounted 
on oak blocks. The top plate, wien = 
ying sur- 


down. affords a considerable rubbing 
face on the under plate and 4 reliable 
contact is readily secured. The ordin 
type of push button has failed to 


ary 
meet 




















May 18, 1912 


he rigid requirements of breaker service, 
ind hence this more rugged form has 
seen devised. The breaker is electrically 
ighted when required, and is heated by 
exhaust steam, 15,000 ft. of 1'%-in. pipe 
having been installed for this purpose. 
“Childs” fire extinguishers are located at 
-onvenient points throughout the building, 

















COAL AGE 


tered with cement mortar. The west room 
will be utilized for the storage of such 
heavy repair parts of the breaker ma- 
chinery as will be kept on hand. The 
east room is being fitted up with toilet, 
etc., for the accommodation of employ- 
ees. The floors are of concrete, and when 
completed, the facilities here provided 











Fic. 7, JiG-ROooM FLoor, SHOWING CHUTES FROM JiGs TO POCKETS 


‘igh the fire hazard has been reduced 
ninimum by the elimination, as far 
‘acticable, of inflammable material. 


CONVENIENCES FOR EMPLOYEES 


io beneath the coal pockets is 
“viccd into two large rooms, closed on 
a sid 2c , ‘ 

al sises by walls of hollow tile, plas- 





will compare favorably with those of 
most modern factories. 

The Buck Mountain breaker is designed 
to prepare 1500 to 1800 tons of coal per 
day, with a force of 36 employees, who 
are paid the usual wages for this class 
of work. That a very high degree 
of efficiency in operation has been at- 





1035 


tained is evident from this fact, and from 
an inspection of the working of the plant. 
Effective measures have been taken to 
reduce to a minimum the breakage of 
coal in its progress through the breaker. 
Every precaution has been taken to in- 
sure the safety of employees and to in- 
crease the efficiency of their labor, as, for 
instance, by providing abundant light, 
easy and convenient means of access to 
machinery and stairways of reasonable 
pitch. Perhaps the most comprehensive 
criticism that can be made of the plant 
as a whole is that it everywhere gives 
evidence of having been thoroughly and 
carefully planned, taking advantage of 
the best features of modern construction, 
applicable to this kind of work. The de- 
sign radically departs in many particulars 
from the beaten path of breaker con- 
struction and marks a big advance in at- 
taining greater efficiency and economy of 
operation. 

The plant was designed by Pal 
Sterling, mechanical engineer, Lehigh Val- 
ley Coal Co., under the general di- 
rection of S. D. Warriner, vice-presidert 
and general manager, and I wish to ex- 
press to Mr. Underwood, division super- 
intendent, under whose supervision the 
colliery-construction work was carried on, 
my appreciation of the information and 
courtesies extended. 

In our next issue will appear an article 
dealing with the loading conveyor, car- 
haulage system and some details of the 
breaker construction, together with a de- 
scription of the steam-generating plant 
and engine equipment. 


New Base Map of Illinois 


A new map of the state of Illinois, 
on a scale of approximately eight miles 
to the inch, is ready for distribution by 
the State Geological Survey. It is pre- 
pared in three colors so as to represent 
drainage features in blue; railroads, land 
lines, towns, etc., in black; and county 
boundaries and figures showing altitudes 
above sea level for various towns in red. 
This map eliminates the errors of early 
land surveys, so that places are now 
shown with correct latitude and longi- 
tude. Railroad alignments are all highly 
accurate. 

A copy of this map on heavy paper 
will be sent on receipt of 10c. in stamps 
to cover cost of mailing. A similar copy 
mounted on cloth and sticks will be sent 
if in addition to l4c. postage, a money 
order for 30c. is ineclosed, payable to 
Fred Mees Bindery, of Chicago. Remit- 
tance should be sent to the Director of 
the State Geological Survey, Urbana, Ill. 














The best and most economical form of 
gangway timbering is without doubt the 
three-piece all-steel form of support, 
as the steel legs cannot be split or 
crushed and are in the end more econom- 
ical than wooden sets. Simplicity and 
economy have their highest development 
in this system of timbering. 





1036 


Mining the 


The No. 8 coal sea.n is considered one 
of the most important in the country. It 
is better known to the mining profession 
as the Pittsburg seam. The underlying 
stratum is, in many places, composed of 
hard limestone, although a soft seam of 
clay is often found immediately beneath 
the coal, varying from a few inches to 
a foot in thickness. This forms a good 
floor upon which to work, though a diffi- 
cult one in which to cut drains, as is 
often desirable. 


RooF CONDITIONS 


Near the top of the seam is usually 
found a stratum of clay, varying from a 
few inches to 3 ft. in thickness. Above 
this is the roof coal, which, like the other 
parts, is irregular, and varies from an 
inch to several feet in thickness. When 
this latter is thin, the roof is usually 
poor, and when it is thick, a foot or more, 
the roof is good or favorable to any sys- 
tem of propping, as it forms a bond for 
the capping, which is placed on top of the 
timbers. 

Above this roof coal is found a great 
obstacle to economic mining, especially 
in eastern Ohio. This is a stratum of clay 
and limestone, mixed irregularly, and 
sometimes stratified to some extent, with 
slate; it is from 3 to 20 ft. in thickness. 
Taken as a whole, it is soft and brittle, 
and when too small pillars are left, or 
the pressure becomes great, it is very 
difficult to hold, and often comes down 
without warning, especially where the 
roof coal has fallen. 

This one difficulty, in connection with 
mining the Pittsburg seam in this state, 
has taxed the ingenuity of every mining 
efficial, and calls for the best judgment 
and experience to successfully handle. 
Many have succeeded fairly well, but 
others have failed, and not a few com- 
panies have gone to the wall on that ac- 
count. Many of these difficulties have 
been overcome, but there still remain 
some errors in practice and customs, 
which are seemingly overlooked. 


MISTAKES IN TIMBERING 


In the accompanying line cuts, Fig. 1 
shows a geological section of the strata 
in the vicinity of, and including No. 8 
seam, while Fig. 2 is a sketch showing 
a cross-section of a working chamber or 
room. On the map, in Fig. 3, is shown a 
proposed plan for future mining of a sec- 
tion of a mine, consisting of a pair of butt 
entries. This is done sometimes by the 
engineer, but more frequently by the sup- 
erintendent in the office, and Fig. 4 shows 
how it not infrequently works out. 

Referring to Fig. 2, it will be noted that 
the main seam has been worked out, and 
that the thin seam of clay, sometimes 
called the head-stone, has also been taken 


COAL AGE 


No. 8 Seam in Ohic 


By William Hibbs * 








An interesting description of 
the No. 8 Seam roof conditions 
in Ohio, and some notes on the 
best method of controlling same. 
A heavy overlying stratum of fire- 
clay occurs and is difficult to 
handle. The poor top has caused 
enormous losses of coal. 




















*Mining engineer, Scio, Ohio. 


dewn. The roof of coal has, owing to its 
spongy nature, sprung down and left a 
thin opening between it and the overlying 
clay at F, thus removing the support for 
the latter. 

A portion of this material will soon 
slip out and rest on the coal beneath. 
Its opening will make way for more, and 
it will not be long until enough has fallen 
to overload the roof coal. It will then 
crack open at A and throw off chips at 





I : a) 
" We ries 
a Ae Be i 

i 8 

S am , 
=n Limestone 
> 
a = 

sh he > ‘ 
ex Se ee ee Clay 
~ = Ss > 






2"to2! 


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" 


zh 


Roof Coat 
Ulay 


y 


No. 8 Coal 


4tol0 
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ae 


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BECIESe 

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Coar ace 


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No. 8 SEAM RooF CONDITIONS 


(en » Smith's Entry 
i Jones Entry 





Fics 3 








C and will be considered dangerous. |; 
setting two props against the roof, it \, 
hold until the load on the coal become: 
heavy enough to break the posts or shea; 
the coal around the caps, when the whole 
mass will fall. 

The error in this case lies in not set- 
ting posts hard up against the roof, thus 
preventing the roof coal from springing 
away from the clay. Probably nine falls 
out of every ten in the No. 8 coal in Ohio 
are due to this cause, and I have seen as 
many as 20 per cent. of the posts set in 
a room, which were serving no purpose 
whatever. They were not carrying any 
load, and as soon as the roof settled, 
the capping would roll and displace the 
post instead of carrying the weight. 


PROPOSED PLAN AND ACTUAL PLAN 


In Fig. 3, the superintendent’s plan 
looks splendid on paper, but he did not 
make any allowance in the pillars for a 
difference of weight, due to more or less 
cover. His rooms are just as wide and 
his pillars just as heavy under 20 ft. of 
cover as they are under twice that much. 
Also the entries were not driven by sights, 
and as a consequence are very crooked. 
As soon as the miners made a turn, they 
knew not which way to go, nor how far. 
The rooms were marked off by measuring 
along the crooked entries, and conse- 
quently are not evenly spaced, which 
resulted in thin ribs at some points and 
thick ones at others. The room necks 
widen gradually into full room width, in- 
stead of in the square way, shown on the 
plan, Fig. 3. As a result, there is always 
a place in the neck where it is so narrow 
that the miner thinks it not worth le 
to set posts, yet it is too wide to id 
long alone, and the results before ue- 
scribed are repeated. Two out of ry 
five of the room necks on these « 
broke down and gave trouble bet e 
work was finished. 

The rooms, like the entries re 
driven without sights, and prov: v 
sound through the ribs and an © 
al crosscut. Often too many 
were driven, some of them acc 


and very frequently the law was 
as to the distance between th c 
Nos. 1 and 2 rooms on bot es 
should never have been drive ey 
rob the entry pillar. 
Losses OF COAI 
On Smith’s entry, all of the ‘ were 
driven near a line, but owi poor 
timbering and shutdown of th », the 
roof caved at the faces, and ¢! jnage- 
ment would not go to the ex? of re- 
covering them. The balance °° ‘"¢ coal 
bevond their faces was leit future 
generations. On the same eviry. rooms 
when 1n 


24 and 25 were driven together 

















a oO 








May 18, 1912 


about half their distance. They were 
timbered at this place, but the roof broke 
down before the rooms were finished, and 
this was repeated several times in these 
entries. 

These entries were driven just fast 
enough to make room for new working 
places as they were needed, and so pro- 
ceeded slowly. By the time the last rooms 
were reached, all of the entry roof in 
noth entries up to the third crosscut from 
the face was™broken down to a height of 


COAL AGE 


8 ft. above the coal. This roof material 
hed all been removed from the mine. The 
last rooms on Smith’s entry were aban- 
doned, before reaching the limit, because 
it did not pay to send a mule and driver 
there to haul the coal out for only a few 
men. Thus the remainder of the coal 
was left, and practically lost to this and 
succeeding generations. On account of 
the roof breaking down in the entries and 
room necks, square with the coal, it was 
too dangerous to mine many of the ribs 





1037 


and entry pillars, and they, too, were ieft 
in. 

Owing to this haphazard way of min- 
ing, only about 60 per cent. of all the coal 
was recovered. This is a4 common sigitt 
in many of our mines but improvements 
are being made. Many are driving their 
entries to the litrii, timbering as they go, 
ard by turninz rooms at the back end 
first and bringing everything minable with 
them on the return, are meeting with 
much better success. 








An Interesting Overwind Preventer 


The question of preventing overwinds, 
both in connection with vertical shafts 
and inclined haulages, is a matter which 
deserves the careful and constant atten- 
tion of mine operators. The disastrous 
effects of an wpverwind are too well 
known to require emphasis, and inasmuch 
as even the most careful and skillful en- 
gineers are liable to lapses of attention 
and judgment, it is-advisable to supple- 
ment human control by some form of 
mechanical protection. From time to 
time, numerous devices have been pro- 
posed for this purpose, each being more 
or less peculiarly adapted to the special 
conditions for which it has been de- 
vised, and it would be unfair as weil as 
difficult to designate any one type as 
iniversally better or worse than others 

hich have met with extensive applica- 

yn. 

One of the most recent types of over- 

nd preventers is shown in Fig. 1. 
| consists essentially of a screw, travel- 

nuts, and adjustable clutch points. 
referring to Fig. 1, the nuts will be 

n at some dist2nce from either end of 

screw, this position, of course, cor- 


} ~ ’ XN 








Special Correspondence 








A new device for preventing 
overhoists is especially interest- 
ing if it has been proved effective 
and reliable. The arrangement 
here described possesses the vir- 
tue of leaving the engine entirely 
under control of the operator 
except when an overwind is im- 


minent. and tends to insure 
careful running by registering 
mistakes. 




















responding to that of the cage somewhere 
near midway in the shaft. The screw is 
driven by bevel gearing from some suit- 
able part of the engine. In the case ofa 
shaft hoisting engine, for instance, an 
extension of the governor driving shaft 
may be used. The gear ratio is such that 
the speed of the screw is increased to a 
sufficient extent to give quick and accu- 
rate operation. This speed is, of course, 
determined by that of the main engine, 
and the length of the screw is in propor- 


tion to the length of the hoist through 
which the cage travels. 


NuT TRAVELING ON A THREADED SHAFT 
REPRESENT THE CAGES 

From the illustrations Figs. 1 and 2, 
it will be seen that the traveling nuts 
each have a gland D, made in halves and 
furnished with a pin which may be fitted 
into any of the holes around the 
periphery of the nut. These glands are 
so shaped that one side of the joint forms 
a jaw which engages and slides on a 
guide bar E. The nuts are thus pre- 
vented from rotating, and hence are 
made to travel along the screw from end 
to end. At each end of the screw, are 
mounted the clutch points CC. The nuts 
come into contact with either set of these 
clutch points according to the direc- 
tion in which the engine has been rotat- 
ing. It will also be noted that on each 
of the nuts B, there is provided a tripper 
F, which revolves freely around the, 
nut. This tripper has points G which 
engage with the clutch points C, men- 
tioned above, should the cage which is 
represented by a particular nut reach a 
predetermined point above the landing 








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Side Elevation 


Fic. 1. DEvICE FOR PREVENTING OVERHOISTS, SHOWING MEANS OF CONTROL OVER ENGINE 


Section 





i038 


position; or, should the speed be exces- 
sive in approaching the end of the wind, 
contact is made a few revolutions be- 
fore the landing point is reached. 

The way in which this is done will be 
seen by reference to Fig. 1. The tripper 
<wo teeth H, engaging the single 


kae 


a add 
‘ooch snounted on the trip lever J, this 
Jever being of just sufficient length 


so that the teeth are engaged with it dur- 
ing the whole of the wind. The trip lever 
is secured to the shaft which also carries 
the supporting lever L. As long as this 
latter is perpendicular it prevents the 
lever M from leaving the horizontal posi- 
tion. The lever M is secured to the shaft 








Fic, 2. 


N and so is the lever carrying the weights 
RL. The two levers carrying the weights 
BL and TL are, however, loose on the 
shaft, and are supported by the arms P 
until the tripping is effected. rig. 2 
shows an enlarged sectional view of the 
tripper nuts and the giving a 
clearer idea of the construction. 


screw, 


GOVERNOR 


PURPOSE OF THE 


Turning now to Fig. 3, which illus- 
trates the arrangement of the governor, it 
is seen that the of this device 
is obviously to bring the engine to rest 
at a time when, owing to some mishap, 
the engineer has lost control of it. This 
is effected by advancing the clutch points 
from the position P to P,. The two 
centrifugal weights B are mounted on 
the head casting C by means of pivoted 
bell-crank arms, which enter slots in the 
sleeve portion of the casting C and there 
engage the sliding shafts of the clutch 
points. As the weights fly out the clutch 
points are correspondingly advanced from 
P to P;. A spring E is fitted behind the 
bell crank levers at the pivot points A, 
in order to prevent the weights from fly- 
at the beginning of 


purpose 


ing out too quickly 
wind. 
Examination of the drawing wil. show 
that these springs are so placed as to 
neutral when the governor 


the 


become 


weights are in their “out” position with 
the engine running, and only the ten- 
sion springs D are left to restore the 
balls to the “in” position, when the en- 
gine is approaching the end of its wind. 


DETAILS OF TRAVE 


COAL AGE 


In addition there are two tension springs 
fitted between the weights for the pur- 
pose of securing better adjustment, and 
also to aid in bringing the weights back 
to normal position as the engine comes 
to rest. It will therefore be seen that the 
governor provides the automatic means 
previously referred to, of arresting the 
motion of the cage a little way below its 
landing position, should its speed at the 
time be too high. 


RELIABILITY AND ACCURACY 


This governing device is securely in- 
cased and, if necessary, may be sealed 
in order to prevent interference. It has 














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been found that in practice its sensitive- 
ness, and at the same time its reliability 
are so great that the apparatus can be 
regulated’to operate within an inch of the 
actual cage travel in either direction by 
means of the nuts, sleeve and pin, referred 
to above. If for any reason a release is 
effected, the engineman cannot put the 
apparatus again into normal position 
without help from someone else, and this 
means that he is made _ particularly 
careful in preventing such overwinds, as 
every time he makes a mistake publicity 
is given to the matter. Ifa further check 
is required, it is also possible to put a- 
recording apparatus on the gear which 
will automatically register without the 
possibility of controversy every time the 
engineman makes a careless wind. 





Vol. 


I; INO;..32 


One of these gears has been instal! 
recently at the Valley Field Colliery 0; 
the Fife Coal Co., Ltd., one of the large: 
colliery organizations in Scotland, in 
connection with a pair of Corliss engines 
having cylinders 36 in. in diameter and 
a 6 ft. stroke, with a working pressure 
of 150 lb. The drum is of the paralle! 
type, 18 ft. in diameter, and fitted with 
double post brakes, while the ratio 
adopted for the bevel gearing driving the 
overwind preventor is three to one, an 
extension of the governor driving shaft 
being utilized. In operation, the plant 
has given considerable satisfaction and 
this method of automatically preventing 
overhoists, owing to its simplicity, com- 
parative economy in first cost, and value 
in providing effective protection is worthy 
of the consideration of mining engineers 
in all parts of the world. This device is 
the outcome of considerable work and 
numerous experiments on the part of Mr. 
Landale, head of the firm of Douglas & 
Grant, Kircaldy, Scotland. 








Gold Bearing Coal at 
Cambria, Wyo. 
In explanation of the occurrence of 
gold in the Cambria, Wyo. coals, as 
noted in CoAL AcgE, Vol. 1, p. 


766, we 








Fic. 3. DETAILS OF GOVERNING MECHANISM 


quote the following excerpt from a 1 
U. S. Geological Survey Press Bu 
feature about 
Wyo., is th 


Son 


An 
mined at 
claimed to be gold bearing. 
much 


interesting 
Cambria, 
contained as 
gold, and the coal was 
per ton. When 

was selling for 33 


coal has 
ton in 
only $1.50 
at Cambria 
samples were taken from 31 ¢ai 
a period three weeks anu 
The samples showed an averas 
per ton in gold and 28e. in 
explanation offered for the p! 
gold in this coal is that the sa 
submerged the old peat 
form the roof of the coal 
rived in part from gold-bee! 
vium. While the sand Was 
posited the gold worked dow 
underlying bog and is now fou 
coal. 


ot 


bog 


hed 











May 18, 1912 





The richest coal fieid in the world is 
that territory situated iu the southern 
part of West Virginia. The fuel here 
mined runs from 14,800 to 15,300 B.t.u., 
which heat value is not excelled by any 
variety of anthracite or bituminous coal 
in any country. Because of their excel- 
lent quality, these West Virginia beds, 
although located somewhat distant from 
important markets, have been rapidly de- 
veloped. The extreme southern part of 
the field is reached by the Norfolk & 


Western Ry., while the upper edge of the 


COAL AGE 








the 


ica. 








opened. 


grade minable coal 
The chief markets in 


A new field containing more 
than twenty billion tons of high- 


has been 


immediate future 


will be 


New England and South Amer- 


Consolidation necessary. 


Low mining cost possible. 

















1039 


Mining Coal on theVirginian Railroad 


By Floyd W. Parsons 


THE No. 5 BLock COAL 

The No. 5 Block coal is a good steam 
and domestic fuel. Its low sulphur con- 
tent gives it freedom from clinker. In 
compcsition it is hard and stands trans- 
portation well. Its thickness ranges from 
4 ft. to 20 ft., attaining the latter enor- 
mous size over a limited area near Baid 
Knob in Boone County. In _ physical 
structure it is between a typical splint 
and the ordinary type of hard bitumin- 
ous coal, and stands transportation weil. 
Following is an average of six analyses: 














WinpdING GULF, CoAL CoMPANY TIPPLE, STORE 


istrict is touched by the Chesapeake & 
Jhio Ry. Both of these roads haul a 
nsiderable tonnage of the coal to tide- 
iter, and a smaller tonnage to Western 
iterior points. 
Since the two roads above mentioned 
raversed the field on lines approximately 
) miles apart, there remained a large 
of undeveloped ccal even 
anch lines from these main roads could 
t reach for many years to come. This 
ation was brought to the attention of 
H. Rogers, and, in 1907, construc- 
of the Virginian R.R. was com- 


nced. 


tha 


nry 


(he initial aim of Mr. Rogers was to 
rnish a satisfactory outlet for that coal 
teage in the Kanawha and New River 
‘sins, lying between the two older roads 
id not yet touched by them. The aver- 
xe haul from the coal field to the ter- 
‘inal at Sewalls Point, Va., is 410 miles. 


Vote- 


“Substance of an informal talk 
o Eastern Bank: rs on an inspection 
Dp over the Virginian Railroad. 


ore 











The principal coal measure 





by the Virginian R.R. are 


Series 





Allegheny 


Pottsville 


Subdivision 


Upper 


Pottsville 
or Kanawha 


Gri 


Na. 3 


as 


block coal 


Upper Kan 


wha 
(splint 
2 | 
coal 
1 
i wel Ia 
awha 
TI er 
1 
sew 
croup 
Pocahont 


¢roup 





as 


s reached 
follows: 


Se: 


Usually but 
come- 


inl bed. 


one 
mere 


Lewiston 





Coalburg 


Winifrec 


1 


Poeahonta 
No. 6 


Pocahontas 


No. 


Pocahontas 
, > 


Oo 


! 


3 








AND POWER HOUSE 


ANALYSIS OF NO. 5 BLOCK COAL 

Per Cent. 

Moisture..... 1.81 
Volatile matter 2M Yj 
Fixed carbon 7.56 
Ash. «: ° 7.46 
Total.. 100.00 
Sulphur... 1.79 
Phosphorus 0.008 
B.t.u. 13,581 

KANAWHA GROUP 
The Upper Kanawha coals are hard 


and split into oblong blocks, having much 
the appearance canne! 





ot coal. 


three beds vary in thickness from 3 to 
12 ft. 
AVERAGE ANALYSIS OF UPPER 
KANAWHA COALS 
1 r ( it 
Moisture..... 


Volatile matter 
Fixed earbon 





Ash 

Total.. 100.00 
Sulphur... 0.85 
Phosphorus 0.006 
B.t.u 13,672 


1040 


LowER KANAWHA COALS 


Separated from the Upper Kanawha 
teds by about 250 ft. of strata are the 
Lower Kanawha coals. These seams are 
softer than the beds above and are chiefly 
celebrated as gas coals. They are ex- 
cellent for coking purposes, having the 
essential columnar structure. 

AVERAGE ANALYSIS OF LOWER 
KANAWHA COALS 
Per Cent 
Moisture 1.39 


Volatile matter 32.88 
Fixed carbon 60.56 
Ash 5.17 

Total 169.00 
Sulphur 0.CS 
Phosphorus 0.007 
BREN Ei essa' 14,405 


COAL AGE 


nous Welsh coal used by the navy and 
so often compared to the New River 
product is as follows: 


ANALYSIS OF RHONDDA VALLEY, 


GLAMORGANSHIRE COAL 
(Authority, R. H. 8S. Redmayne, H. M. Chief 
Inspector) 


Moisture 1.24 
Volatile matter 15.38 
Fixed carbon. 77.19 
Ash 3.04 
Total 100.00 
B.t.u 14,159 


The Welch anthracite runs about 94 
per cent. fixed carbon, with only 4 per 
cent. volatile matter and less than 2 per 
cent. moisture and ash. An average ulti- 





Vol. 


1, No. 32 


are equal in heating value to the New 
River product, or superior to the Poca 
hontas coals. 

The New River group lies about 1000 
ft. below the Lower Kanawha coals. 
They take their name from the fact that 
these beds were mined first along New 
River in Fayette County, W. Va. They 
occupy a rock interval of about 325 ft., 
with the Sewell bed at the top, the Beck- 
ley seam 225 ft. lower and the Fire Creek 
cecal 100 ft. below the Beckley. These 
teds are low in ash and sulphur and have 
the typical physical structure of a coking 
coal; their only weakness for this latter 
purpose lies in their unusual purity, the 
low-ash content preventing their having 














= esac 


= Ss a PS 2s 
eeswages a - 
ee VIR ¢ihMi 

(. Me 

I - Ys 





4 
A} 

‘ 

& 


peta 


Be 


s 
v, 


< aid « 
. Mt a Mae” Me a 








MACALFiN COAL Co., MACALPIN, W. VA. 


THE New RIVER COALS 

The New River seams are without 
doubt the best steam coals in the world. 
The only other fuel product ever com- 
pared to them is the Welsh coal. This 
latter is bituminous in Monmouthshire, 
but becomes less so toward the south- 
west, until in Mid Glamorgan, the coal is 
an excellent smokeless steam product 
used by the British navy. Toward the 
west (Pembrokeshire and Caermarthen- 
shire) the seams pass into anthracite. 


An average analysis of the semibitumi- 


mate analysis of 37 spmples of \elsh 
coal gave: 


AVERAGE OF 37 SAMPLES 
Carbon S3.7S 
Hydrogen 1.75 
Nitrogen OOS 
Oxygen 4.15 
Sulphur 1.43 
Ash 4.91 
Total 100. 00 - 
B.t.u 14,858 


It is evident from the above that the 
Welsh coals are a high-grade fuel, but 
I do not see any reason to believe they 





DRIFT MINE WITH STEEL TIPPLE 


a geod burden-bearing capacity fo 
nace use. 

In the future, it is probable that ' 
New River coals will be largely us 
coke manufacture by mixing them 
other coals higher in volatile matte! 
ash. This practice is already bein: 
lowed by the United States Stee! 
poration at its plants in Illinois. 


= n19) or 

For steam purposes, and especia:.) °° 

e joh at 
use in naval vessels, where a high ‘<4 
satic: in 

value and a low rate of depreciat 
re Uulle 


storage are essential, these coals @ 














May 18, 1912 


Their low sulphur content 
them comparatively free from 
Their composi- 


equaled. 
makes 
spontaneous combustion. 
tion is shown below. 


ANALYSIS OF NEW RIVER COAL 
(Average of the Three Seams) 


Moisture... 1.16 





Volatile matter... 18.22 
Fixed carbon. . 76.94 
| Wi emai a Roar eae 3.68 
6 Xo) T: | eee 100.00 
Sulphur..... : 0.78 
BiOsphondsiscccce- scones oveetas 0.010 
7 eee eC nea 15,094 








AN 8-FT. SEAM OF CLEAN COAL ExPOSED BY RAILROAD CuT ON WINDING GULF BRANCH 


POCAHONTAS COALS 


The Pocahontas group lies about 350 
!t. below the New River beds, and con- 
sists of the Pocahontas Nos. 6, 4 and 3. 
These coals have a similar physical ap- 
pearance and chemical composition to 
those of the New River group, except 
that the former are slightly lower in vola- 
tile matter and have a little higher ash 
content. This greater percentage of ash 
makes the Pocahontas coals slightly bet- 
ter for coking purposes. 


COAL AGE 


ANALYSIS OF POCAHONTAS COAL 





Moisture....... 1.92 
Volatile matter...... 16.60 
Fixed carbon.......... 76.63 
y. | eae 4.85 
SQNNSREEED cer Sophy ra erect es 100.00 
SON soe oo Sake ose ne 0.640 
WOMAN oie) plane op ear os oss 0.008 
13 3:3) pare 14,947 


ESTIMATED TONNAGE AVAILABLE 


Carefully prepared reports by Dr. I. C. 
White, state geologist of W. Va., and the 
greatest living authority on the Appala- 


chian coals, indicate that within the 
region tributary to the Virginian Ry. 
and its branches, there are available ap- 
proximately 750,000,000 tons of the No. 
5 Block coal; more than 7,000,000,000 
tons of the Upper Kanawha coals; 
8,250,000,000 tons of the Lower Kanawha 
coals, and 4,000,000,000 of the New 
River and Pocahontas. This estimate 
shows a total of approximately 20,000,- 
000,000 tons of coal in the territory 
traversed by the Virginian Ry. These 
measures lie adjacent to the road for a 





1041 


distance of 85 miles, as we travel east 
from the western terminal at Deepwater. 

The future of this southern West Vir- 
ginia field is well assured, (1) because 
the coal is equal to any fuel anywhere in 
the world; (2) it is the nearest high- 
grade fuel to tidewater and will forever 
monopolize the seaboard trade at Hamp- 
ton Roads, since no coal further west 
equals it in quality, and it is, therefore, 
impossible for any other fuel to cross 
this field and participate in tidewater 
shipments; (3) large cities, great indus- 








OF THE VIRGINIAN R.R. 


trial corporations and government bu:veaus 
are purchasing practically all their fue! 
supply according to specificatious, which 
are bazec. on the heat units coatair a in 
the coal, and as before indicated, che 
New River product averages higher 17 
British thermal units than any other 
fuel; (4) the seams are thick, clean, and 
as a general rule, have good top ahd bot- 
tom, with few faults and squeezes, and 
as a result, mining costs are as low as 
can be attained in any other field; (5) 
labor is unorganized. 





1042 


MARKETS 


New England purchases approximately 
$110,000,000 worth of coal every year. Of 
this annual expenditure, about $30,000,- 
000 goes to the mine operator, while 580,- 
600,000 goes to transportation companies 
and coal dealers. Most recent statistics 
indicate that of 28,000,000 tons of coal 
consumed in New England in one year, 
nearly 20,000,000 tons entered at New 
England ports, the remainder coming in 
by rail. If transportation and handling 
charges, therefore, amount to more than 
70 per cent. of the total expenditure for 
coal, it is evident that the consumer must 
interest himself in the amount of incom- 
bustible matter that the coal contains. 
For each per cent. of impurities (ash and 
moisture) a ton of coal contains, 20 lb. 
of worthless weight must be transported 
and handled. Furthermore, after the coal 
has been burned, the consumer himself 
is obliged to dispose of the greater part 
of this weight in the form of ashes. 

The largest proportion of the New Eng- 
land coal trade should go to operators 
in southern West Virginia, not only be- 
cause of the quality of their product, but 
for the reason that the greater part of the 
haul is by water, and ocean freight on 
a buiky commodity like coal is not a large 
item. For the same reason, the Medi- 
terranean trade eventually will be se- 
cured by the operators in this country. 
We hear much about not being able to 
secure bottoms. and about the difficulty 


COAL AGE 





Vol. 1, No. 32 











E. E. Wuite Coat Co., GLEN WuiTe, W. VA. 


of engaging a return cargo. Government 
action favorable to shipping is certain to 
come, and thereafter we will have ships 
aplenty. The argument that we cannot 
contract for sufficient return freight is 
absurd, and is refuted by all import sta- 
tistics. 


THE SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 


The recent English strike permitted 
some of our operators to get a foothold 
in the coal markets of eastern South 
America. Indications already point to our 
not only being able to hold what business 


we have taken, but give us reason to 
know that American coal will surely sup- 
plant the European product within a short 
period of time. 

We all realize the importance to the 
coal industry of the completion of the 
Panama Canal. There is no plausible 
excuse for our not commanding the en- 
tire trade of western South America. The 
greater part of this immense new coal 
business that is about to open to Ameri- 
can mine owners should go to operators 
who ship coal from Hampton Roads. No 
other product that can be loaded for long- 





GULF SMOKELESS 








CoAL ComPANY, ToMs, W. VA., ON WINDING GULF BRANCH 














May 18, 1912 


COAL AGE 








MINE No. 1, SLAB ForK CoAL Co., SLAB Fork, W. VA. 


distance shipment will stand transporta- 
tion any better, or because of low sul- 
phur content, will be more unlikely to 
spontaneous combustion. 

The hope of the coal industry in south- 
ern West Virginia lies in the elimination 


of a shameless, inexcusable and merci- 
less competition that has existed for 
many years. -Recently there has been 
some improvement in selling conditions, 
but there are still in the neighborhood of 
thirteen selling agencies, which is about 





1043 


a dozen more than is necessary. The new 
business that lies open to West Virginia 
coal may be secured with present ar- 
rangements still in force, but it will be 
gained quicker and with greater certainty 
should a couple of powerful ‘“‘business- 
getters” go after the markets in an ag- 
gressive and determined way. 

In conclusion, although I know but 
little about railroading, I appreciate 
the great task Henry H. Rogers under- 
took when he started the construction of 
the Virginian Ry., and his death, May 19, 
1909, 1'4 months before the road went 
on an operating basis, was one of those 
unfortunate occurrences that seem dic- 
tated by the very irony of fate. I be- 
lieve in southern West Virginia, its prod- 
uct and its men, and in spending practic- 
ally his entire fortune—S50,000,000—in 
opening a new empire, Mr. Rogers per- 
formed a service to his country and to the 
people of the Virginias that will benefit 
posterity, and at the same time, will up- 
hold his sagacity as a far-sighted business 
man. : 

[The next issue gf Coat AGE will con- 
tain a short description and views of the 
coal unloading terminal of the Virginian 
Railroad at Sewells Point.] 

















s i 
| | ? 
| ~ f : "< 
iz | a 
2 i 3 











E N N S 2 
' liles 
Oo © 20 85 40 50 6 





> 





RAILWAY 






— 
_— + + 











AVFLAaAyy>, 


Coal 








THE COAL FIELD TRIBUTARY TO THE VIRGINIAN R.R., EXTENDS FROM DEEPWATER TO A POINT JUST NORTH OF PRINCETON 





1044 


COAL AGE 





Vol. 


1, No. 32 











Current Coal Literature 


The Best Thought Culled from Contemporary Technical Journals, Domestic and Foreign 

















Men and ‘‘Melons’’ 


The Plymouth Coal Co., through John 
C. Haddock, its president, makes the foi- 
lowing remarks on the anthracite coal 
situation in extension of his observations 
quoted in our issue of May 11: 

In our first paper, with its citations 
from the opinion and decision of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, in the 
Meeker-Lehigh Valley R.R. case, we be- 
lieve that we proved conclusively that 
if there was a fair and equitable divi- 
sion of the excessive and oppressive an- 
thracite transportation charges, there 
would be little, if any, difficulty in mak- 
ing a substantial concession to the mine 
workers, and in the granting of corres- 
ponding relief to the independent and 
individual operators. 

As indicated in that statement, the Le- 
high Valley R.R. Co., at the close of its 
fiscal year, June 30, 1910, had an unap- 
propriated balance-surplus of S$27,219,- 
780. At the close of its fiscal year, June 
30, 1911, this surplus was increased to 
$30,330,647. On Saturday last, the stock 
of the Lehigh Valley R.R. Co. sold at 
$168 a share, while on the same day, 
the stock in the “melon,” the Lehigh 
Valley Coal Sales Co., sold at S260 a 
share! During the past ten years, since 
the award of the Anthracite Strike Com- 
mission, the admitted net earnings of the 
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R.R. 


Co. have exceeded $60,000,000. At the 
close of the year, June 30, 1911, the 
Reading interests made the following 


“surplus” exhibit: The Reading Com 
pany, $32,287,000; Philadelphia & Read- 
ing Railway, $9,665,000; Central R.R. 
of New Jersey, $13,519,000; surplus of 
Reading companies, $55,471,000. 

Of course, a statement of the opera- 
tions during the past year, with a care- 
ful analysis of working assets and lia- 
bilities, would simply add to the magni- 
tude of these impressive figures. They 
should be a convincing evidence that we 
have not been hasty nor unjust in point- 
ing out the possibility and necessity of 
making an equitable and speedy adjust- 
ment with the mine workers and the 
independent and individual operators. 

In making further comments upon the 
relation of the anthracite-carrying com- 
panies to the mining interests, we are 
compelled to point to the Lehigh Valley 
R.R. Company, not because it is the chief 
offender, but for the reason that in the 
Meeker-Lehigh Valley case, the able 


opinion and decision of the Interstate 


Commerce Commission, revealed condi- 
tions and methods, clearly and impres- 
sively, that are simply typical of the en- 
tire anthracite field. 

Of course, in one respect, the ‘“Le- 
high Valley” has an exceptional advant- 
age. The presidents of other roads may 
have claimed divine appointment. That 
was merely a claim, but it remained for 
the “Lehigh Valley” to offer a proof of 
the possession of a divine attribute, in 
demonstrating beyond the peradventure 
of a doubt, by incontestable evidence, 
that it could perform miracles. The 
loss of three cents a ton in the carriage 
of anthracite to Perth Amboy, as as- 
serted before the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, is converted imto a profit 
that is reflected in its Unappropriated 
Surplus Account, which grew from $Sl,- 
620,681, at the close of its fiscal year, 
June 30, 1903, to $27,219,780, at the 
close of its fiscal year, June 30, 1910. 
We are aware that there is an old Celtic 
dictum, that there should be no miracles 
among gentlemen, but when a miracle is 
discovered in these latter days, and the 
manifestation of the gift, is explanatory 
of a balance sheet, then, we submit, that 
we should and must recognize it. 

In the Meeker-Lehigh Vailey R.R. 
case, before the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, the railroad company, in 
its defense, asserted, as reported by the 
Commission, that the rates on anthracite 
must be sufficient to produce four re- 
sults, viz.: 

(1) An income sufficient to make up 
for past deficiencies in current return 
on investment. 

(2) A reasonable current annual re- 
turn upon the investment in the railroad 
and transportation adjuncts. 

(3) An amount sufficient to provide 
reasonably for keeping the property con- 
stantly up to modern standards, for mak- 
ing such improvements as are necessary 
to provide for public convenience and 
safety, and to enable the railroad to get 
business in competition wit:. other roads. 

(4) An amount, sufficie@t to provide 
for the return of the principal when, and 
as the principal becomes reduced and ex- 
tinguished by the exhaustion of the coal 
freight. 

The commission replies: Under the 
first proposition, the railroad company 
argued that the present rates should be 
sufficiently high to enable it now to earn 
the amount, by which it has fallen short 
of paying a 6 per cent. annual dividend 
in the past, or at least as far back as 


1894. It shows that a dividend rate of 
6 per cent., applied to its common stock 
of $40,441,100 for the period from Nov. 
30, 1894, to June 30, 1908, would 
amount to $35,091,276; that during this 
period the dividends paid amounted to 
$7,260,264; and argues that upon a 6- 
per cent. basis, the common stock share- 
holders suffered a deficiency in divi- 
dends during this 14'4-year period of 
$27,831,112. 

Assuming, without conceding, that the 
present producers and consumers of an- 
thracite coal must bear the burden of the 
misfortunes or mismanagement of a pre- 
vious generation, it is worth while to in- 
quire whether this claim does not amount 
for the most part to a declaration, not 
that the shareholder is entitled to a fair 
dividend, but rather to an assertion that 
he may invest his dividends in improve- 
ment of the property and have it in cash 
also. 

The devotion of earnings to permanent 
improvements and betterments was, no 
doubt, a wise policy on the part of those 
in control of the road. But the indica- 
tions are that the shareholders have al- 
ready received the benefit of that policy, 
even though it has not come in the form 
of cash dividends covering the period in 
question. From 1894 to 1903, the average 
market value of Lehigh Valley Railroad 
stock was in the neighborhood of S75 per 
share. At this writing (June, 1911), the 
same stock is quoted at $178. Thus a 
person, who had invested in Lehigh Val- 
ley at par, prior to 1904, has benefited by 
an appreciation in value of his stock to 
the amount of 5 per cent. per annum 
since 1894 and has received dividends 
gradually increased from 2 per cent. to 5 
per cent. since 1905. The earnings in 
1910 were sufficient to pay a dividend of 
20.12 per cent., but the company elected 
to increase its unappropriated surplus 
from $19,212,252, in 1909, to $27,219,- 
780, in 1910. Moreover, the Lehigh Val- 
ley Railroad Co. has been carrying 
amongst its assets certificates of indebt- 
edness of the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. 
amounting to $10,537,000, upon which no 
interest is collected. Interest on this in- 
debtedness would be sufficient to pay % 
1 per cent. dividend on the stock. 

We should hesitate to assent to the 
Lehigh Valley R.R. Co.’s proposition tha: 
present shippers must bear the burden 
of earlier misfortunes of the road, bu' 
it is unnecessary to decide that point in 
this case because it has been sufficientl; 
demonstrated that the shareholders have 











May 18, 1912 


received a fair return on their invest- 
ment, taking into consideration the money 
actually received in dividends, the in- 
creased value of their shares, the in- 
creased value of the property, and the 
large unappropriated surplus. 

In reviewing the claims of the Lehigh 
Valley R.R. Co., we may be allowed to 
express an opinion as to the character of 
its first contention, viz.: That its charges 
should be sufficient to make up for past 
deficiency in current return on invest- 
ment. 

That it has been done, as has been 
clearly shown by the evidence submitted, 
simply makes the wrong committed not 
only apparent but real. Suppose the mine 
workers had included in their recent de- 
mands, a claim for wages extending back 
for several years, to cover all lost time, 
had asked pay for the idle days caused by 
shortage of railroad cars, accidents in the 
mining, movement, and delivery of coal; 
idleness that may have been the effects 
of dissipation, if you will, would such a 
presentation have been any more ab- 
surd than the present claim that rates of 
transportation on anthracite must be ad- 
justed to care for every expenditure, 
however improvident or ill advised, and 
pay a dividend thereon and accumulate a 
surplus besides. Are stockholders of an 
anthracite carrying company in a pre- 
ferred class and are they exempt, ulti- 
mately, from any or all of the liability, 
incident to bad management? It is no- 
torious that for a number of years, 
the “Valley” was “skinned” for the bene- 
fit of stockholders. The money that was 
paid in dividends, should have been ap- 
plied to the betterment of the road. Un- 
der the efficient administration of the 
late president, Alfred Walter, that poiicy 
was changed, and his successor, as a re- 
sult of Mr. Walter’s masterful ability and 
experience, succeeded to the management 
of a property, adequately equipped and 
perfected, to serve the public and to meet 
the competition of its rivals. Well might 
the commission inquire if this claim does 
not amount for the most part, to a declar- 
ation, not that the shareholders are en- 
titled to a fair division, but rather to 
the assertion that they may invest their 
dividends in improvement of the property, 
and have it in cash also! 

As to the remaining contentions of the 
railroad company, the commission says: 

“That the rates should be sufficient to 
guarantee a fair annual return on the in- 
vestment and to provide reasonably for 
keeping the property up to improved 
modern methods, are sound but have little 
bearing on this case. It will be noted 
that the Lehigh Valley’s corporate in- 
-ome was sufficient to pay a dividend on 
the capital stock of 16 per cent. in 1905, 
17 per cent. in 1906, 20 per cent. in 1907, 
18 per cent. in 1908, 14 per cent. in 1909, 
ind 20 per cent. in 1910. Instead of 
Daying such dividends, it has paid 5 per 
cent. on its capital stock, appropriated to 





COAL AGE 


additions, betterments, and improvements 
sums ranging from $580,206 to $2,068,- 
590 per annum and has increased its un- 
appropriated surplus from nothing in 
1902 to $27,219,780 in 1910. Certainly, 
it must be conceded that the present 
rates provide liberally for a fair annual 
return on the investment and the proper 
maintenance of the property. 

“As noted, the Lehigh Valley R.R. Co. 
carries amongst its assets $10,537,000 
noninterest-bearing certificates of indebt- 
edness of the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. At 
5 per cent. per annum, the interest on 
these certificates would be $526,850. The 
latter sum is, in all substantial respects, 
a rebate to the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. 
The proportion of the total tonnage from 
the anthracite field shipped by the Le- 
high Valley Coal Co. does not appear, 
but it is of record that it ships about 95 
per cent. of the coal to tidewater. If its 
proportion of the total traffic is the same 
as that to tidewater, its tonnage for 1910 
was in the neighborhood of 10,500,000 
tons; and the net result of the transpor- 
tation as between it and its competitors 
was the same as if it had had its coal 
transported for 5 cents per ton less than 
the independent dealers.” 








An Outburst of Carbon 
Dioxide* 


A German periodical publishes some 
information on a sudden liberation of 
carbon dioxide which occurred in a mine 
at Altwasser: 

As the workings were subject to out- 
bursts cf this gas, the mime management 
always provided an ample ventilating 
current to dilute that impurity. To re- 
duce the dangers resulting from a sud- 
den liberation of the gas, a series of 
precautionary measures were prescribed 
to be observed in the development work. 
On Dec. 7, 1910, an outburst of carbon 
dicxide was caused by the firing of a 
shot. Of the six workmen laboring near 
the face, four fell in the vicinity of the 
gallery. 


RESCUERS SUMMONED BY MINE 
TELEPHONES 


Two of them succeeded in saving them- 
selves and were able to give warning 
to the men outside by telephone. They 
then walked to the station where electric 
lamps and oxygen tanks are kept. The 
running of the fan outside was at the 
same time increased as much as pos- 
sible. Forty minutes after the outburst, 
the first of the four fallen workmen was 
discovered. He was carried to the in- 
take airway and was revived by oxygen 
apparatus. Artificial respiration was ap- 
plied to the second man, oxygen being 


*Translated by BE. P. Buffet for Coal 


Age, from L’Echo des Mines et de Métal- 
lurgie, 


Paris, France. 





1045 


also employed. Dr. Brat’s apparatus was 
used on the other two also, but without 
effect. The corps of rescue men from 
the “Central Station of Succor” did not 
arrive upon the spot until the time the 
fourth victim was discovered. 

One hundred and fifty cars of coal 
and rock had been cast out by the out- 
burst. The analysis of the air in the 
gallery gave 7.82 per cent. of carbon 
dioxide and 14.43 per cent. of oxygen. 
Breathing in it was very difficult but 
the air would maintain life. ; 

According to this account of the acci- 
dent, it appears that the methods of 
rescue which were available in the mine 
(the telephone, electric lamps and oxy- 
gen) rendered great service and that men 
from the Central Station arrived too late 
to do any effectual work. It would be de- 
sirable to introduce electric lighting in- 
to such galleries, to employ electric shot- 
firing from a distance and, by the es- 
tablishment of safety double doors, to 
prevent the pressure from the disen- 
gaged gas from befouling the air of the 
entire mine. 








Mine Inspectors’ Institute 


The fourth annual meeting of the Mine 
Inspectors’ Institute of U. S. will con- 
vene at Columbus, Ohio, June 18, and 
conclude June 21, 1912. The executive 
committee will hold a business meeting on 
June 17. All members of the Institute as 
wei. as all state, territorial or provincial 
imine inspectors in North America are in- 
vited to attend the meeting and those not 
now members are desired to present their 
applications for membership. 

The Ohio inspectors have made exten- 
sive provision for the entertainment of 
those who may attend, and the meeting 
has promise of being the most success- 
ful of any yet held. 

Under the provisions of the constitu- 
tion of this Institute, each state prior to 
the annual meeting of the Institute has 
the privilege of placing in nomination 
the names of the candidates for the sev- 
eral offices to be filled. The president, 
first vice-president and treasurer cannot 
succeed themselves in their respective 
offices. 

The offices to be filled, together with 
the na. 2s of the present officials are as 
follows: President, John Laing; first 
vice-president, James Taylor; second 
vice-president, J. B. McDermott; third 
vice-president, D. C. Botting; treasurer, 
Thos. Morrison; secretary, J. W. Paul; 
asst. secretary, F. W. Cunningham. 

A tentative program has been arranged 
which includes a number of interesting 
addresses and the presentation of papers 
on many pertinent subjects. The works 
of the Jeffrey Manufacturing Co. will be 
visited and a banquet held at the Great 
Southern Hotel, in the evening of 
June 30. 


1046 


COAL AGE 





Vol. 1, No. 32 











Who’s Who—in Coal Mining 


Devoted to Brief Sketches of Prominent Men, Their Work and Ideas 




















Coal mining is one class of work a 
man has to be born to, and if a fellow 
doesn’t relish the smell of the air in the 
upcast shaft, he had better throw up his 
job and get a new position as clerk in 
the perfumery department of a big de- 
partment store. Ability to stand hard 
knocks, grit to stay to the finish and a 
nature that fears neither man nor devil, 
are requisites to success. The fellow who 
lacks fear through ignorance is a men- 
ace; the man worth while is the one 
who can perform his work day after day, 
conscious every minute of the dangers 
that surround him. 

Of course, the time does come to each 
diligent coal-mining man when his trips 
to the face grow less frequent; more 
time is spent in God’s sunshine, and the 
younger element must bear the burden 
of the underground work. To be a real 
success, however, it’s necessary to have 
gone through the mill, and many a man- 
ager today would be better for having 
lived longer at the face, and experienced 
some of the trials and tribulations of 
the men who labar beneath the ground. 

Eli Conner always struck me as typicai 
of what a coal man should be. The marks 
acquired by a regular in the army or a 
sailor at sea stick through life even when 
the individual turns to civilian pursuits. 
It is just so with Mr. Conner; there's 
something about him that reminds you 
that he has plugged up and down many 
an entry, head bent, dodging low places 
and projecting timbers, and, believe me, 
Eli has to do some bending in low places 
for a six-foot rule will hardly reach from 
the ground to the place where he parts 
his hair. 

In Mr. Conner’s particular case there 
has been no retirement, even temporarily, 
from the mines. Since way back in 1864, 
when he first saw daylight at Mauch 
Chunk, Penn., there has been but little 
time when the call of the mines hasn’t 
been ringing in his ears, so getting out 
of practice has been an utter impos- 
sibility. Educated in the public schools 
of his native town, he continued nis 
studies privately under the eyes of cer- 
tain mining engineers whose names are 
history in the industry. 

In 1882, Mr. Conner was employed by 
M. S. Kemmerer & Co., at Sandy Run, 
Penn., in the Lehigh region of the an- 
thracite coal field. He served in various 
subordinate capacities under the super- 
intendent, Walter Leisenring, and later 
became the engineer of the Sandy 
Run & Pond Creek collieries, which 





EL! T. CONNER 


mines were operated by the Kemmerer 
eople. 

In the fall of 1883, he was sent to Har- 
leigh, Penn., where another mine of the 
same company was located, and while 
there served first as shipper and engin- 
eer, later (1885) being made superin- 
tendent of the mine. In December, 1885, 
the Harleigh colliery, as well as the ad- 
joining one, known as Eberdale, were 
filled with water, due to the disastrous 
floods of that year. After this occur- 
rence, Eli returned to Sandy Run as en- 
gineer and assistant superintendent. 

In the fall of 1887 and the spring of 
1888, Mr. Conner had charge of the con- 
struction of the Moosic Mountain & 
Carbondale. R.R., extending from Peck- 
ville to the Moosic Mountain colliery. In 
September, 1888, he became superin- 
tendent of the Mount Jessup Coal Co., 
which was controlled by the Kemmerer 
and Leisenring interests.4 In 1894, upon 
the death of the late Austin Moore, he 
was appointed superintendent of the 
Florence Coal Co., and of the Spring 
Brook Coal Co.; all this in addition to 
his duties as superintendent of the Mount 
Jessup mines. While in charge of the 
Spring Brook colliery, Mr. Conner de- 
signed and erected a complete new plant 
on the property, located near Moosic, 
Penn. 

In the spring of 1896, the Lehigh Val- 


ley Coal Co. purchased the operations 
of L. A. Riley & Co., at Centralia, Penn., 
in the Shamokin district. The late W. A. 
Lathrop, who was then general superin- 
tendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Co., 
selected Mr. Conner as superintendent of 
the new Shamokin division, which in- 
cluded the Riley operations and all other 
properties of the Lehigh Valley Co. in 
that region. 

In December, 1896,I. R. Moister, su- 
perintendent of the Wyoming division of 
the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, died. 
Mr. Conner was transferred from Centra- 
lia to Wilkes-Barre as his successor. 
The Wyoming division is the most im- 
portant part of the company’s interests, 
and includes the properties of the Con- 
nell Company and the Seneca Company, 
which properties were purchased by the 
Lehigh Valley people during the time that 
“Eli T.” was superintendent of that di- 
vision. While in charge of the “Valley” 
mines around Wilkes-Barre, Mr. Conner 
designed and erected a new plant at 
Prospect colliery, which mine now holds 
the record as being the largest single 
producer in the anthracite region. The 
output through this breaker last year was 
in the neighborhood of 1,200,000 tons of 
marketable product. 

In the spring of 1902, Eli Conner was 
selected by W. A. Lathrop, then presi- 
dent of the Webster Coal & Coke Com- 
pany, to fill the position of general su 
perintendent of that company, with head- 
quarters at Cresson, Penn. During th: 
time the Webster Company was merg: 
with the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Co 

In 1907 “Eli T.” accepted a positio 
as general manager of the New Ri 
Collieries Company, a consolidation 
mines bought up by the Guggenhein 
and located in the celebrated New Ris 
field of West Virginia. 

In the spring of 1909, Mr. Conner ¢ 
up his work in West Virginia and ope 
an office as consulting mining engine 
Philadelphia. A year ago he was 
tained to make an exhaustive in\ 
gation of all the properties of the ! 
ware & Hudson Co. in the norther 
thracite field. 

Eli Conner was also retained, tos 
with another engineer, Wm. Griffit: 
the city of Scranton to investigate ™ 
conditions under that city with re! 
to mine caves. The advisory board, © °- 
der whom this work was done, cons'>-++ 
of John Hays Hammond, W. A. Lat’ 
D. W. Brunton, R. A. F. Penrose ‘4 
L. B. Stilwell. 























May 18, 1912 











Issued Weekly by the 


Hill Publishing Company 


JOHN A, HILL, Pres. RoB'T MCKEAN, Sec’y. 


505 Pearl Street, New York. 


Monadnock Bldg., Chicago. 
6 Bouverie Street, London, E. C. 
Unter den Linden 71—Berlin, N. W. 7, 


FLoyp W, Parsons, Editor. 

Correspondence suitable for the col- 
umns of CoAL AGE solicited and paid 
for. Name and address of corres- 
pondents must be given—not neces- 
sarily for publication. 

Subseription price $3 per year in 
advance for 52 numbers to any post 
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$5 to any other foreign country. 

Subscribers in Great Britain, Europe 
and the British Colonies in the East- 
ern Hemisphere may send their sub- 
scriptions to the London office. Price 
21 shillings. 

Notice to 
written to the New 
every instance. 

Advertising copy should reach New 
York office by Thursday of week prior 
to date of issue. 

Entered as second-class matter, Oc- 
tober 14. 1911, at the post office at 
New York, New York, under the act 
of March 3, 1879. 


Cable Address, ‘‘Coage,’”” N. Y. 


should be 
office in 


discontinue 
York 











7 











CIRCULATION STATEMENT 
Of this issue of Coal Age, we will print 
7500 copies. No copies will be sent free 
regularly. There will be no back num- 
bers. The figures shown here each week 
represent live, net circulation. 








This journal has a direct aim—a single 
purpose—which is to help advance the 
coal-mining industry. Its creed embodies 
the dissemination of knowledge and the 
tree interchange of ideas among its read- 
ers, all of whom are invited to become 
egular contributors. 








‘ 
Contents ~— 
ER Ca DG War ONE Gt vcee sc oh epe ace oye Wes a cco eter ars 10381 
‘he New Buck Mountain Breaker. 
E. L. Cole. 1032 
lining the No. 8 Seam in Ohio. 
William Hibbs 1036 
Interesting Overwind Preventer 1037 
iold Bearing Coal at Cambria, Wyo. 1038 
ning Coal on the Virginian Rail- 
ROR sae renee’ Floyd W. Parsons 1039 
trent Coal Literature: 
Men and “Wel cis ee ccs wes 1044 
\n Outburst of Carbon Dioxide.. 1045 
ho's Who in Coal Mining: 
Sketeh of BH. T. Connor. ... 0... 1046 
torials: 
Phe Gost Gf a&- Strike. siccccacuees 1047 
LeViGHNG. DOW: & .ockice cei es 1047 
CaEDON MONOMIC EG esis od de ewe 1048 
\Wages and Financial Stringency. 1048 
scussion by Readers: 
\ Comment on the Jed Explosion 1049 
Effect of Uncontrolled Competi- 
tion and Need of Price Associa- 
1) 0071 1 Sa eee Poh arora 1049 
\ Cave-In Proposition... cca... 1050 
Iexpansion Bit for Drilling Coal.. 1050 
Timbering a Mine Parting....... 1050 
iNiries of General Interest...... 1051 
amination Questions and <An- 
PONG: elie sn gel orang cae en Srey era ero ayn ra 1052 
ciological Department: 
some Remarks on Safety in Mines 1053 
Loading the Mine Foreman...... 1053 
Coal Situation in the Philippines. 
’ Monroe Wolley 1054 
Coal and Coke News............... 1055 


Coal Trade Reviews 





COAL AGE 

















The Cost of a Strike 


A review of the effects of the British 
coal strike, on industrial conditions in 
general, presents an interesting example 
of the importance of coal in the business 
world. No previous coal controversy was 
ever conceived along such broad com- 
prehensive lines, or so disastrously ef- 
fective in its consummation. 

One of England’s eminent economists 
estimated the loss to Great Britain as not 
less than 50 million dollars per week, and 
suggested that since the aggregate de- 
mands of the miners totaled only a 
quarter of a million annually, these de- 
mands should be acceded to. This ap- 
pears a very simple and reasonable so- 
lution of the problem, but he unfortu- 
nately neglected to provide a means for 
securing the necessary quarter of a mil 
lion, 

One of the most noticeable features of 
the British strike was the almost im- 
mediate curtailment in the associated in- 
dustries. Four days previous to the sus- 
pension there were 284 pig-iron furnaces 
in blast, and nine days after, two-thirds of 
these were idle, while at the end of 30 
days only about one-seventh remained in 
operation. In the tin-plate industry there 
were 489 mills in operation at the begin- 
ning of the strike, and one month later 
413 of these were shut down. Of the haif 
million men employed in the manufac- 
ture of iron and steel, less than 190 
thousand remained at work at the end of 
30 days. 

Nor were these suspensions confined 
to the iron and steel industries. Twenty- 
three days after the strike was called, 
over three-fourths of the pottery workers 
and one-fourth of the brick workers had 
been laid off entirely, while many of the 
latter were working only part time. En- 
gineering projects in general were se- 
riously interfered with and there was 
much unemployment among seamen, coal 
trimmers and dock laborers. 

In thirteen representative industries, 
employing 330,000 men, 7 per cent. were 
thrown out of employment at the end of 
23 days, and there was a shrinkage of 


12 per cent. in wages. The average per- 
centage of unemployed, 30 days after the 
strike went in effect was 11.3, as com- 
pared with 2.8 at the beginning, and 3.9 
for the corresponding day the year pre- 
vious. These figures do not include the 
mine workers themselves, practically all 


of whom were out during these periods. 








Leveling Down 

The hope of the workman who strives 
for a minimum wage per day is, that by 
so doing there will be a leveling up, but 
unfortunately this is too often unrealized. 
It appears that the minimum wage in 
Great Britain is going to follow the gen- 
eral rule, and a dead and low wage level 
will result which will be disadvantageous 
to the workingman. 

Everyone has expected that the cost of 
producing coal would be increased by the 
new provision, but recent developments 
tend to show that the opposite action 
The expectant miners con- 
gratulate themselves that they 
from the conflict in triumphant possession 


will result. 
emerge 


of the existing piecework system, where- 
by they earn high wages when working 
in good places and to the best of their 
abilities. They expect that in addition to 
these advantages, they will also enjoy 
the benefit of a time wage—a guaranteed 
daily wage when working in bad places or 
when failing to put forth their best ef- 
forts. The miners expect the combined 
advantages of piece work and time work. 
but none of the disadvantages of either 
system. If that 
realized, then, of course, the cost of coal 


iridescent hope were 
would be unreasonably enhanced. 

It must be observed, however, that hu- 
man nature being what it is and the con- 
ditions of coal mining being what thev 
are; 2 guaranteed time wage must carrv 
with it constant supervision in order to 
check malingering. Under the piecework 
system, supervision is hardly required, 
but time work or day wages must be ac- 
companied by much supervision. 


The longwall system in use in England 


makes close superintendence more pos- 
sible than in the United States, but at 





1048 


the same time, while one foreman may 
boss a hundred men in a work shop, in 
the workings of a coal mine it would 
take him all his time to supervise a smail 
percentage of that number of men. A 
mine employing a thousand miners would 
need possibly almost one hundred fore- 
men. Obviously the industry would en- 
deavor to evade such a burden as this. 
The problem of supervision would have 
to be faced and solved whether the min- 
ers liked the solution or not. If they en- 
force the minimum wage they will take 
the consequences which naturally arise 
from such a system. 

Under the new law, elderly, delicate, 
slow and inefficient men will be weeded 
out. Only the efficient will be employed, 
and they will have to exercise their effi- 
ciency. What is called the “Butty” sys- 
tem, already in existence at a few mines 
and strongly resented by the best of the 
men, will be made universal. The “Butty” 
is a kind of contractor and he will be 
given charge of a stall or room, a long- 
wall or a number of working faces. He 
will contract to get the coal at the ex- 
isting price, employing the necessary 
miners, timberers and car-pushers. The 
men will be under the strict supervision 
of the “Butty”; they will get the mini- 


mum wage and no more, but for that low 
wage they will have to do the maximum 
amount of work. Thus they will work at 
a piecework pressure for a time wage, 
and the “Butty” will pocket the sur- 
plus money. 

One good feature of the change will 
be that there will be a large increase in 
the use of mechanical coal cutters in 
some of the seams. Possibly a few of 
the poorer and meaner beds will be 
abandoned. Nothing is more patent than 
the fact that before long the miners will 
be completely disillusioned in the out- 
come of their agitation, and it is probable 
that other strikes will result, in order to 
produce the desired corrections along 
other lines. The “‘Butty’” system is es- 
pecially to be deplored as it amounts in a 
degree to an exploiting of the work of 
less skilled laborers by their more for- 
tunate cowetkers, An analogy on a 
small scale has been observed for many 
years in the anthracite region of this 
country in the relation borne by the miner 
to his laborers. 

Perhaps the strike may do a great deal 
of good in exhibiting to a numerous body 
of British workmen, the inexorable char- 


COAL AGE 


acter of the national economy. Time and 
again there has been a disposition to di- 
vorce payment from efficiency, and wher- 
ever that is done the inevitable result is 
to reduce the payment for labor per- 
formed. It is getting harder and harder 
to understand year by year that wages 
are not an artificial institution of modern 
society. They are rather a gift of na- 
ture in return for work duly performed, 
and cannot be regulated as a whole by 
any whim of the governing body. A 
resolution on the part of all mankind te 
live more comfortably must always be 
accompanied by a resolution to increase 
productivity. We can meddle with the 
distribution of wealth, but its total quan- 
tity is the outcome of the efforts of pres- 
ent and past economies. 








Carbon Monoxide 


A certain percentage of carbon monox- 
ide can probably be inhaled without in- 
jury to the human organism. In fact, it 
has been found that it is generated in at 
least one mine in Germany, and in such 
mines the coal workers must normally 
breathe small quantitiesof thegas. The re- 
port of the Prussian Firedamp Commis. 
sion shows that at the Gliickhilf colliery, 
Waldenburg, Lower Silesia, carbon mon- 
oxide was found in large percentage. A 
drift running to the dip was found to 
contain 1.87 per cent. of this gas as a 
constituent of its atmosphere. 

In a communication of M. Mahler to 
the Academie des Sciences, he details 
tests of gases from coal dug in mines 
located at Decazeville, Azincourt, Cour- 
riéres and Anzin. When this coal had 
been powdered and exposed to the air, 
carbon monoxide among other gases was 
given off. 

When exposed to a current of air for 
30 hours, at a temperature of from 77 to 
86 deg. .F., the coal freed 
from hvgroscopic moisture and occluded 
gases, emitted 2.4 per cent. of its volume 
of this gas. When using coal containing 
the ordinary mine moisture, the genera- 
tion of carbon monoxide was reduced to 
0.94 per cent., even though the tempera- 
ture was raised to 95 deg. Fahrenheit. 

This suggests much activity in the pro- 


previously 


duction of the gas, the dry coal appear. - 


ing at low temperatures to produce nearly 
three times as much monoxide as dioxide. 
Bovey Heathfield lignite gives off gas 





Vol. 


1, No. 32 


containing 1.20 per cent. of carbon mon- 
oxide at 122 deg. Fahrenheit. 

It has long been debated whether the 
human blood contains carbon monoxide 
under normal conditions. It was stated 
by G. A. Buckmaster and J. A. Gardner 
in 1909 that three dogs showed a volu- 
metric percentage of carbon monoxide in 
their blood of from 0.144 to 0.16 per 
cent. It is interesting to point out in 
this connection that in air containing 0.2 
per cent. of monoxide, a mouse wili show 
decided symptoms of distress in 8 min- 
utes. 

We are not obliged, however, to accept 
the dictum of these physiologists alone. 
Other experimenters have found such 
traces of the gas in the blood of inverte- 
brates, but its presence was frequently 
attributed to the chloroform used in kill- 
ing the 
and Gardner 
tion of carbon monoxide is not the result 
of their manner of death, but is a nor- 


animals. Messrs. Buckmaster 


-10w that the impregna- 


mal constituent of the blood. 








Wages and Financial 


Stringency 
One of the effects of increasing wages, 
which has been more generally over- 
looked than its importance justifies, 


is the need of an increasing capital to 
meet them. If wages double, the capita! 
account must also be doubled or credits 
must be reduced. Thus an increased stock 
of money will be needed in order that 
a continuous volume of business mai 
be conducted. 

Increasing wages reduce the effective- 
ness of the monetary tokens. If it takes 
a half more capital to engage in b 
ness, then only two-thirds of the 
ness will be done. Short time for m2 
of the workers, and lack of employn 
for the rest, results. This may be 
cumvented by creating paper substitu: 
with resultant reductions in the v.! 
of the medium of exchange. Thus 
meretricious wage will be paid wi 


> 


meretricious currency, and if the <' 
or paper is accepted as sound and ‘c- 
sirable, we shall have phantom cho*1g 
phantom till the people learn ‘hat 
shadows are shadows, and that bread 
and comforts are the only realities. 2c 
knowledging that money is only 2 :cdi- 
um of exchange and wages are ovly 4 
fluctuating equivalent for victuals and 
raiment. 














May 18, 1912 


COAL AGE 


1049 








Discussion by Readers 


Comment, Criticism and Debate upon Previous Articles, and Letters from Practical Men 




















A Comment on the Jed 
Explosion 


The time has arrived when, in the 
interest of humanity, every mining man 
should take a part in a propaganda de- 
voted to the dissemination of knowledge 
for the purpose of warding off these ever 
recurring explosions in the future; and 
I know of no more effective method of 
accomplishing this end than to analyze 
the facts surrounding those that have 
occurred, and especially the last, that of 
the Jed mine disaster. 


JUSTIFICATION OF THE STATE MINE 
INSPECTORS 


Was this disaster unavoidable? Were 
not the officials forewarned of the lurk- 
ing danger? Did not the state mine 
irspectors fulfill their duties when, short- 
ly previous to the accident, they caused 
operations to be suspended? The per- 
mission granted by the court to reopen 
the mine, ignoring the order of the mine 
inspectors which commanded the use of 
lecked safety lamps, was a sad instance 
of the miscarriage of justice. Such re- 
straints handicap the mine inspectors in 
the discharge of their duties, and this 
interference with their prerogative lifted 
the responsibility from their shoulders 
and placed it upon the court and the 
officials of the mine. 

Was the Jed mine as uptodate as 
claimed by the correspondent, in COAL 
AcE of Apr. 6? In that article it was 
stated: ‘The work of the rescuing party 
was balked by falls of slate and many 
of the bodies were found covered by 
falls,” and again, “The draw slate which 

12 to 18 in. thick is taken down in 
the main entrances but held up in the 
rcoms and airways by timbering.” Is 
this a good system of mining? Would 
‘'t not be safer and cheaper to take down 
this 12 to 18 in. of draw slate, say 12 
t. wide in the rooms and airways, as 
vell as in the main entries? Eventually 
this draw slate will fall before the time 
of drawing pillars; consequently it will 
have to be removed; why not do it in 
the first place, and save the cost of tim- 
ber, and timbering, and possibly a life? 
Is it not possible that some of the victims 
whose bodies were covered by falls may 
have escaped the force of the explosion ? 

The correspondent says further: 

“The fan was crippled, it is true, but 
nevertheless it was kept running.” My 
theory of an uptodate mine generating 


gas and coal dust in dangerous quan- 
tities would call for an emergency fan 
available for immediate use in case of 
damage by an explosion or accident from 
any other cause that might put the fan 
out of commission. 


SOME PERTINENT THEORIES 


Note again: “Day shift starts at 7 
a.m. Explosion occurred at 8:10 a.m.,” 
and there is great significance in this 
fact. As is well known, it is a cus- 
tom with miners to gather in small 
groups the first thing in the morning for 
conversation before beginning work. The 
explosion evidently occurred about the 
time they got into their places and fin- 
ished drilling holes for the “breaking 
down shots . . which are fired at the 
same time throughout the mine,” for it 
seems that such was the custom, as well 
as to have the undercutting done during 
the night, the night shift quitting at 4 
in the morning. 

It is a question whether or not the 
dust from the undercutting would be 
thoroughly settled, before being set in 
vibration again by this artillery of break- 
ing shots that went off in rapid succes- 
sion at about 8:10 on this fateful morn- 
ing. Again: ‘The fireboss had charge 
of the night shift.” Did he examine the 
mine between 4 and 7, or did he quit at 
4 with his men? The latter being the 
case, what changes might not have oc- 
curred between the hours of 4 and 7? 

The statement that the mine foreman 
and three others were lowered into the 
mine immediately following the hoisting 
of the 12 men who escaped, justifies the 
conclusion that the mine foreman was 
not on duty early in the morning. Know- 
ing that it was after pay day it was his 
duty to be at the mine early to see that 
no man be allowed to enter the mine in 
an intoxicated condition, or in that 
nervous state characteristic of a man re- 
covering from the effects of over-indul- 
gence in intoxicants. Permit me to call 
attention to the fact that the explosion at 
Harwick in the Pittsburg, Penn., district 
cecurred on Monday, directly after pay 
day, and I think that laxity on the part 
of foremen in allowing men to en- 
ter the mines before they have recovered 
from the effect of their pay-day celebra- 
tions, has been a potent factor in the 
various disasters that have occurred in 
gaseous mines. 

M. J. CLEMONS. 


Mine Supt., Murray, Penn. 


Effect of Uncontrolled Com- 
petition and Need of Price 
Associations 


In view of the growing sentiment 
among coal operators in the United States 
to the effect that selling syndicates or 
equivalent associations are becoming an 
economic necessity in this country, the 
following letter from a British corres- 
pondent will doubtless interest a number 
of CoAL AGE readers. 

Opinion is strengthening in the British 
coal fields that with diminished competi- 
tion there would be less waste of coal 
resources; incidentally it is being shown, 
to some extent at least, how the high 
coal exports of the country are being 
maintained. These exports are increasing 
by leaps and bounds, and D. A. Thomas, 
the South Wales authority who is closely 
associated with the Cambrian combine, 
is quoted to show that the national aspect 
of the question is of vital importance. 

The following quotation is extracted: 
“We are exporting large quantities of 
coal at less than cost price; we are, in 
fact, giving away to the foreigner with in- 
sane prodigality our mineral wealth— 
wealth that is by no means inexhaust- 
ible and cannot be replaced.” 

If Mr. Thomas is right, it is easy to 
understand how a huge foreign trade may 
be built up; that is, if giving away can be 
said to have any relation to trading. 
The critical state of the situation is fur- 
ther emphasized by Sir William Ram- 
say’s note of alarm before the . British 
association, regarding the possible ex- 
haustion of the coal supply. 

G. R. Carter, M. A., of the Department 
of Economics, University College of 
Wales, referring to the same condition, 
says the reckless competition of coal 
owners, middlemen, etc., in the sale and 
distribution of coal, especially that in- 
tended for export, produces consequences 
upon the coal industry quite as real and 
disastrous as those occasioned by waste- 
ful methods of mining or of coal con- 
sumption. 

To check this loss and waste he favors 
the formation of price associations be- 
tween the various coal owners, which 
might neutralize the increasing tendency 
of competition to reduce prices to a min- 
imum. In Germany, Austria, Belgium 
and the United States of America, Mr. 
Carter says, these combinations for the 
maintenance of prices have come to be 
considered well nigh indispensable to the 








1050 





welfare of the coal trade. The Chenish- 
Westphalian coal syndicate, probably the 
best organized and most effective com- 
bination in the world, enjoys the fullest 
favors of the German government. In 
fact, the State itself is a member of the 
price associations, owing to the existence 
of state-owned coal mines. These asso- 
ciations have been found valuable, Mr. 
Carter adds, as a means of steadying the 
coal trade, fostering the exports, check- 
ing the development of doubtful mining 
projects, etc. 

In the foregoing remarks it is clear 
Mr. Carter concentrates on the South 
Wales coal field, because he believes that 
a scheme for the maintenance of prices is 
a necessity there owing to the utter depen- 
dence of the community in South Wales 
upon the welfare of the coal industry. 
The leading points in his argument are: 

1. “The unrivaled quality of the coal 
extracted in South Wales makes it an ar- 
ticle of prime necessity under modern 
conditions; it is indispensable in the 
world’s markets. Both Welsh steam coal 
and the anthracite of West Wales possess 
many elements of monopoly value, which 
give South Wales coal owners enormous 
advantage over other competitors at home 
and abroad. It might be asserted that 
their coal must be obtained at any cost. 

2. “Again, the natural location of the 
coal measures is favorable. The coal field 
is concentrated in area, the seams are 
easily accessible, transportation facilities 
are abundant. The production of a large 
proportion of the steam coal is in the 
hands of a comparatively small number 
of companies whose interests are well 
ramified.” 

It is said, however, that the competi- 
tion of rival producers within this favored 
area is more serious than that of competi- 
tors outside this field, and Mr. Carter 
assumes it would be more profitable that 
they should unite their e1ergies in order 
to obtain the fullest value for their prod- 
ucts rather than weaken one another by 
ruthless undercutting, “‘all for the advan- 
tage of foreign purchasers in most cases.” 

A pregnant paragraph reads: 

“Prices, profits and wages are insepar- 
ably and intimately bound up with one 
another. They all suffer from the effects 
of unchecked competition. Employers 
seek to recoup themselves for low prices 
by shifting the burden of loss onto the 
miners through a reduction in wages. 
Any downward tendency—and this is the 
inevitable tendency of competition—fur- 
nishes immediately a source of trouble 
and conflict in the coal field. When prices 
are tending downward of themselves the 
keen competition of sellers only hastens 
and aggravates their fall. Similarly, the 


lack of concerted action seriously delays 
any tendency making for a rise in prices.” 
The above discussion is suggestive and 
may teach some important lessons. 
BENJAMIN ADDICKS. 
Wigan, England. 








COAL AGE 


A Cave-In Proposition 


My attention was called a short time 
since to a serious proposition in the way 
of a cave-in at the face of nine rooms 
driven off from an entry. The cave 
closed the inside breakthroughs between 
these rooms and shut off all of the venti- 
lation from the rooms. The roof fell to 
a great height above the coal so that, in 
places, there were cavities of several 
hundred cubic feet in the roof. There 
were sixteen rooms turned off this en- 
try, the first nine of these being closed, 
as stated, by the cave at the face. The 
proposition presented was to properly 
ventilate these fallen rooms so as to 
prevent the accumulation of dangerous 
quantities of gas in them. 


Hp 





i Coar AGE 


SHOWING MANNER OF VENTILATING 
Rooms CAVED AT THE FACE, BY 
BRATTICES 


I suggested the plan shown in the ac- 
companying sketch. This was to place 
a curtain across the entry at the mouth 
of each room so as to form a brattice 
extending into the room and which would 
deflect the air current toward the face. 
The plan proved successful and kept the 
rooms free of any dangerous quantities 
of gas. 

JOHN SUTTON, 
Fireboss. 


West Terre Haute, Ind. 








Expansion Bit for Drilling 
Coal 


I wish to draw the attention of read- 
ers of CoAL AGE to a new kind of drill 
having an expansion bit that seems to me 
would be of great advantage in drilling 
eithcr anthracite or bituminous coal. I 
would like to see a good discussion of 
the use of this bit in drilling coal. 

The bit is so arranged that it will ex- 
pand automatically in the hole and is ad- 
justable. By its use a small hole can be 
drilled to any desired depth and the bit 
expanded, at any point, go as to drill the 
remainder of the hole with a larger diam- 
eter. It often happens, in drilling a hole 
with a cominon bit, that the diameter of 
the hole grows smaller toward the bot- 
tom; and the charge cannot be pushed 
safely to the end of the bore. This dif- 
ficulty would certainly be overcome by 
using an expansion bit such as I have 
described. 

The question I would like to see dis- 
cussed is, would not better results be ob- 





Vol. 1, No. 32 








tained all around, in charging and blast 
ing, when the hole is slightly enlarged «a: 
the inner end occupied by the charge. 
Of course, it would be necessary to prop- 
erly charge the hole; but the pressure 02 
the tamping would be less, and the 
danger of the shot blowing out its tamp- 
ing much reduced. It is possible also 
that the number of holes required would 
be reduced. 

It is well known that miners in anthra- 
cite mines commonly drill a 214-in. hole 
to a depth of 5 ft. This means a grind- 
ing out of about 5 x 12 (0.7854 x 2 
= say 300 cu.in. of coal. Now, if an ex- 
pansion bit could be used to drill a 1'5- 
in. hole and expand this to, say 3!% in., 
at the lower end of the bore, the area 
being doubled, the charge would occupy 
only one-half the length it filled in the 
2'.-in. hole. If the charge filled 20 in. 
in length in the first hole, it would only 
require 10 in. in length in the expanded 
portion. This would reduce the cuttings 
for a 5-ft. hole from 300 cu.in. to 188 
cu.in., or about 37 per cent. 

If this is practical the saving effected 
is well worth while At any rate the 
scheme is worthy of consideration. The 
concentration of the charge in the end 
of the hole would prove a greater ad- 
vantage in a hard-shooting coal than in a 
soft, friable coal, or a coal that has a 
tendency to “seam out.” Let us hear 
from some of our experienced miners. 
Perhaps some have used or are using 
this bit and can give us the benefit of 
their experience. 

A MINER. 

Wilkes-Barre, Penn. 








Timbering a Mine Parting 
In reply to Noah Burton, Anglin, Ky.. 
Coat AcE, March 23, p. 786, I would sa: 
posts between tracks are dangerou: 
However, Mr. Burton does not menti 
the width of track or of cars. I wi! 
however, assume the width of cars to 
4\%4 ft., and a 4-ft. clearance betwe 
cars, and 6-in. clearance between \ 
and rib, on each side. Therefore, 4.5 
2=9 ft. for cars on both tracks; plu 
ft. between cars, plus 2 x 6 = 12 in. 
1 ft. for clearance on each side 
ft. in all, which is the least poss 
width. Then, allowing 9 in. for each 
of the crossbar in a hitch, will rea 
crossbars 15! ft. long. 

It would be best to use 8- or 10 
beams, spaced 4'% ft. centers and a; 
with either short pieces of rail or - 
plank. Mr. Burton does not stat 
thickness of the seam. I would su: 
making a blind parting, with two or: 
crosscuts open for mules to pass 
will possibly be necessary to driv 
air-course to do this, which will 
haps, be the cheapest in the end 
pending on the life of the parting. 

Davip FULTON 

Marion, Ill. 











May 18, 1912 


COAL AGE 


1051 





————- 


———-- —- 
ee 





) aeeamren 
' 


Inquiries of General Interest 


Ali Questions Must be Accompanied by Name and Address—Not for Publication 














Blownout and Windy Shots, 
Their Cause, and Pre- 
cautions to Avoid Them 


(a) Explain the difference, if any, be- 
tween a “blownout” and a “windy” shot; 
ire they both equally dangerous? (b) 
What are the causes of such shots and 
vill a dusty atmosphere or accumula- 
tions of fine dust, at the face, when no 
cas is present, produce the same effect? 

La Salle, Ill. MINE EXAMINER. 


(a) A blownout shot is a shot that 
has blown its tamping instead of break- 
ing the coal. A windy shot is one that 
expends a considerable portion of its en- 
ergy on the air, causing a heavy concus- 
sion of air due to the large and rapid 
expansion of the gaseous products. Both 
ere dangerous, but the degree of danger 
will depend on the condition of the im- 
mediate workings with respect to gas, 
aust and ventilation. A blownout shot 
ievelops a greater heat energy and is 
nore dangerous, owing to its intensity, 
than a simple windy shot, which may do 

harm in case the workings are free 
rom gas and dust. 

(b) The main causes of blownout shots 
ire: Poorly located shot holes, insuffi- 
cient undercutting, or holes put in beyond 
tne depth of the undercut, shooting from 
solid, insufficient or careless tamping, 
ping material not being plastic and in- 
hbustible, and consequently not air- 
. and the use of an excessive amount 
“plosives. Except in anthracite min- 

shooting from the solid is a dan- 
us practice under the best of condi- 
s. but it is doubly so in chambers lo- 

‘ near a return airway containing in- 
inable gas or in chambers where a 

lout shot may discharge into the 

r into a dusty main-haulage road. 

windy shot is often the result of 

a heavy charge in a dusty place; 

place where the ventilation is poor; 

ng two or more shots, in quick suc- 

n, in a close or confined heading. 

experiments made at the govern- 
testing station at Pittsburg, Penn., 
shown that coal dust will explode 

i tree from gas. Explosions of gas 

“ually more or less local in charac- 

t the explosion of dust, which is 

t throughout the mine, may tra- 

rooms and entries, and even wreck 

‘gs at the entrance. of the mine. 

en about to drive a shot hole, make 
“rettl examination of the place and 

the nature of the material to be 








blasted and that of the overlying strata. 
Keep the hole as cylindrical as possible, 
so that. the cartridge may be easily 
slipped into position. See that the hole is 
put down on the line of least resistance. 
Undercutting for firing in coal should be 
a little deeper than the shot hole, to avoid 
the danger of a “tight” shot that may 
blow the tamping. 








‘‘Forepoling’ in Mine 
Timbering 


What is meant by “forepoling” in mine 
timbering and what is its purpose ? Kind- 
ly explain the method in detail. 

Pocahontas, Va. TIMBERMAN. 


The forepoling system of timbering 
consists in supporting the roof right up 
to the coal face with provisional wooden 
or iron bars, driven forward over the col- 
lars as the working face advances until 
there is room for another row of tim- 
bers. The available height of the seam is 
somewhat lowered by this method, and 
this fact is an important matter in the 
case of low seams undercut by machine, 
but with a friable roof this system means 
additional safety. 

The general method of forepoling is 
shown in the accompanying figure. The 


spiles or forepoles a, b and c are driven 
over the crossbars ABC, in their respec- 


BA: r= Se 
VARI TITAN TAN INERT 


COAL AGE 








= 


PITS RIN 





SHow!Nnc METHODS OF FOREPOLING 

tive turn. These spiles are narrow plank, 
2x6 in. or 2x8 in., sharpened to a broad, 
flat edge. Each set of spiles is driven 
up, at a low angle, over the collar or 
crossbar of the last set of timbers, close 
to the face of the heading, and under 
the next preceding set, as shown at ¢, 
in the figure. These spiles protect the 
miner while he is advancing the face 
far enough to set another timber frame. 
When this is done, the next set of spiles 
is driven under the collar of the framing 
C and above that of the new framing 
just set. When this has been done, the 





spiles c¢ are driven forward to a posi- 
tion corresponding to a and b. 


. 








Advantage in Employment 
of Shotfirers 


What is the advantage of employing 
shotfirers in coal mining? Is the system 
in use, anywhere, of firing all the shots 
in the mines, at once, by means of elec- 
tricity, from the surface ? 

Minersville, Penn. MINE FOREMAN. 


When shotfirers are employed the shot- 
firing is all done at night when there 
are the least number of persons in the 
mines and the risk which always attends 
firing can be reduced to a minimum. Dur- 
ing the daytime, doors are constantly be- 
ing opened and closed, all of which af- 
fects the ventilation, which in turn af- 
fects fires or explosions due to shotfir- 
ing. Fresh gas is also being constantiy 
liberated in the daytime, and clouds of 
dust are continually being raised, all of 
which increase the dangers of day-shift 
shotfiring. Night firing, which may be 
described as an ordinary precaution, 
eliminates all of these dangers, 

In Alabama and Utah, electric firing 
is done by specially appointed firemen, 
who enter the mines at night while they 
are empty, connect up the wires, and then 
return to the surface, where they make 
the connection of the circuit, thus insur- 
ing blasting in a mine empty of all work- 
men, so that even if the mine should be 
badly damaged or even destroyed, no 
lives can possibly be lost. 








Powder in Illinois 


How much coal will the average miner 
produce for every keg of powder used ? 
Spring Valley, III. MINER. 


In 1910, the last vear for which full 
statistics are as vet obtainable, the total 
number of emplovees at mines was 74,- 
634: the total ouput of the mines was 
48,717,853 tons; the number of kegs of 
powder used for blasting was 1,254,095. 
In the 11 vears since 1899, the output has 
just about doubled, while the quantity of 
powder has practically trebled, giving an 
average production, for this period, of 
nearly 39 tons of coal per keg of powder 
used. The production of coal per keg 
of powder used did fall to 32.28 tons in 
1908, which was the lowest point reached. 
This powder cost the miners at the aver- 
age rate of S1.75 per keg. 








COAL AGE 















Examination Questions 


Selected from State Examinations, or Suggested by Correspondents 

















Anthracite Mine Foremen’s 
Examination in Pennsyl- 
vania, April, 1912 
(Selected Questions) 


PRECAUTIONS IN BLASTING 


Ques.—Having charge of a mine in 
which locked safety lamps are used, what 
precautions would you take before firing ? 

Ans.—Every hole should be inspected 
before it is charged, to ascertain its depth 
and direction, the condition of the coal, 
and to estimate as nearly as possible the 
weight of charge required for the work. 
This should be done by a competent min- 
er, whose experience in shocting coal fits 
him for the work. 

Assuming the hole has been properly 
inspected, charged and tamped, before it 
is fired, the place and those adjoining 
must be carefully examined for gas; care 
must be taken to see that the usual quan- 
tity of air is passing and the place free 
from undue accumulations of dust. If 
much dust is present, although anthracite 
coal, it may be advisable to water the 
face, roof, floor and sides for a few 
yards back, to avoid what might prove a 
windy shot. Fuse should not be used; 
but all shots should be fired with squibs 


or by electricity, after giving suitable 
warning to men working in adjoining 
places. 


MINE FiRES, PRECAUTIONS, ETC. 


Ques.— (a) Having been placed in 
charge of a large mine, what precautions 
would vou take to prevent mine fires? 
(b) If a fire should occur in the intake 
of your mine, what would you do? 

Ans.—Make and enforce strict regula- 
tions in regard to the handling of all 
combustible material, especially hay, oil 
and explosives, in and about the mines. 
Forbid the storage of such materials in 
or near the shaft, or the carrying of larg- 
er quantities into the mine than are re- 
quired for the day’s use. Forbid the 
use of mixed lights in the mine, and al- 
low no unprotected lamps or torches at 
the shaft bottom, or in pump rooms, en- 
gine rooms or stables. Adopt a svstem 
of firing shots in the mine that wil! re- 
duce te a minimum the chance ignition 
of a gas feeder being undiscovered; or 
the occurence of windy or blownout shots, 
or local gas or dust explosions. Load 


out all fine coal and slack, and forbid 
its being thrown back in the waste. Ven- 
tilate all abandoned places, voids and 





falls; examine these regularly for gas; 
report and remove promptly all dangers. 
As nearly as practicable, make all air 
bridges, stables, pump rooms, engine 
rooms, tool rooms and shanties fireproof; 
and allow no oily waste thrown around 
carelessly. Have all electrical apparatus, 
wires and switchboards properly installed 
and inspected by a competent electrician. 
Absolute and thorough discipline is es- 
sential in all mine operations, and will 
prove the greatest safeguard against fires. 

(b\ Notify the men by phone, sending, 
also, trustworthy men to direct the es- 
cape of the workmen by the safest possi- 
ble route. Without a plan of the mine 
showing the location of the fire, circula- 
tion of air and avenues of escape, it is 
impossible to indicate in more than a 
general way what course should be fol- 
lowed. The character of the fire and its 
environment must determine the details 
of the plan of action. There are always, 
however, two chief considerations; name- 
ly, (1) to get water on the fire (assum- 
ing it is a conflagration), and (2) to so 
control the circulation as to smother the 
fire, as far as this is possible at the time, 
and prevent the smoke and gases from 
passing into the mine. 


f 
OV 
#70 


wast Yh ! 
sting 
Sar |=. 
af —_ Be [ SS ~. Upcast Shaf,. 
y aay! 7 a 4 


Lxtaust Farr 





Shaft Botton 
Y Main Return 
Aircourse 





Coa, AGE 





Haulage Road 


Main 


SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF SHAFT 


BOTTOM 


Each case will present a different prop- 
osition that must be treated accordingly. 
The accompanying diagram represents a 
common arrangemenfin many mines. As- 
sume, in this case, a fire has gained 
some headway on the shaft bottom. about 
25 yd. from the foot of the shaft, and 
50,000 cu.ft. per min. is passing this 
point and entering the mine. A brief re- 
flection will show that the 250 men work- 
ing on this side of the mine have but 
slight chance of escape unless there are 
cool heads at the bottom of the shaft. 
Some one says, “Slow down the fan or 
stop it entirely.” In some cases, this 








would be necessary; especially, if there 
is no other way of reducing the current 
passing the fire, which, unless reduced, 
would soon convert the place into a fur- 


nace. 

In the present case, the best plan 
would be to short-circuit a portion of the 
air, by setting partly open the separation 
doors close to the shaft. These are the 
double doors marked aa in the figure. To 
open these doors wide might prove as 
dangerous and fatal as the full air cur- 
rent, because of the deadly carbon mon- 
oxide that would then be formed by the 
fire, and which is not only extremely 
poisenous, but increases the explosive 
condition of the mine air. It is important 
to control the amount of air passing the 
fire by the regulation of these doors, so 
that the air will not fan the blaze and 
still keep the entry clear outby from 
the fire. 

It would be a fatal mistake to set open 
either of the doors marked bb, on the 
cross-entries, as this would increase the 
draft on the fire, burn out the overcasts 
at the mouths of these entries and ab- 
solutely cut off the escape of the men. 

The above is about as bad a case as 
could well occur in so-called safe mining. 
It shows the importance of providing a 
number of avenues of escape, as well as 
separation doors close to the bottom of 
the shaft, for the better control of the 
current. The advantage of this method 
over that of slowing or stopping the ian 
is that it keeps the escapeways and up- 
cast clearer and safer; and reduces ‘ie 
formation of CO, by the fire, to a m.vi- 
mum, while practically cutting off 
draft from fanning the blaze, and pro: d- 
ing fresh air for the fire fighters, 


PRESSURE IN A SLOPE PIPE LIN! 


Ques.—A pipe line in a mine slope °.s 
an area of 180 sq.in. and is 3000 ft. | 
the slope has a grade of 1 in 
What is the pressure per square ine it 
the bottom of the pipe when the 
is full of water? 

Ans.—If the slope rises 1 ft. ve 
height for each 10 ft. measured or “¢ 


pitch, the total rise is 3000 + 10 - 10 

ft.; and the static pressure is the 
300 x 0.434 = 130.2 Ib. per sv. 
This is the pressure when the p' 1S 
not working. When the pump is ing 
ue 


there will be an additional pressury. 4 
to the friction of the water ! \'ns 
through the pipe. This will depen! 0” 
the size of the pipe and the quan 
water discharged. 


So 
=> 











May 18, 1912 





COAL AGE 








Sociological Department 


For the Betterment of Living Conditions in Mining Communities 














Some Remarks on Safety 
in Mines 
By S. J. PHILLIPs* 


Education should always precede 
discipline. It is wrong to discharge or sus- 
pend a miner for pushing a light cartridge 
into a drillhole, if that miner does not 
know the danger which may result from 
such an action. When a boy or man knows 
exactly what he should do and does not 
do it, he forfeits his right to hold his job, 
and the best thing that a foreman can 
do for the man and his family is to put 
him out of the mine before he kills or in- 
jures himself or his fellow workmen. 
This act is as humane as taking a razor 
trom the hands of a baby. You might say 
that it is not right to take the bread out of 
1 man’s mouth. We all are opposed to 
doing that, and it would be much easier 
for the foreman, I admit, to permit the 
miner to go on a little longer violating the 
law and the rules of the company for 
which he worked, but it is hecause such 
: lack of discipline is endured for just 

little lounger, that so many are killed 
ind many more are injured. Let your 
s\mpathy exhibit itself in the direction in 
which it will do the most good. It is 
better to send a man home to his family 

ithout his job than without his life. It 
is better to see him return before noon 
thin to meet the undertaker at the door. 
<o into places quite frequently and 

! the miner’s powder box open. When 
| cuestion the miner as to the fength of 
i. experience in the mine, the answer 
Ss. vetimes is, “ten years.” What is the 

iral conclusion? That a miner who 
been disregarding the orders of the 
tant foreman, the foreman, the com- 
f \’s inspector, and the State mine in- 
Ss» ctor for ten years is hardly a fit man 
rk in the mine. This very act shows 
‘1’s mental attitude toward any or- 
which is issued in the interest of 
Ss’ ‘vy, and as this is one of the easiest 
° 3 to obey, and as he does not obev 
it is evident that he is unlikely to 

OooVv any. : 
m thoroughly in accord with the or- 
‘ssued by the Delaware, Lacka- 
wo sa & Western Railroad Co. in all its 
cosries, relative to shots which have 
ap sently failed to explode. The rule is 
hot’ Tf a squib-fired shot fails to ignite, 


ne inspector, anthracite in- 


‘ion district. 


th. pagsbstract of article read before 
rst Aid Association of Pennsyl- 


third 


‘ta Coal Co., at Dunmore, Penn. 





the miner and his laborer must go home 
for the rest of the day. Some operators 
will say that this rule will be sure to 
lower the tonnage wherever enforced. 
District No. 1 of the Delaware, Lacka- 
wanna & Western Railroad Company, 
Coal Mining Department, increased its 
output last year where this rule was in 
force, and, furthermore, accidents were 
reduced one-half in the same district and 
not one of these occurred from a delayed 
fire. When miners are asked to stay 15 
min. before returning to work because a 
shot has misfired, they are apt to over- 
estimate the time during which they have 
waited or they deliberately break the 
rule. This is especially the case where 
there is little coal ready to load and an 
empty car on its way to the room. The 
more stringent regulation obviously pre- 
vents the miner from miscalculating or 
deliberately reducing the time limit. 








Loading the Mine Foreman 


By Sim REYNOLDsS* AND W. H, REYNOLDS 


Whenever a discussion arises as to the 
fatalities in mines, the suggestion is 
made that some new burden shall be 
loaded on the mine foreman. It would 
seem better to seek immunity from acci- 
dents in the rank and file, instead of en- 
deavoring to secure a reform entirely 
through the efforts of an official, who is 
already hard pressed and harassed un- 
der the many onerous requirements which 
have been placed upon him. 

The fact that he has come up from 
the ranks, as he almost invariably has, 
shows that he possesses an energy and 
ability unusual in his class, but does not 
imply that he is a wonder-worker, and 
that there is no limit to the services which 
he can perform. Quite often this most 
worried unit in the conglomerate mass of 
mine workers has to shoulder faults for 
which other parties are to blame. 

Conditions at any given mine may be, 
and frequently are, adverse by nature, 
and he may be confronted moreover with 
problems which are the direct or indirect 
outgrowth of a long continued faulty 
method of mining, and yet, despite these 
severe conditions, the blame is placed on 
him by the state and by his employers 
when untoward things happen. 

But to lay the blame in the wrong 
place does not cure it. One wrong added 
to another wrong never made that wrong 





*Pittsburg-Buffalo Coal Co.. Marianna, 
enn. 


right. We must look to other sources be- 
side this for a reduction in the great 
number of fatalities. We must instil the 
idea of the supremacy of the law in the 
minds cf other men than the fireboss and 
mine foreman. This view of the condi- 
tien of affairs is not new, but it is neces- 
sary that it should be instiiled in every- 
body around the mine. At the time of 
an accident, the hue and cry is always 
that the mine foreman has neglected his 
duties, whereas there are probably two 
to four hundred men who are all vitally 
interested in the safety of the mine, any 
one of whom may be the real cause of 
the accident. 

As President Taft recently emphasized 
on Forbes Field: 





This loss of life (20,000 killed outright 
and 70,000 injured in the coal mines dur- 
ing the last 20 years) must be brought 
home to the miner himself. We have 
certain defects—and one of them is a 
feeling of security that we are not going 
to get hurt. We must overcome that 
notion, and we must take more precau- 
tions to save life. This requires disci- 
pline, instruction and experience. We 
must enforce these ideas so that the 


miners themselves may save themselves 
by strict attention to the instructions, 
which must be given in turn by govern- 
ment and state. 

Practically every man who is qualified 
to speak publicly on the matter by virtue 
of his experience and study of mining 
conditions, evinces the same belief as to 
the means which will ultimately have to 
be employed to bring the human element 
up to the same efficient standing already 
gained by the mechanical end of mining. 
First educate the miner to an understand- 
ing of the dangers of his employment; 
second, exert at all times the strictest 
possible discipline; third, secure imme- 
diate action in such criminal proceedings 
as arise out of the enforcement of the 
law. 

In his speech at Pittsburg, the Presi- 
dent, in my opinion, hit the nail of diffi- 
culty more squarely on the head than has 
been done by any man in or near his 
eminent position, perhaps touching the 
“sore spot” more .closely than he him- 
self knew when he concluded with the 
words: “We must stamp out the spirit 
of carelessness—the happy-go-lucky idea 
which I fear prevails among American 
citizens generally,” and had it not been 
for the inherent courtesy of a gentleman 
toward his auditors of every station in 
life, the chief magistrate might well have 
added: “and the mining part of our pop- 
ulation in particular.” 








1054 


COAL AGE 





Vol. 1, No. 32 


Coal Situation in the Philippines 


Area considered, there is perhaps no 
country in the world possessing greater 
or better fields of coal than the Philip- 
pine Islands. Moreover, there is no coun- 
try known to be so rich in coal deposits 
where so little coal is mined. 

During the American occupation, ex- 
tending now over a decade, many mil- 
lions of dollars have been spent abroad, 
chiefly in Japan and Australia, for the 
island coal supply. A comparatively 
small amount of fuel for domestic pur- 
poses is required in the archipelago for 
the simple reason that in the tropics 
fires are needed in the home for cook- 
ing purposes only. There are but 
two or three cities in the whole group 
of islands where families may buy coal 
from regular coal yards. One of these 
is Manila, and there the price is almost 
prohibitive for the average citizen. 

But enormous quantities of coal are 
nevertheless consumed in the islands an- 
nually. The military establishment uses 
many thousands of tons in operating its 
numerous ice and condensing plants and 
in coaling the many steam vessels com- 
prising the inter-island transport fleet. 
At every garrison an ice and condensing 
plant is maintained for the comfort of 
the command, making in all possibly half 
a hundred such institutions, consuming 
anywhere from a ton to several tons 
daily. In addition to the great amount 
of coal consumed by the inter-island 
fleet, the huge trans-Pacific transports 
coal either in Manila or in Japan for 
the return trip home each month. 


IMPORT COAL 


Nearly all this great amount, especial- 
ly for the consumption on land and for 
the inter-island fleet, has for some years 
been purchased in Australia. In fact, 
the contract was so often awarded to 
Australian companies that an investiga- 
tion was conducted by the military com- 
mander, in Manila, in which one of our 
diplomatic agents in the land of the kan- 
garoo figured to some extent. One of 
the Government contractors was quoted 
as saying that he had the military con- 


tract “cinched” so long as Australia 
wanted it. This remark precipitated the 
inquiry. 


Japan has been lucky most of the time 
in holding the contract to coal the trans- 
Pacific vessels for the return journey to 
’Frisco, the Mitsui Company, in Nagasaki, 
performing this service. 

Besides all these channels for con- 
sumption there is the big demand made 
by the civil authorities. The civil gov- 


ernment owns an ice and cold storage 
plant in Manila, which is probably as 
large as any in the world. 
enormous amounts of coal daily. 


It consumes 
Then, 


By Monroe Woolley * 








The Philippines have much 
good coal, yet but little is mined. 
The large consumption is met 
by Australian and Japanese im- 
ports. There is room for de- 
velopments in Polillo, Cebu, 


Mindoro and Mindanao. 




















*Fort Island County, Wash- 


ington. 


Casey, 


too, the civil government maintains a 
coast guard fleet equal in size to the 
military’s transport fleet, which also has 
to be coaled regularly. Much of the 
navy’s coal, destined to be used by the 
Asiatic and Philippine squadrons, and by 
the navy yards in the Philippines, is sup- 
plied from Asiatic mines. 


THE BATAN COAL AREA 


From all this it would appear that the 
government should make _ haste _ to 
develop the fields in the islands, but so 
far big coal furnishing contracts are still 
going to Australia and Japan. Soon after 
American occupation of the islands, the 
military authorities staked out coal 
claims on the western half of Batan Is- 
land, in the Gulf of Albay, Southern 
Luzon, and the President set aside the 
land by executive order as a military 
reservation. Meantime, some Americans 
resident in that part of the archipelago, 
saw the advantage of staking out claims 
on the eastern half of Batan, the entire 
island being covered with coal. 

The ‘government lost no time, owing 
to the crying need for a home-produced 
coal, in developing its claims, sending an 
engineer officer and a detachment of meu 
down to experiment. Many tons were 
taken out and trial tests were made on 
government vessels plying between the 
gulf and Mauila. The coal at that early 
date was fou.d to be equal to and some- 
times superior to the Japanese product 
for steaming purposes. Scientific tests 
of the fuel were made in the labora- 
tories of the bureau §f science, at Manila 
and gave encouraging results. 


However, some two or three years 
later operations were discontinued, large- 
ly on account of a lack of funds for 
experimental purposes. The government 
claims then remained closed for some 
two or three years, when an energetic, 
military official in Manila finally secured 
additional funds by act of congress, and 
prepared to reopen the mines on a larger 
scale. 


BATAN CoAL MAKEs Goop SHowING 


The officer who had charge of the work 
during the first attempt was ordered back 
from Washington to resume operations, 
and brought with him modern apparatus 
and a large corps of expert miners from 
the United States. The work had barely 
begun, however, when friction arose be 
tween the civilian mining expert and the 
military officials, ending in the discharge 
of the expert. Following this, other 
officers were detailed in charge of the 
work, which went on enthusiastically for 
some months. The Manila press het- 
alded almost daily the success of the 
project, and all the Philippines were 
joyful at the prospects of an adequate 
fuel supply. Finally a cargo of Batan 
coal from the government mines was 
placed aboard the trans-Pacific transport 
Dix, the largest vessel in the military 
service, for a trial test in steaming to 
the home port in Seattle. It is not known 
what the official report of this test had 
to say of the product, but shortly after- 
ward the Batan government claims were 
again closed, and have since so re- 
mained. The engine room employees 
of the Dix, as made known through the 
Seattle papers, were favorably impressed 
with the coal, the ship entering port on 
schedule time. 

In the meantime the pioneers owning 
the claims on the eastern half of Batan, 
while handicapped at times for capital, 
have been mining coal steadily, having 
formed a stock company, the shares ot 
which are increasing in price. This com- 
pany has been for some time shipping 
coal to Manila for the local markets 
and is supplying quite a number of inter- 
island commercial vessels with coal [1 
steaming purposes. Only a short time 
the flourishing condition of the comp 
was attested when it purchased for =~ 
000, the Steamer Yuengsang, which 
formerly in the China-Philippine t 
This ship is used by the company in « 
ering its product throughout the isis 


OTHER CoAL DEPOSITS 


Polillo Island, much larger than © 
and which lies to the northward o 
Government claims, is said to 
in coal. A number of Americans 
claims here, but so far as known 
development work has as yet been | 
taken. Perhaps lack of capital pr 
perhaps there is some other reas 

There are one or two small mi 
the vicinity of the flourishing Pf 
Cebu, but the output is inconsid:: 
It is also believed that the large 1 


of Mindoro and Mindanao, both *\ oe 
all manner of mineral deposits, 2° va 
parties 


rich in coal, and some private 
are endeavoring to locate mines. 








May 18, 1912 


COAL AGE 








1055 











oal and Coke News 


From Our Own Representatives in Various Important 


Mining Centers 














Washington, D. C. 


The new bill, prepared by Judge 
Knapp, of the Commerce Court, and 
Commissioner Charles P. Neill, of the 
Bureau of Labor, to take the place of the 
Lee bill, for extending the application of 
the Erdman Act to coal-mining disputes, 
has just been placed in the hands of the 
subcommittee of the House interstate 
commerce committee. The terms of this 
proposed bill have not heretofore been 
made known, but the measure is proving 
of very considerable interest. Salient 
features of the proposed measure are as 
follows: 


The provisions of this act shall apply 
» any railroad corporation engaged in 
interstate commerce and to its em- 
plovees, and to any person, firm, or cor- 
poration engaged in the mining of coal 
which enters into interstate commerce, 
nd to their employees. 

Whenever a controversy concerning 
hours of labor, or other condi- 
ons of empleyment shall arise between 
nployer and employees subject to this 
et. interrupting or threatening to inter- 
upt the business of said employer, to 

serious detriment of the publie in- 
rest, either party to such controversy 
apply to the commission of media- 

d conciliation created by this act and 
its services for the purpose of 
nging about an amicable adjustment 
the controversy; and upon the request 
either party the said commission shall, 
th all practicable expedition, put itself 
communication with the parties to 

controversy and shall its best 
rts, by mediation and concjliation, to 
to an agreement. 
Vhenever a controversy shall arise be- 
employees subject 
cannot be settled 
conciliation in 
the preceding 

may be 
of a board 


izes, 


voke 


use 
z them 


en employer and 
act, which 
mediation and 
provided in 
n, such controversy sub- 
ed to the arbitration of 
or of five persons, as the parties to 
elect, Which board 
following manner: 


this 
igh 
manner 


ontroversy may 
be Chosen in the 


mplover or employers and the labor 


ization or organizaticns, parties, 
tively, to the agreement to arbi- 
shall each name one arbitrator, 
Wo arbitrators thus chosen shall 
the one or the three arbitrators, 
ne, as the agreement to. arbi- 
provides for a board of three or 
ut in the event of their failure to 
the three arbitrators required, 
ifter their first meeting or to 
the thre arbitrators required, 
the agreement provided for a 
of five, within ten days after 
first meeting, the third arbitrator 


three arbitrators, or such of the 

as have not been named within the 

herein prescribed, shal! be named 

‘commission of mediation and con- 
tion, 









It is doubtful whether any report on 
this subject will be rendered at the cur- 
rent session of Congress, but those who 
have been supporting the bill are still ex- 
pressing a determination to press its 
adoption. 


SUSPENSION OF DuTIES ON COAL 


Senator Watson, of West Virginia, him- 
self a large coal operator, has offered the 
following amendment to the pending 
metal schedule in the Senate, it being his 
view that the provision would serve to 
meet an emergency like that which ex- 
isted at the time of the coal strike in 
1902, when Congress finally suspended 
the duties on coal for a year. 


The President is hereby authorized, in 
any case of emergency, to suspend the 
collection of customs duties on any arti- 
included for taxation in the tariff 
law in effect on the day the President 
issues his proclamation suspending the 
collection of duty on any article, so that 
such article may be imported free of 
duty for not exceeding the period of one 
vear. When the President decides to 
suspend the collection of duties on any 
article, he shall issue his proclamation 
to that effect. Such suspension of the 
collection of customs duties for the 
period named by the President in his 
proclamation shall take effect on the day 
following the issuing of said proclama- 
tion, and shall continue for the period 
named. 


cle 








Alabama 


Birmingham—lf the coal production of 
Alabama for the remainder of the year 
holds up to the pace set during the first 
four months, the coal output for 1912 
will break all previous records and will 
come close to being 19 or 20 million 
tons. According to the chief mine in- 
spector, the output for the first four 
months of the year is far ahead of 1910, 
the banner vear in the history of the 
state, when the production exceeded 
16,000,000 tons. 

The Tennessee Coal, Iron & R.R. Co. 
is blowing in the third battery of 70 
Koppers ovens at its new byproduct cok- 
ing plant, at Corey, ‘Ala., and is abandon- 
ing its bee-hive ovens at Pratt City and 
Pratt No. 1 shaft. As the new byproduct 
ovens get up to capacity and into smooth 
running order, the bee-hive ovens, at 
Pratt Nos. 3, 4 and 5, will be dropped out 
of commission, leaving ory those at 
Johns in blast. These last will be dis- 
placed also, as soon as the fourth and 
last battery of Koppers ovens at Corey is 
finished, during the next few months. 





Colorado 


Steamboat Springs—It is announced 
that the Moffat Coal Co. will at once start 
work on opening up its anthracite coal 
holdings. The entire 1000 acres, con- 
trolled by the company, are to be thor- 
oughly prospected and sinking started. 








Illinois 


Benld—One man was fatally injured 
and four others received serious wounds 
in a revolver battle between two mine 
crews, near here, May 10. Half of the men 
were emploved in mine No. 2 of the Su- 
perior Coal Co., which has three pits at 
Benld; the other half composed the crew 
of mine No. 3. The Benld local had been 
informed by state officials of the union 
that the men might return to work pend- 
ing a referendum vote, and No. 1 and 
No. 3 crews, whose members reside at 
Gillespie, a mile and a half north of 
Benld, voted to go to work. Crew No. 
2, composed of Benld men, voted to stay 
out. When crew No. 3 was on its way to 
work it was met by crew No. 2, with or- 
ders to turn back. Both sides drew re- 
volvers and started firing into the air, 
but as the situation grew more serious, 
the No. 3 crew fired a volley at their 
opponents, hitting the five men. Both 
crews then returred to their homes. 

Springfield—The plant of the Spauld- 
ing coal mine, north of Riverton, near here, 
was partially destroyed by fire, May 7. 
The top works were set on fire, it is said, 
by sparks from a railroad locomotive. 
The mine was to have resumed opera- 
tions the day following, after being shut 
down for some time. Nine men were at 
work, preparing for the resumption of 
operations. They escaped through the 
Riverton Mine No. 1, which is connected 
with the Spaulding mine. The Illinois 
National Bank, of this city, owns the 
mine. The loss is about $50,000. 

The referendum vote on the new wage 
contract, taken by the Illinois miners, 
May 7, favored its acceptance by a ma- 
jority of over 13,000. 

Peoria—The miine of the Wolschlag 
Codperative Coal Co., south of Barton- 
ville, has been taken over by Messrs. 
Ditewig and McElwee, who already own 
and operate, near Farmington, two of 
the largest mines in Peoria County. The 
Wolschlag property is located near the 
lines of the Peoria Ry. Terminal Co., 
and will also be on the lines of the Chi- 
cago & North Western, when its new 
branch to the south is completed. The 








1056 


capacity of the mine will at once be in- 
creased to 1500 tons per day, and it is 
reported that the entire output has been 
sold for a period of two years. 

Chicago—Increases in freight rates 
on soft coal from Illinois mines to destin- 
ations in Kansas and Nebraska have been 
suspended by the Interstate Commerce 
Commission from May 11 te Nov. II. 
The advances, amounting to approximate- 
ly 12 per cent., are now under investiga- 
tion by the commission. 








Indiana 

Terre Haute—After modifying their de- 
mands to the operators, eliminating many 
of the requests included in the first re- 
port of the scale committee, the dele- 
gates to the convention of district No. 
11, United Mine Workers, voted unani- 
mously to adopt the report of the policy 
committee, which is practically a declar- 
ation of a strike in the Indiana bitumin- 
ous coal field. The report of the com- 
mittee contains provisions for a strike 
benefit to the men who are in actual need. 
The mine workers instructed the district 
officers to attempt to sign up the inde- 
pendent operators in the Indiana bitumin- 
ous field, said to number about 25 per 
cent. of the operators in Indiana. 

It was decided at a meeting of the 
coal operators, May 8, to obtain coal 
from other states and supply it to their 
customers at Indiara prices, pending the 
outcome of the trouble with the miners. 
The operators say that they can buy coal 
in Kentucky and West Virginia at prices 
which will enable them to deliver it to 
customers without loss to themselves. 
This coal is mined by nonunion men. No 
men will be imported to work in the 
mines here, it is said, and, therefore, no 
violence is expected. It has been the 
contention of the operators that when the 
Cleveland agreement was signed at In- 
djianapclis, it was virtually promised that 
the men would return to work pending 
regotiations on the details of the state 
contract. 

Sullivan—Foliowing the purchase by 
the Chicago and Eastern Illinois R.R. of 
16 coal mines in Indiana and Illinois, in- 
cluding a tract of 3000 acres in Sullivan 
County, Ind., the announcement is made 
that a mine is to be sunk at once on 2 
tract lying a half mile east of Paxton. 
This is to be done by the J. Wooley Coal 
Co. of Evansville, to which a part of the 
3000 acres purchased by the C. & E. I. 
has already been leased. Work on the 
sinking of the new shaft will be begun at 
once, and deveiopment is promised of a 
field heretofore untried, but said to be 
rich with coal. The tract was sold by the 


West Jackson Hill Coal Mining Co. and 
this company still owns 4000 acres in the 
Paxton field. 

Bicknell—The Monon Railroad is pre- 
paring to extend its line from Wallace 
Station to Bicknell. The company has re- 


COAL AGE 


cently purchased 6300 acres of coal lands 
south of the Little Giant mine, between 
Linton and Bicknell, and the line will ex- 
tend through this land. The positive as- 
surance of this extension has renewed 
activity all along the proposed line, and 
doubtless new mines will be sunk and 
mining operations increased as soon as 
the strike situation is relieved. 








Kentucky 


Louisville—District No. 23 of the 
United Mine Workers, comprising the em- 
ployees of the union mines of western 
Kentucky, has voted to return to work 
pending the settlement of slight differ- 
ences over the wage scale, which will 
be arbitrated. The vote was 1850 to 425 
in favor Of resuming work, and the mines 
have started up again. 

The Harlan Coal Mining Co., of Louis- 
ville, which is to open three mines on 
the extension of the Louisville & Nash- 
ville R.R. to Harlan County, has let con- 
tracts for all of the equipment required, 
and this will be delivered in the im- 
mediate future, as the company plans to 
start operations at once. By the time 
the company is ready to mine coal, the 
railroad extension will have been com- 
pleted to its plant. The proposed output 
is to be 2000 tons a day. 

Madisonville—A French syndicate is 
reported to have purchased 1000 acres of 
coal lands in Hopkins County, near Madi- 
sonville. Negotiations are pending for 
4000 acres additional. The property is 
off the railroad, but an extension of the 
Kentucky Midland R.R. may be built to 
reach it if mining operations are begun. 

Pikeville—The Pond Creek Coal Co. 
is actively engaged in driving entries, 
building houses and preparing in general 
for the development of its coal properties. 
The company will have an outlet through 
the new Williamson & Pond River R.R., 
2 Norfolk & Western line, which is to be 
built from Williamson, W. Va., up Pond 
Creek to the holdings of the company. 








Missouri 
Kansas City-——The subcommittees of 
operators and miners of the Southwestern 
field, after a two-weeks conference at 
which they failed to reach an agreement, 
reconvened here, May 8, to resume ne- 
gotiations for a 2-year contract. 


Ohio 

Zanesville—The majority of the coal 
mines in this vicinity are again in opera- 
tion. A meeting was held in Cambridge, 
May 9, to adjust details of the contract 
for the Cambridge district and a similar 
meeting for the Crooksville district will 
be held here later this month. 

The Cambridge Coal Co. has con- 
structed a manway at its workings east 
of Byesville on what is known as the 
narrows. This is 12x14 ft. in section and 











Vol. 


1, No. 32 


about 80 ft. deep. A winding stairway 
affords a ready means of egress in case 
of fire or other accidents in the mines. 

Crooksville—Three miners were en- 
tombed in Keystone Mine No. 1 for sev- 
eral hours, May 6, as the result of a cave- 
in. One was rescued with difficulty and 
his injuries seemed likely to prove fatal. 
The other two were only slightly in- 
jured. 

St. Clairsville—-One of the largest dam- 
age suits in the history of the local court 
was put on record, May 6, when William 
Fulton entered suit against the Youghio- 
gheny & Ohio Coal Co., asking $65,000 
damages for injuries which he received 
in the mine of the defendant and which 
injuries he alleges were due to the negli- 
gence of the company. 


Massillon—The conference between 
miners and operators of subdistrict No. 3, 
district No. 6, United Mine Workers, 
reached an agreement, May 4, whereby 
a slight increase of wages was granted 
to engineers and bucketmen, engaged in 
sinking shafts, and the wages of 
other workmen were fixed in accordance 
with the Cleveland wage-scale agreement. 
The operators advanced the cost of coal 
to miners from 31.90 to S2. 








Oregon 


Portland—That Oregon, some day not 
so very distant, will mine coal on a large 
scale is indicated by the activity of men 
interested in coal properties in various 
parts of the state. It is reported that 
large coal deposits in eastern Oregon will 
be opened up as soon as arrangements 
can be made for transporting the coal, 
and as it would require only about 5) 
miles of railroad extension to do this, it 
is held that it will not be long before de- 
velopment work is under way. The coal 
is said to be of good quality. 








Pennsylvania 
BITUMINOUS 


Washington—E. T. Kurtz, receiver ot 
the Washington County Coal Co., an- 
nounced, May 7, that he had sold the 
company’s property to Samuel Hollis. 
of Pittsburg. The price paid was S300. 
000. All real estate, a railroad line anc 
an operating mine are included. 

James S. Campbell, of Mt. Pleasa: 
township, on May 8, sold to Virgil Mc. 
Dowell, of Midway, said to represent t!. 
Wabash Coal Co., a tract of 335 acr-s 
of coal land. The land, which adjoi: 
800 acres owned by the coal comp: 
and lies along the line of the Waba:: 
railroad, was sold at $100 an acre. 
is bordered on one side by the proper’: 
of the Wabash Coal Co. and on 
other side by holdings of the Pittsburg 
Coal Co. It is understood that the acre- 
age of the Wabash company will soon 
be developed and a spur run from tie 
Atlas mines into this new territory. 


























May 18, 1912 


An important coal deal was closed 
ere, May 4, when notices of acceptance 
ere served, whereby H. L. Duncan, of 
Pittsburg, representing a syndicate of 
Pittsburg capitalists, took over more than 
006 acres of coal land, located in Wash- 
ington County, the average option price 
being $115 an acre. The tract, com- 
erising the Pittsburg seam of coal, lies in 
Cross Creek, Jefferson and Smith town- 
hips, extending northwestward from 
Cross Creek village, almost to Dinsmore 
‘nd Hanlin on the Panhandle railroad. 
fhe coal block is unusually accessible to 
railroads, having the Wabash along the 
southern border and extending on the 
nerth to the Pennsylvania lines. 


Clearfield—Tellers have completed the 
count of votes on the ratification of the 
new wage contract for the bituminous 
miners of district No. 2, United Mine 
Workers, and find that 22,325 were for 
acceptance, and 5245 for rejection. 

Indiana—The Buffalo, Rochester & 
Pittsburg Coal & Iron Co. has started 
werk on another operation in this county, 
about two miles from Jacksonville, where 
it is expected coal will be taken out be- 
fore the coming winter. The tipple will 
have a capacity of several thousand tons 
per day. 

Within the past couple of weeks con- 
tractors and others interested have gone 
ever the plans for the extension of the 
railroad from above Idamar to what is 
commonly known as the Lowry coal, 
three miles east of Marion Center, and 
the indications are that the road will be 
built in the near future. 


Pittsburg—The Interstate Commerce 
Commission has set May 16 for the hear- 
ing of arguments in the petition of John 
\\. Boileau and coal operators of the 
Pitrsburg district who ask for a hear- 

in their case against the Pittsburg & 
Like Erie R.R. and other carriers. The 
Pov uoners, after a hard fight, won a re- 
cuction of 10c. a ton on the coal rate of 
Ssc. from the Pittsburg field to Ashta- 
tu.. Harbor. The action of certain rail- 
‘ in reducing rates from competing 
it is asserted, has nullified the 
co nission’s order so far as the Pitts- 
burt operators are concerned. 


ANTHRACITE 


inton—Riotous demonstrations have 
Ceo” aking place recently in nearly all 
sccCons of the anthracite field. Follow- 
ing ™e trouble at the Dickson shaft of 
the Delaware & Hudson Co., on May 7, 
milar demonstration took place at 
-fgetts Creek and Von Storch col- 
lieries in North Scranton on May 9. The 
Cayuga breaker of the D. L. & W. Co. 
‘ie scene of another riot in the 


‘ing of May 10 when a crowd of sev- 
iundred men, women and boys as- 


Mol 


se 
Th 
the n 


lcd to keep men from going to work. 
© police were attacked and fired on 
106, wounding several men. A num- 








COAL AGE 


ber of arrests were made. At Olyphant, on 
May 11, a conflict took place between 
state police and a crowd of rioters who 
had assembled near the No. 1 breaker of 
the D. & H. Co. A 14-year old boy, 
on the outskirts of the fray, was shot 
and it was thought would die. 


Wilkes-Barre—Angered at the number 
of men employed doing repair work at 
the collieries in this region, small armies 
of idle men attacked a number of the 
workers May 9. At the Nottingham Col- 
liery, at Plymouth, a crowd of 500 men 
and boys menaced the workmen and com- 
pelled them to return to their homes. 
Repairmen, pumpmen, firemen and engi- 
neers were held up at the Delaware Col- 
liery, at Hudson. At a washery in Luzerne 
borough, the men at work were driven 
from the place by a crowd of 400 men, 
women and boys, who used sticks and 
stones. Hundreds of idle mine workers 
have left here recently for the West 
Virginia bituminous region, although offi- 
cials of the United Mine Workers have 
tried to persuade them not to go. 

The tridistrict convention of anthracite 
mine workers met here May 14 with 407 
delegates in attendance. The foreign ele- 
ment proved to be in a majority and in- 
dications pointed to heated discussion. 

Pottsville—In a clash between a de- 
tail of seven state police and foreign 
mine workers at Minersville on May 8, 
three men were shot, two fatally, and 
a woman injured. The police were es- 
corting Superintendent George W. Keiser 
and several repairmen to the Pine Hill 
colliery. Attacks on men going to work 
at the mines have been general through- 
out the lower end of the anthracite field 
and several attempts have been made to 
dynamite railroad tracks and trains. The 
companies have suspended all work ex- 
cept that absolutely necessary to keep 
the mines in order. 

Hazleton—Local unions on May 10 
adopted resolutions asking that all repair 
work at the mines be discontinued but 
agreeing to permit engineers, firemen and 
pump runners to remain on duty. 








Washington 


Seattle—-Pau! Bockmier, of Palouse, 
Wash., has found a 6-ft. seam of coal 
within six miles of that town. A tunnel 
has been driven 85 ft. into the bluff 
along the Palouse River, and when in a 
distance of 50 ft., exceptionally good 
samples were taken out. The work of 
prospecting is being done by some indi- 
vidual members of the Palouse Coal & 
Oil Co. The surface croppings are of 
poor quality, but the coal evidently be- 
comes better at a slight depth and is be- 
lieved to be a good fuel. 

Word was received here recently from 
the Mare Island navy yard that the 
cruiser “Maryland,” which will arrive 
about May 15 for repairs, will be used to 





1057 


make further tests of the Pacific Coast 
coals. She will load with Western coal 
for a cruise to Alaska. 








West Virginia 


Welch—The Jed Coal & Coke Co., 
with a mine near here at which an ex- 
plosion occurred recently, killing 81 men, 
has been placed in the hands of A. H. 
Storrs as receiver. This action of the 
court was taken at the request of Mr. 
Storrs, who was recently elected presi- 
dent of the company, and was opposed 
by William Leckie, a stockholder and 
formerly general manager. The com- 
pany is capitalized at S600,000 and has 
never paid a dividend, the earnings hav- 
ing been used in the develcpment of the 
property. Most of the stock is held by 
people in Pennsylvania. 


Holden—The « United States Coal & 
Oil Co. is opening up a large amount 
of new territory in this state and in Ken- 
tucky. 

Charleston—The West Virginia-Pitts- 
burg Coal Co., which has operations in 
the Cross Creek district of Brooke Coun- 
ty, in the northern panhandle, has in- 
creased its authorized capital from $10,- 
000 to $1,500,000. 

Nine thousand miners in the Kanawha 
district, who had been idle since the 
first of April, returned to work, May 7, 
following a settlement of the wage-scale 
dispute. The men will receive an ad- 
vance in wages equal to half of that pro- 
vided for by the Cleveland joint con- 
ference. Miners in the Paint Creek sec- 
tion still! remain on strike. 

About a score of the mines in the 
Kanawha district have not yet resumed 
operations since the agreement of a week 
or more ago. The operators who re- 
fused to sign claim they have been oper- 
@eting their mines at a loss for several 
years, and that to pay the Increase would 
only add that much more to the loss. In 
consequence the mines have been closed 
indefinitely. 

The old Nuttallburg Coal Co.’s prop- 
erty, recently purchased by W. E. Dee- 
gans, of Fayette County, under a decree 
of the federal court, is to be operated 
under the name of the Nuttallburg 
Smokeless Fuel Co., just chartered by 
Mr, Deegans and others. The new com- 
pany jis capitalized at $125,000. 








Canada 


British Columbia—The Corbin Coal & 
Coke Co., Ltd., which is operating a mine 
in Crows Nest Pass, has filed amended 
articles of incorporation, increasing its 
capital from $2,000,000 to $10,000,000. 
It is understood that the increase of capi- 
tal is due to the fact that the company is 
securing possession of large additional 
areas of coal land. D. C. Corbin, of 


Spokane, is the principal stockholder. 





i 


(2) 


105 


Personals 


J. M.. Fitzgerald, president of the 
Davis Coai & Coke Co., recently made a 
trip of inspection to the company’s mines, 
at Thomas, W. Va. 

C. F. Brenn, chief engineer for the 
coal-mining operations of the Chicago, 
Milwaukee & Puget Sound Ry., recently 
returned from a month’s business trip to 
Montana. 

Henry M. Payne has become associated 
with Stephen T. Williams & Staff, of 
New York, and will leave the latter part 
of this month for the Yukon and Klon- 
dike gold fields, returning late in the 
summer, 

Harry Thomas has been appointed 
general superintendent of the O’Gara 
Coal Co.’s properties, in Illinois, In- 
diana, Ohio and West Virginia, with head- 
quarters at Harrisburg, Ill. Edward Gent 
and D. B. McGehee have been appointed 
assistants to the general superintendent. 

Edgar Kudlich, formerly general sup- 
erintendent for Coxe Brothers & Co., 
Inc., and recently division engineer for 
the Lehigh Valley Coal Co., at Hazleton, 
Penn., has resigned from the Lehigh Val- 
ley company to accept a similar position 
with the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., 
at Lansford, Penn. 

George C. Atkinson has been elected 
president of the St. Bernard Mining Co., 
of Warlington, Ky., succeeding the late 
John B. Atkinson, who died about six 
months ago. Frank D, Rash has been 
chosen vice-president and general man- 
ager, and Dan M. Evans, secretary and 
treasurer of the company. 


The senior and junior students in the 
department of mining engineering of the 
University of Illinois, recently visited the 
Illinois Steel Co.’s plant, at Joliet, the 
mines, zinc works and cement plants in 
the La Salle district of Illinois, and a 
number of manufacturing plants in Chi- 
cago, where mining machinery is made, 
also the accounting offices of a number of 
the larger mining companies, having 
headquarters in Chicago. 

The following changes have been made 
in the coal-mines division of the Ten- 
nessee Coal, Iron & R.R. Co., Birming- 
ham, Ala., effective May 1. C. G. Owen, 
acting chief engineer, has been appointed 
chief engineer. W. H. Sterling, superin- 
tendent of bee-hive ovens, has been ap- 
pointed superintendent of Pratt No. 12 
mine, with headquarters at Docena, Ala., 
succeeding H. McKean Conner, resigned. 
L. V. Harvell, until recently division en- 
gineer of the Blue Creek division, has 
been appointed assistant superintendent 
of that division, with headquarters at 
Johns, Ala., succeeding John A. Jordan. 
George W. Postell, until a few months 
ago division engineer of Pratt No. 2 di- 
vision, has been reinstated in that posi- 
tion, succeeding John A. Ridgney, de- 
tailed on special work. 


COAL AGE 


Obituary 


Joseph E. Ball, for a number of years 
a sales agent of the Delaware, Lacka- 
wanna & Western Coal Co., at Buffalo, 
N. Y., died recently at his home in that 
city. Mr, Ball was 61 years of age and 
well known in connection with the Lake 
trade. 

Frank J. Bergs, vice-president and gen- 
eral manager of the Berry-Bergs Coal 
Co., of St. Louis, was killed recently, 
when an automobile, which he was driv- 
ing, was struck by a Missouri Pacific 
train. Mr. Bergs was 46 years of age 
and one of the most prominent and popu- 
ler coal men west of the Mississippi 
River. 








Construction News 


Harlan, Ky.—The Wilhoit Coal Co. is 
building a power plant and will install 
electric coal-cutting machines. 

Marion, Tll.—The West Virginia Coal 
Co. is planning to build here a large coal 


storage and rescreening plant. 
Washington, Penn.—-The Pittsburg- 


Buffalo Co. has announced that it will 
install 500 additional coke ovens at its 
Marianna plant. 

Superior, Wis.—The Pittsburg Coal 
Co. has announced that $750,000 has 
been appropriated to be used in making 
extensive improvements to its. local 
dock, 

Brownsville, Penn.—The Lilly Coal & 
Coke Co. has started construction work 
on its new plant at West Brownsville, 
to cost $1,000,000. A steel tipple will be 
erected. 

Herrin, Ill.—It is reported that the 
Chicago-Herrin Coal Co. will make im- 
provements to its surface plant and 
will erect storage pockets and screens 
for loading on two railroads. 

Lansford, Penn.—The Lehigh Coal & 
Navigation Co. has decided to erect a 
large number of houses for the em- 
ployees of its new colliery at Hauto, 
Penn., now under construction. 

Cumberland Gap, Tenn.—The Eastern 
Kentucky Land Co. contemplates the de- 
velopment of coal property near here 
and will be in the market for machin- 
ery. Address Lewis Apperson, Mt. 
Sterling, Ky. 

Red Ash, Ky.—The Proctor Coal Co., 
which will develop 6000 acres of coal 
land to a daily capacity of 2000 tons, has 
not vet fixed a date for opening machin- 
ery bids. Address Philip Francis, su- 
perintendent. 

Indjanna, Penn.—The Buffalo, Roch- 
ester & Pittsburg Coal & Iron Co. has 
started work on a new operation at 
Jacksonville. The Heyl & Patterson Co., 
Pittsburg, is reported to have the con- 
tract for a large new tipple. 

Bay City, Mich.—The Central Coal 
Mining Co. has completed plans for 
building a large coal-handling dock on 
waterfront property recently purchased. 
Facilities will be installed for coaling 
vessels and receiving coal by water. 

St. Paul, Minn.—The C. G. Hartin Coal 
Co. has purchased a large property on 
Dale St. and will build a coal-storage 
yard of 25,000 tons capacity. Elevators 
and rescreening plant will be installed. 
Immediate outlay on improvements to 
be $40,000. 





Vol. 1, No. 32 


Publications Received 


INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. The twent 
fifth annual report of the Comm 
sioner of Labor. 822 pp., 6x94 
cloth. Government Printing Offi 
Washington. 

REVIEW OF LABOR LEGISLATION OF 
1911 Bulletin No. 97 of the Bure 
of Labor. By Lindley D. Clark. 622 
pp., 6x94 in. Government Printin: 
Office, Washington. 


MINING CONDITIONS 


Bulletin No. 25, Bureau of Mines. 
pp., 6x9 in., illus., and case of 29 
maps. . z : “ 

This bulletin is a publication of the 
report recently made by Messrs. Conner 
and Griffiths to the city of Scranton. 
TESTS OF COLUMNS: AN INVESTIG.\- 

TION OF THE VALUE OF CON- 
CRETE AS REINFORCEMENT FoR 
STRUCTURAL STEEL COLUMNS. 
By Arthur N. Talbot and Arthur R. 
Lord. Bulletin No. 56, Engineering 
Experiment Station, University of 
Illinois, 25c. 44 pages, 6x9 in., 1 pl. 
illustrated. 

This bulletin gives an account of a se- 
ries of tests to determine the strength of 
a structural steel column of considerable 
strength having a filling of concrete. The 
tests show that this type of column, if 
properly made, is a reliable and efficient 
structural member, and that nearly all 
the strength of both steel and concrete is 
developed. The tests also show that up 
to the point of failure of the column, 
the fireproofing shell of concrete adheres 
tightly to the remainder of the column. 








Trade Catalogs 


Taylor Iron & Steel Co. High Bridge, 
N. J. Bulletin No. 114. ‘“Tisco” Mar 
ganese Steel Crusher and Pulverizer 
Parts. 4 pp., 6x9 in., illus. 

John Davis & Son (Derby), Ltd., Balti- 
more, Md. Leaflet 20 FB. Selection of 
Mining Instruments, a catalog of sal 
lamps, anemometers and various seleh- 
tific instruments for use in mining w: 

6 pp., 6x9%4 in., illus. 

Electric Service Supplies Co, iw 

York. Series of four pamphlets. 


Bond with the ‘“Shot-Over” Sleeve s 
Manufacture, Copper, Service and © -- 
pressor, descriptive of protected l 


bonds. 5x7 in., illus. 

Hyatt foller Bearing Co., New 
MN. J. Booklet. Twelve Progre 
Mine Car Wheel.Makers. 16 pp.. 3 
in., illus. Twelve makes of mi? 
wheels, to which Hyatt roller bei 
have been applied, are illustrates 
described. 








Industrial Notes 


The Roberts & Schaefer Co., © 
Ill, announces that on account 
increase in the company’s busin: 
ing the past year it has decided t 
into more commodius quarters, @ vel 
May 11 will be located in its ne“ 
on the top floor of the MeCormic! 
ing, Chicago. 

Walter B. Snow, publicity ©! 
170 Summer St., Boston, has i! 
his organization by the additio! , 
Charles Mulligan, late of thé rial 
staff of the Brooklyn “Standard 
and for a considerable period ass 
with the publicity department 
Western Electric Co. 

















May 18, 1912 


COAL AGE 











Coal Trade Reviews 


Current Prices of Coal and Coke and Market Conditions in the Important Centers 














General Review 


A more general resumption at the soft- 
coal mines, with a consequent increase 
in production, has resulted in another 
relapse in the bituminous market. The 
supplies accumulated in anticipation of 
the strike are still in evidence, and the 
trade has fully demonstrated its inability 
to absorb even a normal tonnage. Forced 
sales of demurrage coal are reported at 
some of the large distributing centers and 
quotations have fallen off generally in all 
parts of the country. 

In anthracite the situation continues 
tight and supplies short; premiums are 
being offered on every hand and the mar- 
ket is in prime condition for a panic. 
Hard-coal shipments for April amounted 
to only 266,625 tons as compared with 
6,596,687 tons for the month previous, 
and indications are that unless an agree- 
ment is effected in the meantime, the 
movement for the current month wiil 
show a still further decline. The short- 
age is most pronounced in the Nortiwest 
and it is probable that the season’s ship- 
ments will not be sufficient to meet re- 
quirements as stocks are down to an un- 
usually low point and this market, at the 
best, is only an overflow for the surplus 
tonnages. 

Mining in the Pittsburg district is stead- 
ily increasing due largely to the Lake 

ding which is fairly heavy. Prepara- 

Ss are being made in Ohio at both the 

‘es and on the railroads for the larg- 

production on record. In West Vir- 

1 the movement has been quite free 

‘idewater but not as heavy as ‘last 

th, while in the South prices are 

s dy and the outlook good. Some con- 

t’ ‘ing is being done in the Middle Wesr 
C otherwise the trade is dull. 








Boston, Mass. 


ere is little change in the Eastern 
-t. Soft coal is certainly dull, and 
rices are heard where cargoes are 
' on buyers. There have been sev- 


€ istances of “sacrifice sales” during 
t St fortnight, and there is small en- 
cK ‘ement in the outlook. 


Pennsylvania shippers are espe- 
active in the pursuit of business 
low freights from Philadelphia, 
ales from that direction and on 


G es Creek are much heavier than on 

tie \ ost Virginia coals. At the Hampton 

Re Piers there is plenty of coal, al- 

ey off-shore tonnage is still taking 
ec 


‘{rgest proportion of it. 


The anxiety over anthracite is again on 
the increase. Opinion here is about 
equally divided as to whether there will 
be a settlement at Wilkes-Barre, May 14, 
or a long strike. Meanwhile there are al- 
most no hard-coal arrivals. Receipts are 
confined to odd lots of stock coal in egg 
and chestnut. Premiums are again heard, 
and conditions seem ripe for another 
“flurry.” 

Wholesale quotations are about as fol- 
lows: 

Clearfields, f.o.b. mines...... $1.10 @1.40 
Clearfields, f.o.b. Philadelphia 2.35@2.60 


Pocahontas, New River, f.o.b. 
feampton Hoads.......0%.% 2.70 @ 2.80 








New York 


The anthracite trade in New York is 
practically at a standstill as no shipments 
are coming in and no sales being re- 
corded. No great inconvenience has yet 
been reported but supplies are steadily 
disappearing and consumers are decided- 
ly worried over the outlook. The large 
wholesalets are apportioning their re- 
maining stocks among regular customers, 
and these represent the last remaining 
source of supply. There are more in- 
quiries from buyers, particularly in the 
steam sizes for which there is quite an 
active demand. 

Heavy tonnages of bituminous are ar- 
riving and this branch has suffered a 
further decline. There is little or no de- 
mand in the spot market, the movement 
being almost entirely on contract. The 
shortage of anthracite has had no effect 
on the soft-coal trade as yet. Prices on 
the lower grades have eased off still 
further, sales being reported during the 
week at as low as $2.40 f.o.b.; the higher 
grades, however, are holding steady, 
$3.05. ° 

In anthracite, broken is about out of 
the market entirely, while the other sizes 
are selling at: Egg and stove S6; pea 
$5; buckwheat $3.25@3.50; rice S3a 
3.25; barley $2.25. The operating com- 
panies, however, continue to quote their 
regular winter circular as follows: 


POE oe eras a ae Stay eee $4.50 
DIGS AN BOVE. vs corcccle's woes wo sere s 5.00 
CIGHUMURES cor cre neon oe hese wat 5.25 
SGM cok ce de oath alias ahi cde 2 Man eater Aas 3.25 
TRUGCRWINGHE. eek eas ce cereweciness 2.75 
UNG fala aa os eter koe ted eral eae ore eee 2.25 
ORES a rors, arch rau ean wealee 1.75 








Philadelphia, Penn. 


The situation in this vicinity, while 
not in any way serious yet. is fast ap- 
proaching that condition. The stocks of 
coal that various manufacturing estab- 





lishments accumulated are slowly but 
surely disappearing, and while it is a 
fact that there is plenty of soft coal to 
take its place, at the same time any un- 
usual call for this grade of fuel is bound 
to be followed by a substantial increase 
in price. Of course, this refers par- 
ticularly to the steam sizes. What little 
stocks the operators had of these sizes 
are now quite low, and it will only be 
question of a few weeks at the most, 
when the situation will become decidedly 
uncomfortable. 

As far as the domestic sizes are con- 
cerned, the supply now on hand is prob- 
ably sufficient to cover all demands, which 
are light during the summer months. The 
findings at the meeting held last Tues- 
day will in a large measure dictate what 
disposition will be made of these stocks 
of domestic sizes. A refusal of the con- 
vention to abide by the terms of the set- 
tlement reached by the committees will 
more than likely result in a long strike, 
and a scramble among the householders 
for what coal they can get will undoubted- 
ly follow, as was the case in 1902. 

If mining is resumed by the first of 
June, it is more than likely that a re- 
duction of prices will be made, as it is 
not felt that there will be any great de- 
mand for coal if the circular that was 
current through the winter, is still main- 
tained. To create a market, the com- 
panies will have to reduce prices, as the 
apathetic condition of the market de- 
mands it. 








Pittsburg, Penn. 


Bituminous—Mining is __ increasing 
slightly in the district, but chiefly on ac- 
count of heavier shipments in the Lake 
trade. Local demand is still extremely 
small, and operators probably have a bet- 
ter idea of the heavy stocks accumulated 
in anticipation of a long suspension than 
they had at the time they hastily made a 
settlement, on the eve of the expiration 
of the old agreement. Lake shipments 
are now fairly heavy, and a record year 
in Lake trade for the district is expected. 
It is not thought this will be due, how- 
ever, to the reductions in rates the rail- 
oads made after the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission’s order to reduce the 
Pittsburg-Lake rate from 88 to 78c. per 
ton. Hardly enough had been done ip 
the coal market to establish prices, and 
those first announced may still be quoted 
as follows: Mine-run and nut, $1.22': 
%-in., $1.32%; 11%4-in., $1.471%4; slack, 
87'%c., per ton at mine. 





1060 


Connellsville Coke—Operators are ask- 
ing higher prices for contract furnace 
coke for second-half shipment than was 
expected, the general asking price devel- 
oped being $2.50, when consumers had 
questioned whether they would take an 
interest in a S2.25 quotation. No im- 
portant business has yet been closed, but 
there are negotiations which will likely 
lead to results shortly. A small contract 
was recently made at $2.35, for the six 
months, 

Sales of about 15,000 tons. of 
prompt and May furnace coke have been 
made in the past 10 days, chiefly at $2.40, 
though a portion brought $2.45. We 
quote: Prompt furnace, S2.40% 2.50; 
contract furnace (nominal), S2.40@ 2.50; 
frompt foundry, $2.75; contract foundry, 
$2.75 @ 2.85. 

The Courier reports production in the 
Connellsville and lower Connellsville re- 
gion, in the week ending May 4, at 401,- 
544 tons, an increase of 50 tons, and 
shipments at 4345 cars to Pittsburg, 6282 
cars to points West and 1302 cars to 
points East, a total of 11,929 cars, or an 
increase of 47. 








Baltimore, Md. 


The continuation of the strike of the 
laborers and coal trimmers at the rail- 
road piers in Baltimore had a detrimental 
effect on local market conditions during 
the past week. Prices dropped consider- 
ably, and many of the operators had the 
greatest difficulty in getting rid of the 
product in this city at even the lowest 
prices which have prevailed in the Balti- 
more market for months. 

No coal has been handled at the Port 
Covington yards of the Western Maryland 
Railway Co., where hundreds of cars are 
waiting to be unloaded. Not a laborer 
would touch it, and the market would 
have been benefited just as much if it 
had not been shipped in. The situation 
is cleared up now, however, and loading 
has been resumed at approximately the 
normal rate. 

At the Curtis Bay piers, of the Balti- 
more & Ohio, some coal was moved dur- 
ing the week, although the movement was 
retarded on account of a shortage of 
men. Among coal men it is believed that 
the worst is over, and that normal condi- 
tions at the railroad piers in Baltimore 
will prevail again soon. 

There was a considerable movement by 
rail during the week, but practically all 
under contract. Very little spot business 
was reported. It developed a few days 
ago that the Uruguayan government had 
requested several coal operators to submit 
bids on a coal contract, the fuel to be 
used by the navy of that country. Should 
the companies here be successful, it is 
likely that Uruguay will be a large pur- 
chaser in this market in the very near 
future. 


COAL AGE 


Buffalo, N. Y. 


The bituminous trade is still very quiet 
and promises to remain so for a while, 
as the consumers who stocked up in 
March are still mostly well supplied. 
There was some expectation that the fail- 
ure of the anthracite miners to go to 
work would ‘immediately stiffen the bi- 
tuminous prices, but the production is too 
large for that. It is estimated that the 
production is fully 40 per cent. more than 
consumption, and though quite a large 
part of the mines are either idle now 
or running part time, there is enough sur- 
plus to keep prices down. 

A fairly good feature of the trade is 
the making of the annual contracts, for it 
was thought that the basis was hardly 
good enough for anything but transient 
sales. Some sellers are getting a better 
profit than last year. The trade general- 
ly goes on much as before, the new basis 
of- reckoning not tending to help prices 
as a rule. 

Quotations of bituminous remain nom- 
inally as before, $2.57! 2 for Pittsburg 
three-quarter, S2.47!% for mine-run and 
$2.25 for slack. Coke is again quiet at 
$4.75 for best Connellsville foundry. A 
mistake was made in putting coke prices 
too high. 

Anthracite is plenty enough for local 
consumption, but there is none for the 
Lake and the Western rail-line trade. 
It is now believed to be impossible to 
produce enough to meet the demand from 
the upper-lake district, even if mining 
should begin at once. 

The bituminous miners in the Alle- 
gheny Valley are very quiet, as there is 
not nearly enough work for them. Many 
have left the region and the same condi- 
tions are said to prevail in the South 
and West. 








Cleveland, Ohio 


There has been very little change in 
the situation in the past week. The de- 
mand for coal has not increased, as there 
still seems to be considerable on hand, 
which was obtained prior to the strike 
scare, and the manufacturers are not in- 
clined to purchase at any price at the 
present time, owing to their being still 
well supplied. 

Considerable coal has come in during 
the past week for the Lake trade, and 
slack seems to be a drug on the maeket. 
Quotations for slack are nominally $1.55 
for No. 8, $1.45 for No. 6 and S1.65 for 
Pittsburg. 

The general business in the steam trade 
does not look very encouraging up to 
the present time. There is, however, a 
feeling that there will be a large demand 
for the Lake trade; in fact it is generally 
believed this season will see the biggest 
Lake business that has been done for 


years. 





Vol. 1, No. 32 


Columbus, Ohio 


Coal loading for the Lake trade has 
assumed considerable proportions during 
the past week. The greatest activity is in 
eastern Ohio, but a number of mines (n 
the Hocking Valley are now busy. The 
Northwest docks are urging shipment 
during the suspension in the anthracite 
field, and for this reason a much large: 
tonnage will be moved than is usually the 
case with the first month of navigation. 
Lake demurrage rules go into effect the 
middle of the present month, and produc- 
ers will be allowed only seven days after 
that date to release cars now loaded and 
awaiting bottoms. : 

Officials of the Hocking Valley Ryvy.,’ 
which is affiliated with the Chesapeake & 
Ohio for West Virginia shipments, as well 
as being the chief outlet for the central 
Ohio territory, are preparing for the larg- 
est movement in the history of the road. 
They have announced that no Sunday ex- 
cursions will be run this summer, as they 
will need that day for cleaning up and 
keeping the lines open. 

Outside of the Lake trade, the market 
is very dull. Dealers are tardy about 
placing orders for stocking, and in this 
respect the present season is at least a 
menth behind that of 1911. Salesmen re- 
port that most of the steam consumers 
have stocks held over from storage and 
cannot be interested. Tonnage on con- 
tracts has been cut to the minimum 5y 
railroads, public service plants and other 
large steam users. 

Altogether there is a dearth of busi- 
ness that is keeping mines down to a cay 
or two a week, where they are not ‘ile 
altogether. This condition is looked upor: 
as being temporary and one that will pro- 
duce a stiff market within a very short 
time. 

Prices remain practically unchanccd, 
except for fine coal, which has dropyed 
10c. a ton during the past week. 1e 
prevailing figure on nut, pea and slac.. | 
65c. As Lake production increases. «is 
will go much lower, unless there a 
concerted movement to hold it back ©..m 
the market by track storage. 


a 








Hampton Roads, Va. 


little change in ie 
market conditions at Hampton Roads 
during the past week. Coal is mos 
quite freely to tidewater ports alt’ 
not in as great a volume as it di/ 
ing the earlier part of the month. “rice 
are holding up well in spite of t'- 4?- 
proach of the summer season. 

An especially noteworthy feat! 


There has been 


Hampton Roads during last wee Ws 
the 24-hour performance at the ae 
If- 


ian Ry. piers. The dumping over t'” 
ginian piers on Monday last reach>s ™ 
enormous figure of 26,391 tons. > 59! 
cars of coal. Of these 303 cars were 
dumped during the day and 245 durins 














May 18, 1912 


‘he night. While this entire tonnage was 
‘umped within the 24-hour day, the ac- 
-:al dumping time was only 20 hours. 
In the coal trade here the Virgmian 
-y, has been much congratulated on what 
considered a wonderful performance, 
hich goes well toward indicating the 
creat future of Norfolk as a coal center. 








Charleston, W. Va. 


Although about one-half of the miners 
‘in the Kanawha district were out during 
the month of April, it proved to be the 
biggest month in shipments in the history 
of the district, which indicates what the 
mines could do if they were not handi- 
capped by a shortage of cars and motive 
power. Between 8000 and 9000 miners 
were out in the Kanawha field during the 
month or for at least three of the four 
weeks. 

The tonnage of the district for April, 
as shown by the Chesapeake & Ohio re- 
ports. was 973,730; that of the New River 
district was 739,100 tons, and the Ken- 
tucky district 151,390 tons. The tonnage 
for the entire Chesapeake & Ohio system 
in West Virginia for April was 1,864,- 
22) tons, an increase of 356,130 tons 
over the month of March, when all the 
mines were in operation, but during 
which time there was a shortage of cars. 
This illustrates the conditions that the 
operators along the Chesapeake & Ohio 
have had to contend with. 








Memphis, Tenn. 

The wholesale situation so far as west 
Kentucky steam coal is concerned has 
tcen in pretty fair shape, as to price; 

Henderson division of the L. & N. 
8. being a nonunion field, is the only 
tern Kentucky coal that has been of- 

-d on the market for the past 40 days. 
i wever, this situation will chahgeysnow, 
the miners and operators have ad- 
ed all their differences and the union 
‘ will go back to work immediately. 

will have a tendency to cheapen 

‘rice of all grades of coal from this 
ory. 

‘ces now in effect are: 


- smaller screenings are very scarce 

range from 40@80c. Alabama coal 

usually stiff in price for this sea- 

is the bulk of the high-grade coals 

ar sold up to Oct. 1. In the big veins 

stie orders are in excess of the con- 

for steam coal and consequently 

\labama situation is stiff at the pres- 
ent time, 

> east Tennessee mines, which in- 


+~- or 2, 


C the Jellico and Straight Creek 
Secs, are getting better prices this sea- 
son than last. Present quotations range 
from “1.65@2 for Block coal as against 
“1.50 1.80 last year. There is practical- 


COAL AGE | 


ly no coal in storage, either steam or 
domestic, throughout the Southern ter- 
ritory, and this will have a tendency to 
make good prices for the operator from 
now until winter. 








Birmingham, Ala. 

_ The coal market is maintaining a 
steady level in prices with satisfactory 
outlook. An improvement in the demand 
has been noted in textiles and railroads. 
Furnaces are not increasing their con- 
sumption as yet but the indications are 
that they will about the middle of the 
year. The market has been affected to 
some extent by the high waters on the 
Mississippi River and this is also offered 
as an explanation of the car shortage. 

The commercial coke market is satis- 
factory. The policy of maintaining a 
fair level of prices in spite of the fluctu- 
ations in the Virginias has, it is believec, 
accrued to the benefit of the Alabama 
coke producers. 

Some of the leading coal operators of 
the Birmingham district are investigating 
the possibilities of getting into the Cuban 
and South American markets, by reason 
of the coal shortage in England following 
the strike. Several shipments have been 
made and encouraging reports are be- 
ing received from the consumers, indi- 
cating a willingness to continue. Ala- 
bama coal can be placed in the West 
Indies and South America at a saving to 
the consumer. The Alabama product, 
however, is so strikingly different from 
the Wales coal that it is no easy matter 
to introduce it. 

Aside from the increased demand in 
some lines and the slight car shortage 
during the week, other factors entering 
into the market conditions are a labor 
shortage in some quarters and heavy 
rains causing some mine troubles. 








Chicago 

There will be no big improvement in 
the Chicago coal market until the begin- 
ning of September, according to observ- 
ers of conditions here. 

Small steam users and a few railroads, 
seeking to replenish their storage piles, 
create about the only demand which ex- 
ists now. So far as Western coal is con- 
cerned, it may be said that domestic sells 
at $1.50 and steam at $1.25, at the mines. 
There is practically no demand for any 
kind of domestic coal. The supply of 
screenings is small and the price is cor- 
respondingly high. Screenings, mine-run 
and steam lump are selling around $2.10 
@ 2.25, f.o.b. Chicago. There has been 
little change in the smokeless-coal mar- 
ket, there being little or no demand for 
the product. It is generally believed that 
anthracite coal will not be available for 
the Western trade until late in the sum- 
mer. The coke trade, generally, is dull. 

Coke—Prices asked for coke are: Con- 
nellsville and Wise County, $4.75; by- 





1061 


product, egg and stove, $4.55; byproduct, 
nut, $4.55; gas-house, $4.75. 


Prevailing prices at Chicago are: 
Sullivan County 
Bromestie fumipes. «.... 040004: $2 
Egg.. a a 
Steam lump...... 2 
Screenings....... 2 
Springfield 
Domestic lump... .. merry . $2 
Steam lump........ : 2 
Mine-run. . ee ~_ (2 
Screenings...... 2 
Clinton 
Domestic lump. $2 
Steam lump..... ; 2.02 
» 
2 


Mine-run. . 02 

Screenings..... 02 
Pocahontas and New River 

Mine-run : ds $3.15 

Lump and egg.... 3.30@3.55 








St. Louis, Mo. 


There is practically no market in St. 
Louis for bituminous coal of any kind. 
The mines in the Standard field are grad- 
ually resuming work, but they are forc- 
ing the greater part of their tonnage on 
the railroad companies. Screenings are 
moving freest and are sold only with 
a proportionate amount of lump. 

Carterville and Franklin County mines 
are gradually resuming, but the same 
condition prevails in that coal as with 
the Standard, with the exception that 
such as is moving, is going into the coun- 
try. 

There is nothing to indicate that the 
market will improve any in the very near 
future, but, on the other hand, it may 
gradually get worse as a greater tonnage 
is forced upon it. There is a limited 
amount of smokeless moving in, and the 
same applies to gas-house and byprod- 
uct coke. 

The prevailing prices are: 

Williamson and Franklin County 
6-in. lump and 3x6 egg............ $1.30@1.50 
Nut... 30@ 1.50 


1 
Screenings........... : coos 2. OOGT.I6 
Mine-run 1.05@1.15 


Standard 
Cette TOW w cae Seeks $1.15 
3x6 egg.... Raitt Wei'e, dadaneleras 1.10 


Petia) Mae 6: ocine-a se dwceas F 1.00@1.05 
DICKCOMINGS. 6 occ cede css: Det ek ses 0.95@1.00 








Minneapolis—St. Paul 

With the exception of making contracts 
on bituminous, business in this territory 
is extremely dull. There is hardly any 
domestic trade, and all the larger steam 
users are well stocked up, and will not 
be needing new supplies for another 
month or six weeks. Some Chicago job- 
bers ordered coal shipped al! along the 
line, between here and Chicago, for spec- 
ulative purposes, and when the market 
broke on the announcement of the strike 
settlement, they found it very hard to 
sell, and most of it has reached this end 
of the line. Their efforts to dispose of 
this coal has had a tendency to break 
prices on the steam grades. Soft-ccal 
prices are very weak and price cutting 
is going on to a great extent. 

The Illinois mines are not doing much 
and it is thought that they will withhold 





1062 


mining until there is more of a market. 
The Illinois representatives here seem to 
have no prices to work on. 

The anthracite proposition is almost at 
a standstill, and the expected new scale 
of prices did not, of course, arrive, ow- 
ing to the further disagreement with the 
miners in that field. There is very little 
anthracite coal of any size to be had, and 
consumers will not buy their winter’s 
supply until later in the summer, unless 
some inducement is made in the way of 
prices. 








Portland, Ore. 


The demand has been light for sev- 
eral weeks, owing to the mild weather, 
and there is every reason to believe that 
the call for coal now will come only 
from manufacturing interests. It is ex- 
pected that storage prices will soon go 
into effect. There has been no change 
in prices here since last fall. 

Receipts are naturally light here at 
this time of the year and it will be fall 
before any shipments will begin to ar- 
rive from Australia. Last year the Aus- 
tralian importations were light, but as 
the demand was light, too, dealers here 
are pretty well supplied. 








Production and Transportation 
Statistics 


ANTHRACITE SHIPMENTS 


Total shipments of coal in April were 
266,625 tons as compared with 5,804,915 
in April, 1911, and 6,569,687 in March, 
1912. The shipments in April were 5,- 
538,290 tons less than in that month of 
last year. Practically no coal whatever 
was mined in April, which accounts for 
this showing. The shipment by the dif- 
ferent companies in April this year and 
last, were as follows, in long tons: 





Company 1912 1911 Dec. 
Phila. & Reading... 41,324 1,174,837 1,143,513 
Lehigh Valley...... 4,840 1,049,164 1,044,324 
Cont. BB. N. J... 58 777,438 177,380 
Del. Lack. & West.. 112,858 756,019 643,161 
Del. & Hudson..... .... 138,026 538,026 
Pennsylvania....... 49,687 635,330 585,643 
Erie einer ees 67,798 681,524 613,736 
Ont. & Western.... 60 192,567 192,507 

MMOL CA ccwagcliew ee 266,625 5,804,915 5,538,290 


THE VIRGINIAN Ry. 

Total coal shipments over the Vir- 
ginian Ry. for the month of March, 1912, 
amounted to 303,159 tons. No coke was 
shipped during this period. 


THE CONSOLIDATION COAL Co. 


The tonnage of the Consolidation Coal 
Co. was exceptionally large for the 
month of April. The total output for the 
month was 950,000 tons, or an increase 
of about 300,000 tons as compared with 
the corresponding month of last year. 
The Consolidation is now rushing work 
on its Kentucky railroad, which taps a 
large coal area in that state, and the 
line will probably be completed some 
time in June. 


COAL AGE 


IMPORTS 


The total imports of bituminous coal 
into the United States, for March, 1912, 


were 120,355 tons, as compared with 
148,751 tons in the same month | last 
year. Imports of coke for March of this 


year were 7418 tons as compared with 
14,290 tons for the same month last 
year. No anthracite was imported dur- 
ing March. 


EXPORTS 


The exports of anthracite during 
March of the current year amounted to 
277,283 tons as compared with 136,723 
tons in March of last year. Bituminous 
exports for March of this year, exclusive 
of bunker or fuel coal laden on vessels 
in the foreign trade, were 973,096 tons 
as compared with 721,181 tons for the 
same month last year. Bunker or fuel 
coal laden on vessels in the foreign 
trade during March of this year amounted 
to 671,053 tons, as compartd with 574,- 
409 tons during the same month last 
year. Coke exports fell off during March 
of this year to 70,393 tons, as compared 
with 76,866 tons for the same month last 
year. 

BALTIMORE & OHIO R.R. Co. 


The coal and coke shipments over the 
lines of the B. & O. R.R. for the month 
of March, 1912, and for the same month 
of the previous year, were as follows: 





1911 1912 
NEOs caicie cars easyer 2,027,245 3,173,168 
BUM gia exw ech aise tiers 371.219 384,094 
MRO R scaxersterscecnyiecoreiiers 2,398,464 3,557 .262 


PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD 


Statement of coal and coke carried on 
P. R.R. Co.’s line east of Pittsburg and 
Erie, for the month of March and first 
three months of 1912, in short tons: 





March 3 Months 

Anthracite... ........ 1.140.976 3,288,737 
Bituminows......... 4,501,653 12,169,935 
MODES es echo cc 1,147,602 3,111,786 
nS NES aren eet 6,790,241 18,570,458 








Foreign Markets 
TORONTO, CANADA 


Owing to the British coal strike, the 
Nova Scotia mines have greatly increased 
their output for the first quarter of the 
current year and extended their export 
business considerably. Shouid the produc- 
tion be maintained at the same rate 
throughout the season, the total output 
for the year will exceed 7,000,000 tons. 

The markets of South America have, 
for the first time, been available for Nova 
Scotia coal. The Nova Scotia Steel & 
Coal Co. has so far shipped about 30,000 
tons to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, 
and the Dominion Coal Co. has also made 
some consignments to the same markets, 
as well as to the West Indies. Much coal 


has also been sent by the Cape Breton 
companies to European ports, including 
one cargo to London. The steamer “Toko- 





Vol. 1, No. 32 
maru,” of the Shaw Savill & Albion lire 
recently sailed from North Sidney with « 
cargo of coal for Capetown, South Africa, 
and had sufficient fuel to last her for a 
trip to New Zealand. Canadian exports 
for the current year will probably show 2 
good increase. 








e “i +4 
Financial Notes * 


Assets of the International Coal & 
Coke Co. at the close of the year 1911 
were: Coal lands, $3,116,118.90; plant 


buildings, horses, ete., $640,426.43; ware- 
house stock, $39,256.37: current accounts 
receivable, $90,616.69: stock of coal 
coke on hand, $2582.25; unexpired insur- 


and 


ance, $1269.28; timber rights, $4304.82: 
total, $3,894,563.34. 


The Pittsburgh Coal Co. strengthened 
its financial position during the past 
year by purchase and cancelation of 
$8,600,000 first mortgage bonds at 110 
and interest. It was enabled to do this 
as a result of sale of about 7000 acres of 
measured coal to H. C. Frick Coke 
for an aggregate consideration of 
less than $10,000,000. 


The securities and cash set apart in 
the coal loans sinking fund of the 
high Coal & Navigation Co. now amount 
to $1,031,131. The fund has now reached 
such proportions that with the accre- 
tions due to the investment of its annual 
income at 40 it will in 40 years equal 
the value at which the coal lands 
carried on the books of the company and 


Co; 


not 


Le- 


are 


under the circumstances the board is of 
the opinion that appropriations for the 
fund direct from the income are no 


longer desirable. 


sale proceedings 
brought by the Bankers’ Trust Co. of 
New York as trustee under the mort- 
gage securing the $200,000 prior lien 5’ 
bonds which matured July 1, 1911, it 
held that the Wheeling & Lake Erie 
Railroad Co. is obliged to pay off ani 
discharge the sale. The protective com- 
mittee for the $634,500 first mortga: 
4% bonds opposed the suit on the groun:! 
that the railroad company, which own: ! 
and controlled the coal company, shou 
pay the latter's debt. 


Jamison Coal & Coke Co., of Titi 
burg, Penn., has issued $5,000,000 1 
mortgage 5% sinking fund gold bo 
dated Apr. 1, 1912, and due May 1, 1% 
redeemable at any date at 105 and int 


In the foreclosure 


est. The company has been in suci 
ful operation since 1892, and owns 


Greenburg Basin, West Moreland Cou 
Penn., 5350 acres of high-grade st: 
and coking coal, 1800 acres of surfac: 
mining plants, 1400 coke ovens, mi} 
houses, railroad sidings, ete. Tro} 
valued at $9,000,000 on which the 
will be a first lien. 


The United States Smelting, Ret 
& Mining Co. has organized the Uta 
of Maine for the purpose of acquir 
number of large coal properties in ! 
All the stock of the Utah Co. will ! 
* the Smelting Co. and the new p 
ties will be paid for by an issue of 
of the Utah Co. guaranteed by the = 


ing Co. and secured by the pled f 
large interests in the Castle Valle. l 
Co., the Black Hawk Coal Co. and | = 


j 
1 a 


solidated Fuel Co., and also by th: 
tal stock of the 80-mile railroad. wich 


is to be built to Spanish Fork in ord: to 
give these properties direct connection 
with the Union Pacific System.