,the ,riverside ,library for ,young ,people ,number #e ,,coal ,,and ,,the ,,coal ,,mines ,by ,,homer ,,greene ,illustration ,,coal ,,and ,,the ,,coal ,,mines ,,by ,,homer ,,greene ,,with ,,illustrations ,,from ,,drawings ,,by ,,the ,,author ,illustration ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,and ,,company ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge #ahih ,copyright1 #ahhi4 ,,by ,,homer ,,greene4 ,all rights reserved4 ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge1 ,u4 ,s4 ,a43 ,electrotyped and ,printed by ,h4 ,o4 ,houghton ,company4 ,to ,,my ,,son1 ,,giles ,,pollard ,,greene1 ,,who ,,was ,,born ,,on ,,the ,,day ,,this ,,book ,,was ,,begun1 ,,and ,,whose ,,smiles ,,and ,,tears ,,through ,,half ,a ,,year ,,have ,,been ,a ,,daily ,,inspiration ,,in ,,the ,,work1 ,this ,completed ,task ,,is ,,now ,,dedicated ,,by ,,the ,,author4 ,,preface4 ,illustration ,in treating of so large a theme in so small a compass it is impossible to do more than make an outline sketch4 ,it has been the aim of the author to give reliable information free from minute details and technicalities4 ,that information has been1 for the most part1 gathered through personal experience in the mines4 ,the literature of this special subject is very meagre1 and the author is unable to acknowledge any real indebtedness to more than half a dozen volumes4 ,first among these is the valuable treatise on 8,coal ,mining10 by ,h4 ,m4 ,chance of the ,pennsylvania ,geological ,survey4 ,other volumes from which the author has derived considerable information are the ,state geological reports of ,pennsylvania1 the mine inspector's reports of the same ,state1 and the 8,coal ,trade ,annuals10 issued by ,frederick ,e4 ,saward of ,new ,york4 ,the author desires also to acknowledge his indebtedness for valuable assistance in the preparation of this work to ,john ,b4 ,law and ,andrew ,bryden1 mining superintendents1 and ,george ,johnson1 real estate agent1 all of the ,pennsylvania ,coal ,company1 at ,pittston1 ,pennsylvania1 and to the officers of the ,wyoming ,historical and ,geological ,society of ,wilkes ,barre1 ,pennsylvania4 ,,homer ,,greene4 ,honesdale1 ,pa41 ,may #ae1 #ahhi4 ,,contents4 ,illustration ,,chapter ,,page ,i4 ,,in ,,the ,,beginning #a ,,ii4 ,,the ,,composition ,,of ,,coal #f ,,iii4 ,,when ,,coal ,,was ,,formed #ad ,,iv4 ,,how ,,the ,,coal ,,beds ,,lie #bb ,v4 ,,the ,,discovery ,,of ,,coal #ce ,,vi4 ,,the ,,introduction ,,of ,,coal ,,into ,,use #ea ,,vii4 ,,the ,,way ,,into ,,the ,,mines #ge ,,viii4 ,a ,,plan ,,of ,a ,,coal ,,mine #id ,,ix4 ,,the ,,miner ,,at ,,work #aab ,x4 ,,when ,,the ,,mine ,,roof ,,falls #abg ,,xi4 ,,air ,,and ,,water ,,in ,,the ,,mines #adg ,,xii4 ,,the ,,dangerous ,,gases #aei ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,anthracite ,,coal ,,breaker #agf ,,xiv4 ,,in ,,the ,,bituminous ,,coal ,,mines #aib ,,xv4 ,,the ,,boy ,,workers ,,at ,,the ,,mines #bjd ,,xvi4 ,,miners ,,and ,,their ,,wages #bbb ,,coal ,,and ,,the ,,coal ,,mines4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,in ,,the ,,beginning4 ,every one knows that mineral coal is dug out from the crust of the earth4 ,but the question frequently is asked concerning it1 ,how and under what conditions was it formed8 ,in order to answer this inquiry it is necessary to have recourse to the science of geology4 ,a brief review of the geological history of the earth's crust will be of prime importance1 and it will not be inappropriate to go back to the origin of the earth itself4 ,but no man can begin at the beginning2 that is too far back in the eternal mists2 only the ,infinite ,mind can reach to it4 ,there is a point1 however1 to which speculation can journey1 and from which it has brought back brilliant theories to account for the existence of the planet on which we live4 ,the most philosophic of these theories1 as it certainly is the most popular1 is the one known as the ,nebular ,hypothesis1 propounded by ,laplace1 the great ,french astronomer1 in #agif4 ,this theory accords so well with the laws of physics1 and with the human knowledge of the age1 that most of the great astronomers have adopted it as the best that has been given to us1 and the world of science may be said to have accepted it as final4 ,let us suppose1 then1 in accordance with this theory1 that our earth was1 at one time1 a ball of liquid fire1 revolving on its axis1 and moving1 in its orbit1 around the parent sun with the motion imparted to it in the beginning4 ,as cooling and condensation went on1 a crust was formed on its surface1 and water was formed on the crust4 ,the waters1 however1 were no sooner spread out than they were tossed by the motion of the atmosphere into waves1 and these waves1 by constant friction against the rock crust of the earth1 wore it down into pebbles1 sand1 and mud4 ,the silt thus made being washed up on to the primitive rock and left there by the receding waters became again as hard and firm as before4 ,occasionally a subsidence1 due to the contraction of the earth's body1 would take place and the sea would again sweep over the entire surface1 depositing another layer of silt on the one already formed1 or possibly washing that again into sand and pebbles4 ,this process continued through an indefinite period of time1 forming layer upon layer of stratified rock1 or excavating great hollows in the surface already formed4 ,that period in the history of the earth's crust before stratification began is known as ,archean time4 ,this was followed by the period known as ,paleozoic time1 which is divided into three ages4 ,the first is the age of ,invertebrates4 ,it was during this age that life made its advent on the earth4 ,the waters were the first to bring it forth1 but before the close of the age it began also to appear on the land1 in isolated spots1 in the simplest forms of vegetation4 ,the next age is known as the age of ,fishes1 during which vegetable life became more varied and abundant1 winged insects floated in the air1 and great sharks and gars swam in the seas4 ,then came the ,carboniferous age or age of ,coal ,plants1 in which vast areas of what are now the ,middle1 ,southern1 and ,western ,states were covered with low marshes and shallow seas1 and were rich and rank with multitudinous forms of vegetation4 ,but these marshes were again and again submerged and covered with material washed up by the waves before the final subsidence of the waters left them as a continuing portion of the dry land4 ,it was at the close of the ,carboniferous age that great disturbances took place in the earth's crust4 ,before this the rock strata had been comparatively level2 now they were folded1 flexed1 broken1 rounded into hills1 pushed resistlessly up into mountain ranges4 ,it was at this time that the upheaval of the great ,appalachian ,range in ,north ,america took place4 ,following this came ,mesozoic time1 which had but one age1 the age of ,reptiles4 ,it was during this age that the type of reptiles reached its culmination4 ,the land generally brought forth vegetation1 though not with the prolific richness and luxury of the ,carboniferous age4 ,birds1 insects1 and creeping things were abundant1 and monsters of the saurian tribe swam in the seas1 roamed through the marshes1 crawled on the sandy shores1 and took short flights through the air4 ,the last great division is known as ,cenozoic time1 and covers two ages1 the age of ,mammals and the age of ,man4 ,it was during the mammalian age that trees of modern types1 such as oak1 maple1 beech1 etc41 first made their appearance1 and mammalian animals of great variety and size1 both herbivorous and carnivorous1 roamed through the forests4 ,true birds flew in the air1 true snakes crawled upon the ground1 and in the waters were whales and many kinds of fishes of the present day4 ,but the marine monsters and the gigantic and ferocious saurians of an earlier age had disappeared4 ,so the world became fitted to be the dwelling-place of the human race4 ,then began the age of ,man1 an age which is yet not complete4 ,such1 in brief1 is the history of the earth as the rocks have told it to us4 ,without their help we could know but little of the story4 ,through all the periods of time and all the ages1 they were being formed1 layer upon layer1 of sand and silt1 of mud and pebbles1 hardening with the passing of the centuries4 ,but while they were still soft they received impressions of the feet of birds and of beasts1 they were marked by the waves and were cracked in the fierce heat of the sun1 and their surfaces were pitted by the rain-drops of passing showers4 ,shells1 corals1 and sponges were imbedded in them2 the skeletons of fishes and the bones of animals that walked or crept upon the land or flew in the air were covered over by them2 they caught and held the drooping fern1 the falling leaf and twig and nut2 they closed around the body of the tree itself and buried it from sight2 and as the soil hardened into rock1 bone and shell1 leaf and stem1 hardened with it and became part of it4 ,to-day we find these fossil remains1 sometimes near the surface of the earth1 sometimes hundreds or thousands of feet below it4 ,we uncover them from the soil1 we break them from the rock1 we blast them out in the quarries1 we dig them from the mines of coal and ore4 ,it is by them and by the structure of the rock which contains them that we read the history of the earth1 a history covering so long a period of time from the beginning of the stratification of the rocks to the age when man appeared upon the globe that no one has yet dared to reckon the millions upon millions of years which intervened1 and give the result of his computation to the world as true4 ,illustration3 ,,columnar ,,section ,,of ,,the ,,earth',s ,,crust4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,the ,,composition ,,of ,,coal4 ,the first question that would naturally be asked concerning the subject with which we are dealing is1 ,what is coal8 ,in reply it may be said that it is a mineral4 ,it is black or brown in color1 solid1 heavy1 and amorphous4 ,the specific gravity of the average ,pennsylvania anthracite is about #a4f1 and of the bituminous coal about #a4d4 ,there are four varieties of mineral coal1 namely3 anthracite1 bituminous1 lignite or brown coal1 and cannel coal4 ,to this list it would not be improper to add peat1 since it partakes of most of the characteristics of mineral coal1 and would doubtless develop into such coal if the process of transformation were allowed to continue undisturbed4 ,the principal element contained in each of these different kinds of coal is carbon4 ,an analysis of an average piece of ,pennsylvania anthracite would show the following chemical composition3 ,fixed carbon #hf4d ,ash #f4b ,water #c4g ,volatile matter #c4a ,sulphur 4#f ,total #ajj ,the composition of the bituminous coals of ,pennsylvania1 as represented by the gas coal of ,westmoreland ,county1 is shown by analysis to be as follows3 ,fixed carbon #ee4 ,volatile matter #cg4e ,ash #e4d ,water #a4d ,sulphur 4#g ,total #ajj ,an analysis of coal from the ,pittsburgh region would show its percentage of carbon to be from #eh to #fd1 and of volatile matter and ash to be proportionately less4 ,there is no strict line of demarcation between the anthracite and the bituminous coals4 ,they are classed generally1 according to the amount of carbon and volatile matter contained in them1 as3 ,hard-dry ,anthracites1 ,semi-,anthracite1 ,semi-,bituminous1 ,bituminous4 ,coals of the first class contain from #ia to #ih per cent1 of carbon1 and of the second class from #he to #ij per cent4 ,the volatile matter in the third class is usually less than #ah per cent41 and in the fourth class more than #ah per cent4 of its composition4 ,the anthracite coal is hard and brittle1 and has a rich black color and a metallic lustre4 ,it ignites with difficulty1 and at first burns with a small blue flame of carbonic oxide4 ,this disappears1 however1 when ignition is complete4 ,no smoke is given off during combustion4 ,semi-anthracite coal is neither so hard1 so dense1 nor so brilliant in lustre as the anthracite1 though when once fully ignited it has all the characteristic features of the latter in combustion4 ,it is found principally at the western ends of the anthracite coal basins4 ,bituminous coal is usually deep black in color1 with little or no lustre1 having planes of cleavage which run nearly at right angles with each other1 so that when the coal is broken it separates into cubical fragments4 ,it ignites easily and burns with a yellowish flame4 ,it gives off smoke and leaves a large percentage of ashes after combustion4 ,that variety of it known as caking or coking coal is the most important4 ,this is quite soft1 and will not bear much handling4 ,during combustion it swells1 fuses1 and finally runs together in large porous masses4 ,following the question of the composition of coal comes the question of its origin1 of which1 indeed1 there is no longer any serious doubt4 ,it is generally conceded that coal is a vegetable product1 and there are excellent reasons for this belief4 ,the fragments of which coal is composed have been greatly deformed by compression and decomposition4 ,but when one of those fragments is made so thin that it will transmit light1 and is then subjected to a powerful microscope1 its vegetable structure may readily be distinguished2 that is1 the fragments are seen to be the fragments of plants4 ,immediately under every separate seam of coal there is a stratum of what is known as fire clay4 ,it may1 under the beds of softer coals1 be of the consistency of clay2 but under the coal seams of the harder varieties it is usually in the form of a slaty rock4 ,this fire clay stratum is always present1 and contains in great abundance the fossil impressions of roots and stems and twigs1 showing that it was once the soil from which vegetation grew luxuriantly4 ,it is common also to find fossil tree-stems lying mashed flat between the layers of black slate which form the roof of the coal mines1 also the impressions of the leaves1 nuts1 and seeds which fell from these trees while they were living4 ,in some beds of cannel coal whole trees have been found1 with roots1 branches1 leaves1 and seeds complete1 and all converted into the same quality of coal by which they were surrounded4 ,in short1 the strata of the coal measures everywhere are full of the fossil impressions of plants1 of great variety both in kind and size4 ,if a piece of wood be subjected to heat and great pressure1 a substance is obtained which strongly resembles mineral coal4 ,that coal contains a very large proportion of carbon in its composition has already been noted4 ,if1 therefore1 it is a vegetable product1 the vegetation from which it was formed must have been subjected to some process by which a large part of its substance was eliminated1 since wood or woody fibre contains only from #bj to #be per cent4 of carbon4 ,but wood can be transformed1 by combustion1 into charcoal1 a material containing in its composition #ih per cent1 of carbon1 or a greater percentage than the best anthracite contains4 ,this cannot be done1 however1 by burning wood in an open fire1 for in that case its carbon unites with atmospheric oxygen and passes invisibly into the air4 ,it must be subjected to a process of smothered combustion2 free access of air must be denied to it while it is burning4 ,then the volatile matter will be freed and expelled1 and1 since the carbon cannot come in contact with the oxygen of the air1 it will be retained1 together with a small percentage of ash4 ,the result will be charcoal1 or coal artificially made4 ,the principle on which this transformation is based is combustion or decomposition out of contact with atmospheric air4 ,but ,nature is as familiar with this principle as is man1 and she may not only be discovered putting it in practice1 but the entire process may be watched from beginning to end4 ,one must go1 for this purpose1 first1 to a peat bed4 ,this is simply an accumulation of the remains of plants which grew and decayed on the spot where they are now found4 ,as these remains were deposited each year1 every layer became buried under its succeeding layer1 until finally a great thickness was obtained4 ,when we remove the upper layer we find peat with its #eb to #ff per cent4 of carbon1 and the deeper we go the better is the quality of the substance4 ,it may be cut out in blocks with sharp spades1 the water may be pressed from the blocks1 and they may be stacked up1 covered and dried1 and used for fuel4 ,in most peat bogs the process of growth is going on1 and may be watched4 ,there is a certain kind of moss called sphagnum1 which in large part makes up the peat-producing vegetation4 ,its roots die annually1 but from the living top new roots are sent out each year4 ,the workmen who dig peat understand that if this surface is destroyed the growth of the bed must stop2 consequently in many instances they have removed the sod carefully1 and after taking out a stratum of peat have replaced the sod in order that the bed may be renewed4 ,there is little doubt that if these beds of peat could lie undisturbed and covered over through many ages they would take on all the characteristics of mineral coal4 ,a step farther back in geological history we reach the period of the latest formations of lignite or brown coal4 ,this coal is first found in the strata of the glacial period1 or first period in the age of ,man4 ,but it is found there in an undeveloped state4 ,the woody fibre has not yet undergone the complete transformation into coal4 ,the trunks and branches of trees have indeed become softened to the consistence of soap1 but they still retain their natural color4 ,going back1 however1 to the strata of the ,miocene or second period of the ,tertiary age or age of ,mammals1 we find that this wood has become black1 though it has not yet hardened4 ,but when we reach the upper cretaceous or last period of the age of ,reptiles1 the transformation into coal has become complete4 ,the woody fibre is now black1 hard1 and compact1 though it may still be easily disaggregated by atmospheric action1 and we have the true lignite1 so called because of its apparent woody structure4 ,the next step takes us back to the bituminous coal of the ,carboniferous age1 the character and consistency of which has already been noted1 and finally we reach the complete development in anthracite4 ,it is1 however1 the opinion of the best geologists that the bituminous and anthracite coals are of the same age1 and were originally of the same formation and character4 ,that is1 they were all bituminous2 but during the violent contortions and upheavals of the earth's crust at the time of the ,appalachian revolution at the close of the ,carboniferous age1 the bituminous coals involved in that disturbance were changed by heat1 pressure1 and motion1 and the consequent expulsion of volatile matter1 from bituminous to anthracite4 ,cannel coal is a variety of bituminous coal1 burning with great freedom1 the flame of which affords considerable light4 ,it was called 8candle coal0 by the ,english people who first used it1 as it often served as a substitute for that household necessity4 ,but the name soon became corrupted to 8cannel10 and has so remained4 ,it is duller and more compact than the ordinary bituminous coal1 and it can be wrought in a lathe and polished4 ,a certain variety of it1 found in the lower olitic strata of ,yorkshire in ,england1 is manufactured into a kind of jewelry1 well known by its popular name of jet4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,when ,,coal ,,was ,,formed4 ,it becomes of interest now to examine briefly into the causes and process of the transformation from vegetable substance into coal1 to note the character of the vegetation which went to make up the coal beds1 and to glance at the animal life of the period4 ,as has already been said1 the plants of the ,carboniferous age were exceedingly abundant and luxuriant4 ,they grew up richly from the clayey soil1 and formed dense jungles in the vast marshes which covered so large an area of the earth's surface4 ,ferns1 mosses1 and tufts of surface vegetation1 and the leaves1 branches1 and trunks of trees fell and decayed on the place where they grew1 only to make the soil more fertile and the next growth richer and more luxuriant4 ,year after year1 century after century1 this process of growth and decay went on1 until the beds of vegetable matter thus deposited had reached a great thickness4 ,but condensation was still in progress in the earth's body1 and in consequence of it her crust1 of necessity1 at times contracted and fell4 ,when it did so the land sank throughout vast areas1 these beds of incipient coal went down1 and over the great marshes the waters swept again1 bringing drift of vegetation from higher levels to add to that already buried4 ,then over these deposits of vegetable matter the sand and mud and gravel were laid up anew1 and the clayey soil from which the next rich growth should spring was spread out upon the surface4 ,this process was repeated again and again1 as often1 indeed1 as we find seams of coal in any coal bed4 ,thus the final condition for the formation of coal was met1 the exclusion of atmospheric air from this mass of decaying vegetation was complete1 and under the water of the ocean1 under the sand and silt of the shore1 under the new deposits of succeeding ages1 the transformation went on1 the wood of the ,carboniferous era became the coal of to-day1 while above and below it the sand and clay were hardened into rock and shale4 ,the remarkable features of the vegetation of the coal era were the size and abundance of its plants4 ,trees of that time whose trunks were from one to three feet in diameter1 and which grew to a height of from forty to one hundred feet1 are represented in our day by mere stems a fraction of an inch in diameter and but one or two feet high4 ,a comparison of quantity would show differences as great as does the comparison of size4 ,but at that time all the conditions were favorable for the rapid and enormous growth of vegetation4 ,the air was laden with carbon1 which is the principal food for plants2 so laden1 indeed1 that man1 who is eminently an oxygen-breathing animal1 could not have lived in it4 ,the great humidity of the atmosphere was another element favorable to growth4 ,vegetation never lacked for an abundance of moisture either at root or leaf4 ,then1 too1 the climate was universally warm4 ,over the entire surface of the earth the heat was greater than it is to-day at the torrid zone4 ,it must be remembered that the internal fires of the globe have been constantly cooling and receding1 and that the earth1 in the ,carboniferous age1 was subjected to the greater power of a larger sun than shines upon us to-day4 ,with all these circumstances in its favor1 warmth1 moisture1 and an atmosphere charged heavily with carbon1 vegetation could not help but flourish4 ,that it did flourish amazingly is abundantly shown by its fossil remains4 ,the impressions of more than five hundred different species of plants that grew in the ,carboniferous era have been found in the coal measures4 ,there are few of them that bear any direct analogy to existing species1 and these few have their counterparts only in the torrid zone4 ,the most abundant of the plants of the coal era were the ferns4 ,their fossil remains are found in great profusion and variety in most of the rocks of the coal-bearing strata4 ,there was also the plant known as the tree fern1 which attained a height of twenty or thirty feet and carried a single tuft of leaves radiating from its top4 ,probably the species next in abundance1 as it certainly is next in importance1 to the ferns is that of the ,lepidodendrids4 ,it doubtless contributed the greatest proportion of woody material to the composition of coal4 ,the plants of this species were forest trees1 but are supposed to have been analogous to the low club mosses of the present4 ,fossil trunks of ,lepidodendrids have been found measuring from one hundred to one hundred and thirty feet in length1 and from six to ten feet in diameter4 ,similar in appearance to the ,lepidodendrids were the ,sigillari1 which were also very abundant4 ,the ,conifers were of quite a different species from those already named1 and probably grew on higher ground4 ,they were somewhat analogous to the modern pine4 ,the ,calamites belonged to the horsetail family4 ,they grew up with long1 reed-like1 articulated stems to a height of twenty feet or more1 and with a diameter of ten or twelve inches4 ,they stood close together in the muddy ground1 forming an almost impenetrable thicket1 and probably made up a very large percentage of the vegetation which was transformed into coal4 ,one of the most abundant species of plants of the coal era is that of ,stigmaria4 ,stout stems1 from two to four inches in diameter1 branched downward from a short trunk1 and then grew out in long root-like processes1 floating in the water or trailing on the mud to distances of twenty or thirty feet4 ,these are the roots with which the under clay of every coal seam is usually filled4 ,the plants which have been described1 together with their kindred species1 formed the largest and most important part of the vegetation of the ,carboniferous age4 ,but of the hundreds of varieties which then abounded1 the greater portion reached their highest stage of perfection in the coal era1 and became extinct before the close of ,paleozoic time4 ,other types were lost during ,mesozoic time1 and to-day there is scarcely a counterpart in existence of any of the multitude of forms of plant life that grew and flourished in that far-off age of the world4 ,the animal life of the ,carboniferous era was confined almost entirely to the water4 ,the dry land had not yet begun to produce in abundance the higher forms of living things4 ,there were spiders there1 however1 and scorpions1 and centipedes1 and even cockroaches4 ,there were also land snails1 beetles1 locusts1 and mayflies4 ,reptiles1 with clumsy feet and dragging tails1 prowled about on the wet sands of the shore1 leaving footprints that were never effaced by time or the elements1 and are found to-day in the layers of the rocks1 almost as perfect as when they were formed1 millions of years ago4 ,but the waters teemed with animal life4 ,on the bottom of the shallow seas lay shells and corals in such abundance and variety that from the deposits of their remains great beds of limestone have been formed4 ,broken into minute fragments by the action of the waves and washed up by the sea during periods of submergence1 they were spread over the beds of carboniferous deposits1 and became the rock strata through which the drills and shafts of to-day are sunk to reach the veins of mineral coal4 ,fishes were numerous4 ,some of them1 belonging to species allied to the modern shark1 were of great size1 with huge fin spines fully eighteen inches in length4 ,these spines have been found as fossils1 as have also the scales1 teeth1 and bones4 ,complete skeletons of smaller fishes of the ganoid order were preserved in the rock as it hardened1 and now form fossil specimens which are unequaled in beauty and perfection4 ,besides the fishes1 there were the swimming reptiles2 amphibian monsters1 allied to the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs which were so abundant during the ,reptilian age that followed4 ,these animals are known as enaliosaurs4 ,they attained great size1 being from twenty-five to fifty feet in length2 they had air-breathing apparatus1 and propelled themselves through the water with paddles like the paddles of whales4 ,their enormous jaws were lined with rows of sharp1 pointed teeth1 and their food was fish1 shell-fish1 and any other kind of animal life that came within their reach4 ,they devoured even their own species4 ,living mostly in the open seas or fresh-water lagoons1 they sometimes chased their prey far up the rivers1 and sometimes basked in the sunshine on the sands of the shore4 ,frightful in aspect1 fierce1 and voracious1 they were the terror and the tyrants of the seas4 ,such were the animals1 such were the plants1 that lived and died1 that flourished and decayed1 in the age when coal was being formed and fashioned and hidden away in the crust of the earth4 ,that the fauna and flora of to-day have few prototypes among them should be little cause for regret4 ,there was1 indeed1 hardly a feature in the landscape of the coal era that would have had a familiar look to an inhabitant of the world in its present age4 ,in place of the hills and valleys as we have them now1 there were great plains sloping imperceptibly to the borders of the sea4 ,there were vast marshes1 shallow fresh-water lakes1 and broad and sluggish rivers4 ,save by isolated peaks the ,rocky ,mountains had not yet been uplifted from the face of the deep1 and the great ,west of to-day was a waste of waters4 ,in the wide forests no bird's song was ever heard1 no flashing of a wing was ever seen1 no serpent trailed its length upon the ground1 no wild beast searched the woods for prey4 ,the spider spun his web in silence from the dew-wet twigs1 the locust hopped drowsily from leaf to leaf1 the mayfly floated lightly in the heavy air1 the slow-paced snail left his damp track on the surfaces of the rocks1 and the beetles1 lifting the hard coverings from their gauzy wings1 flew aimlessly from place to place4 ,in seas and lakes and swampy pools strange fishes swam1 up from the salt waters odd reptiles crawled to sun themselves upon the sandy shore or make their way through the dense jungles of the swamps1 and out where the ocean waves were dashing1 fierce monsters of the sea darted on their prey1 or churned the water into foam in savage fights with each other4 ,but in all the world there were no flowers4 ,stems grew to be trunks1 branches were sent out1 leaves formed and fell1 the land was robed and wrapped in the richest1 most luxuriant foliage1 yet the few buds that tried to blossom were scentless and hidden1 and earth was still void of the beauty and the fragrance of the flowers4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,how ,,the ,,coal ,,beds ,,lie4 ,the process of growth1 deposition1 submergence1 and burial1 described in the preceding chapter1 continued throughout the ,carboniferous age4 ,each period of inundation and of the covering over of beds of vegetable deposit by sand and silt is marked by the layers of stratified rock that intervene between1 and that overlie the separate seams of coal in the coal measures of to-day4 ,the number of these coal seams indicates the number of periods during which the growth and decay of vegetation was uninterrupted4 ,this number1 in the anthracite coal regions1 varies from ten to thirty or thereabouts1 but in the bituminous regions it scarcely ever exceeds eight or ten4 ,the thickness of the separate coal seams also varies greatly1 ranging from a fraction of an inch up to sixty or seventy feet4 ,indeed1 there are basins of small extent in the south of ,france and in ,india where the seam is two hundred feet thick4 ,it is seldom1 however1 that workable seams of anthracite exceed twenty feet in thickness1 and by far the largest number of them do not go above eight or ten1 while the seams of bituminous coal do not even average these last figures in thickness4 ,neither is the entire thickness of a seam made up of pure coal4 ,bands of slate called 8partings0 usually run horizontally through a seam1 dividing it into 8benches40 ,these partings vary from a fraction of an inch to several feet in thickness1 and make up from one fifth to one seventh of the entire seam4 ,the rock strata between the coal seams range from three feet to three hundred feet in thickness1 and in exceptional cases go as high as five or six hundred feet4 ,perhaps a fair average would be from eighty to one hundred feet4 ,these rock intervals are made up mostly of sandstones and shales4 ,the combined average thickness of the coal seams of ,pennsylvania varies from twenty-five feet at ,pittsburgh in the western bituminous region to one hundred and twenty feet at ,pottsville in the eastern anthracite district1 and may be said to average about one fiftieth of the entire thickness of the coal measures1 which is placed at #d1jjj feet4 ,some conception may be had of the enormous vegetable deposits of the ,carboniferous era by recalling the fact that the resultant coal in each seam is only from one ninth to one sixteenth in bulk of the woody fibre from which it has been derived1 the loss being mainly in oxygen and hydrogen4 ,it is probable that the coal seams as well as the rock strata had attained a comparative degree of hardness before the close of the ,carboniferous age4 ,it was at the close of this age that those profound disturbances of the earth's crust throughout eastern ,north ,america took place which have already been referred to4 ,hitherto1 through the long ages of ,paleozoic time1 there had been comparative quiet4 ,as cooling and contraction of the earth's body were still going on1 there were doubtless oscillations of surface and subsidence of strata in almost continuous progress4 ,but these movements were very slow1 amounting1 perhaps1 to not more than a foot in a century4 ,yet in ,pennsylvania and ,virginia the sinking of the crust up to the close of the ,carboniferous age amounted to #ce1jjj or #dj1jjj feet4 ,that the subsidence was quiet and unmarked by violent movement is attested by the regularity of strata1 especially of the carboniferous measures1 which alone show a sinking of #c1jjj or #d1jjj feet4 ,neither were the disturbances which followed violent1 nor were the changes paroxysmal4 ,indeed1 the probability is that they took place gradually through long periods of time4 ,they were1 nevertheless1 productive of enormous results in the shape of hills1 peaks1 and mountain ranges4 ,these movements in the earth's crust were due1 as always1 to contractions in the earth's body or reductions in its bulk4 ,on the same principle by which the skin of an apple that has dried without decay is thrown into folds and wrinkles1 the earth's crust became corrugated4 ,there is this difference1 however3 the crust1 being hard and unyielding1 has often been torn and broken in the process of change4 ,naturally these ridges in the earth's surface have been lifted along the lines of least resistance1 and these lines seem to have been1 at the time of the ,appalachian revolution1 practically parallel to the line of the ,atlantic coast1 though long spurs were thrown out in other directions1 isolated dome-shaped elevations were raised up1 and bowl-shaped valleys were hollowed out among the hills4 ,the anthracite coal beds were in the regions of greatest disturbance1 and1 together with the rock strata above and below them1 assumed new positions1 which were inclined at all angles to their old ones of horizontality4 ,more than this1 the heat and pressure of that period exerted upon these beds of coal1 which up to this time had been bituminous in character1 resulted in the expulsion of so large a portion of the volatile matter still remaining in them as to change their character from bituminous to anthracite4 ,although the strata1 in the positions to which they have been forced1 are at times broken and abrupt1 yet as a rule they rise and fall in wave-like folds or ridges4 ,these ridges are called anticlinals1 because the strata slope in opposite directions from a common plane4 ,the valleys between the ridges are called synclinals1 because the strata slope from opposite directions toward a common plane4 ,one result of this great force of compression exerted on the earth's crust was to make rents in it across the lines of strata4 ,these rents are called fissures4 ,sometimes the faces of a fissure are parallel and sometimes they inclose a wedge-shaped cavity4 ,this cavity1 whatever its shape1 is usually filled either with igneous rock that has come up from the molten mass below1 or with surface drift or broken rock fragments that have been deposited there from above4 ,where there is displacement as well as fracture1 that is when the strata on one side of a fissure have been pushed up or have fallen below the corresponding strata on the other side1 we have what is known as a fault4 ,sometimes the displacement seems to have been accomplished with little disturbance to the sides of the fissure2 at other times we find1 along the line of fracture1 evidences of great destruction caused by the pushing up of strata in this way4 ,a fault may reach a comparatively short distance1 or it may traverse a country for miles4 ,the vertical displacement may be only a few inches1 or it may amount to hundreds or thousands of feet4 ,in the bituminous coal regions1 where the strata lie comparatively undisturbed1 faults are but little known4 ,in the anthracite districts they are common1 but not great4 ,illustration3 ,,vertical ,,section ,,through ,,southern ,,coal ,,field4 ,illustration3 ,,vertical ,,section ,,through ,,northern ,,coal ,,field4 ,besides the great folds into which the earth's crust was crowded1 there are usually smaller folds corrugating the slopes of the greater ones1 sometimes running parallel with them1 oftener stretching across them at various angles4 ,a marked instance of this formation is found in the ,wyoming coal basin1 the general coal bed of which is in the shape of a canoe1 about fifty miles long1 from two to six miles broad1 and with a maximum depth of perhaps one thousand feet4 ,running diagonally across this basin1 in practically parallel lines from one extremity to the other1 is a series of gentle anticlinals1 dividing the basin into some thirty smaller synclinal valleys or sub-basins4 ,the irregularities produced by folds1 fissures1 faults1 and partings are not the only ones with which the miner has to deal4 ,so far we have supposed the coal seams to have been laid down in horizontal layers of uniform thickness1 with smooth and regular under and upper surfaces4 ,this is true only in a large sense4 ,as a matter of fact each separate seam varies greatly in thickness1 and its roof and floor are often broken and irregular4 ,the beds of clay on which the deposits were laid were pushed up unevenly by the exuberant growth of vegetation from them4 ,the action of waves and ocean currents made hollows in them1 and laid down ridges and mounds of sand on them1 around and over which the decaying vegetation rose and hardened4 ,the same forces1 together with the action of running streams1 made channels and hollows in the upper surfaces of these beds of incipient coal1 which cavities became filled by sand and gravel1 and this also hardened into rock4 ,these irregularities are found by the miner of to-day in the floor and roof of the coal seam1 and are called rolls1 horses1 or horse-backs4 ,when the coal seam thins out so rapidly that the floor and roof come nearly together1 this state of things is called a pinch1 or squeeze1 though the latter term is more properly applied to the settling of the roof rock after the coal has been mined out4 ,the inequalities of a coal seam that have now been mentioned1 although perhaps but a small portion of those that are daily met with in the process of mining1 are neverthless characteristic of the whole4 ,the hills and mountain ranges that were thrown up at the close of the ,carboniferous age were many times higher and broader then than they are to-day4 ,heat and cold and the storms of a thousand centuries1 working by disintegration and erosion1 have worn away their substance1 the valleys and low lands are filled with it1 and the rivers are always carrying it down to the sea4 ,the peaks and the crests have been the portions of the elevations that have suffered most4 ,it is often as though the tops of the anticlinal folds had been sliced off for the purpose of filling the valleys with them to the level of the decapitated hills4 ,a great part of the coal measures have thus wasted away2 in some portions of the anthracite district by far the greater part1 including many valuable coal seams4 ,when a fold or flexure of the earth's crust has been decapitated in the manner mentioned1 the exposed edge of any stratum of rock or coal is called its outcrop4 ,the angle of inclination at which any stratum descends into the earth is called its dip4 ,the direction of a horizontal line drawn along the face of a stratum of rock or coal is its strike4 ,it is obvious that the strike must always be at right angles to the dip4 ,that is1 if the dip is downward toward the east or toward the west1 the direction of the strike must be north and south4 ,it is now apparent that if one begins at the outcrop of a coal seam and traces the course of the seam downward along the line of dip1 his path will lie down the inclination for a longer or shorter distance1 until the bottom of the synclinal valley is reached4 ,this is known as the basin or swamp4 ,here the seam may be comparatively level for a short distance2 more often it has a mild vertical curve1 and starts up the dip on the other side of the valley1 which inclination may be followed till the outcrop is reached4 ,if now the decapitated portion of the fold could be replaced in its natural position1 we could trace the same seam up to and over the anticlinal axis and down upon the other side4 ,as it is1 we must cross on the surface from the outcrop to the place where the corresponding seam enters the earth4 ,in the southern and eastern anthracite coal districts of ,pennsylvania decapitation of folds to a point below the coal measures is general2 the coal seams dip into the earth with a very sharp pitch1 and the coal basins are often very deep and very narrow1 striking into the earth almost like a wedge4 ,in the northern or ,wyoming district decapitation is not so general1 the angle of inclination of strata is mild1 and the basins are wide and comparatively shallow4 ,in the bituminous districts1 where the disturbance to the earth's crust has been slight1 the coal beds lie very nearly as they were formed1 the dip seldom exceeding an angle of five degrees with the horizon4 ,the exposures here are due generally to the erosive action of water4 ,illustration3 ,,old ,,opening ,,into ,,an ,,out-,,crop ,,of ,,the ,,baltimore ,,vein4 ,the carboniferous measures are the highest and latest geological formation in the great coal fields of the ,united ,states4 ,therefore where the strata have not been disturbed by flexure the coal seams lie near the surface4 ,this is generally the case in the bituminous districts1 and it is also partially true in the northern anthracite coal field4 ,deep mining is necessary only in the middle and southern anthracite coal fields1 where the folds are close and precipitous1 and the deep and narrow basins formed by them have been filled with deposits of a later geologic age4 ,some of the difficulties to be met and overcome in mining coal will by this time have been appreciated by the reader4 ,but some of them only4 ,the inequalities of roof and floor1 the pitching seams1 the folds and faults and fissures1 all the accidents and irregularities of formation and of location1 make up but a few of the problems which face the mining engineer4 ,but the intellect and ingenuity of men have overcome most of the obstacles which ,nature placed in the way of successful mining when she hardened the rocks above her coal beds1 crowded the earth's crust into folds1 and lifted the mountain ranges into the air4 ,it will not be out of place at this time to make mention of those localities in which coal is found4 ,indeed1 there are few countries on the globe in which there are not carboniferous deposits of greater or less extent4 ,great ,britain1 with ,ireland1 has about #ab1jjj square miles of them4 ,in ,england alone there is an area of #h1aci square miles of workable coal beds4 ,in continental ,europe the coal fields are numerous1 but the character of the deposit is inferior4 ,coal is found also in the ,asiatic countries1 in ,australia1 and in ,south ,america2 and in ,nova ,scotia and ,new ,brunswick there is an area of #ah1jjj square miles of coal measures4 ,the combined areas of coal measures in the ,united ,states amount to about #ahe1jjj square miles4 ,the ,appalachian or ,alleghany region contains about #fj1jjj square miles1 included in the ,states of ,pennsylvania1 ,virginia1 ,west ,virginia1 ,maryland1 ,ohio1 ,kentucky1 ,tennessee1 ,georgia1 and ,alabama4 ,the ,illinois and ,missouri region contains also about #fj1jjj square miles1 and has areas not only in the ,states named1 but also in ,indiana1 ,iowa1 ,kentucky1 ,kansas1 and ,arkansas4 ,michigan has about #e1jjj and ,rhode ,island about #ejj square miles4 ,there are also small areas in ,utah and ,texas1 and in the far ,west there are workable coal fields in ,colorado1 ,dakota1 ,indian ,territory1 ,montana1 ,new ,mexico1 ,washington1 ,wyoming ,territory1 ,oregon1 and ,california4 ,the entire coal area of the ,united ,states1 with the exception of that in ,rhode ,island and a few outlying sections in ,pennsylvania1 contains coal of the bituminous variety only4 ,both the area and supply are therefore practically without limit4 ,in the coal regions of ,rhode ,island the disturbances affecting the earth's crust have been very violent4 ,the motion1 heat1 and compression have been so great as to give the rocks associated with the coal measures a true metamorphic or crystalline structure1 and to transform the coal itself into an extremely hard anthracite2 in some places1 indeed1 it has been altered to graphite4 ,the flexures of the coal formation are very abrupt and full of faults1 and the coal itself is greatly broken and displaced4 ,its condition is such that it cannot be mined with great profit1 and but little of it is now sent to market4 ,the only areas of readily workable anthracite in the ,united ,states are therefore in ,pennsylvania4 ,these are all east of the ,alleghany ,mountains1 and are located in four distinct regions4 ,the first or ,southern ,coal ,field extends from the ,lehigh ,river at ,mauch ,chunk1 southwest to within a few miles of the ,susquehanna ,river1 ending at this extremity in the form of a fish's tail4 ,it is seventy-five miles in length1 averages somewhat less than two miles in breadth1 and has an area of one hundred and forty square miles4 ,it lies in ,carbon1 ,schuylkill1 and ,dauphin counties4 ,the second or ,western ,middle field1 known also as the ,mahanoy and ,shamokin field1 lies between the eastern headwaters of the ,little ,schuylkill ,river and the ,susquehanna ,river4 ,it has an area of about ninety square miles1 and is situated in the counties of ,schuylkill1 ,columbia1 and ,northumberland4 ,it lies just north of the ,southern field1 and the two together are frequently spoken of as the ,schuylkill ,region4 ,the ,eastern ,middle or ,upper ,lehigh field lies northeast of the first two fields1 and is separated into nine distinct parallel canoe-shaped basins4 ,these extend from the ,lehigh ,river on the east to the ,catawissa ,creek on the west1 and comprise an area of about forty miles4 ,they are principally in ,luzerne ,county1 but extend also into ,carbon1 ,schuylkill1 and ,columbia counties4 ,the ,northern or ,wyoming field is a crescent-shaped basin about fifty miles long and from two to six miles broad1 with an area of about two hundred square miles4 ,its westerly cusp is just north of the ,eastern ,middle field1 and it extends from that point northeasterly through ,luzerne and ,lackawanna counties1 just cutting into ,wayne and ,susquehanna counties with its northern cusp4 ,it lies in the valleys of the ,susquehanna and ,lackawanna rivers1 and in it are situated the mining towns of ,plymouth1 ,wilkes ,barre1 ,pittston1 ,scranton1 and ,carbondale4 ,there is also a fifth district1 known as the ,loyalsock and ,mehoopany coal field1 lying in ,sullivan and ,wyoming counties4 ,it is from twenty to twenty-five miles northwest of the ,wyoming and ,lackawanna field1 its area is limited1 and its coals are not true anthracite4 ,it will thus be seen that aside from this last field the anthracite coal area of ,pennsylvania contains about four hundred and seventy square miles4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,the ,,discovery ,,of ,,coal4 ,although it has been within comparatively recent times that coal has come into general use as a fuel1 yet there can be no doubt that it was discovered1 and that its qualities were known1 many centuries ago4 ,to prove its use by the ancients1 mention is sometimes made of a passage from the writings of ,theophrastus1 a pupil and friend of ,aristotle and for many years the head of the peripatetic school of philosophy4 ,this passage dates back to about #cjj ,b4 ,c41 and is as follows3 8,those substances that are called coals and are broken for use are earthy1 but they kindle and burn like wooden coals4 ,they are found in ,liguria where there is amber1 and in ,elis over the mountains toward ,olympus4 ,they are used by the smiths40 ,the word 8coal10 however1 as used in the ,bible and other ancient books1 usually means charcoal1 or burning wood4 ,it is claimed1 and not without plausibility1 that coal was mined in ,britain prior to the ,roman invasion4 ,the cinder heaps found among ruins of the time of ,roman supremacy in the island point to quite an extensive use of coal by the people of that age4 ,but no writings have been found recording the use of coal prior to #heb ,a4 ,d4 ,in that year twelve cartloads of 8fossil fuel10 or 8pit coal10 were received by the abbey of ,peterborough in ,england1 and the receipt was recorded4 ,it is said that coal first began to be systematically mined in ,great ,britain about the year #aahj4 ,it is certain that by the end of the thirteenth century the exportation of coal from ,newcastle was considerable1 and the new fuel had come to be largely used in ,london4 ,but the people of that city conceived the idea that its use was injurious to the health of the inhabitants generally4 ,the coal1 being of the bituminous variety1 burned with considerable flame and gave off a good deal of smoke1 and the ignorance of the people led them into the belief that the air was contaminated and poisoned by the products of combustion4 ,so they presented a petition to ,parliament asking that the burning of coal be prohibited in the city of ,london4 ,not only was the prayer of the petitioners granted1 but in order to render the prohibition effectual an act was passed making it a capital offense to burn the dreaded fuel4 ,this was in the reign of ,edward ,i41 and is characteristic of the policy of that strong1 unyielding king1 whose ends1 great and just perhaps1 were too often attained by harsh and cruel means4 ,the coal industry was checked1 but it was not destroyed2 for1 half a century later1 we find ,edward ,,iii4 granting a license to the inhabitants of ,newcastle 8to dig coals and stones in the common soil of the town without the walls thereof in the place called the ,castle ,field and the ,forth40 ,afterward this town1 owing to the fine coal beds in its vicinity1 became one of the great centres of the ,british coal trade1 from which fact doubtless arose that ancient saying concerning useless trouble or labor1 that it is like 8carrying coals to ,newcastle40 ,in ,scotland coal was mined in the twelfth century and in ,germany in the thirteenth1 and the ,chinese had already become familiar with its use4 ,but in ,paris the same prejudice was excited against it that had prevailed in ,london1 and it did not come into use in that city as a household fuel until about the middle of the sixteenth century4 ,this was also the date of its introduction into ,wales1 ,belgium1 and other ,european countries4 ,that coal was familiar1 in appearance at least1 to the natives of ,america1 long before the feet of white men ever pressed ,american soil1 cannot well be doubted4 ,they must have seen it at its numerous outcrops2 perhaps they took pieces of it in their hard hands1 handled it1 broke it1 powdered it1 or cast it away from them as useless4 ,indeed1 it is not improbable that they should have known something of its qualities as a fuel4 ,but of this there is no proof4 ,the first record we have of the observation of coal in this country was made by ,father ,hennepin1 a ,french explorer1 in #afgi4 ,on a map of his explorations he marked the site of a coal mine on the bank of the ,illinois ,river above ,fort ,crevecur1 near the present town of ,ottawa4 ,in his record of travel he states that in the country then occupied by the ,pimitoui or ,pimitwi ,indians 8there are mines of coal1 slate1 and iron40 ,the oldest coal workings in ,america are doubtless those in what is known as the ,richmond or ,chesterfield coal bed1 near ,richmond in ,chesterfield and ,powhatan counties in the ,state of ,virginia4 ,it is supposed that coal was discovered and mined there as early as #agej4 ,but by whom and under what circumstances the discovery was made we have only tradition to inform us4 ,this says that one day1 during the year last named1 a certain boy1 living in that vicinity1 went out into an unfrequented district on a private and personal fishing excursion4 ,either the fish bit better than he had thought they would1 or for some other cause his supply of bait ran out1 and it became necessary for him to renew it4 ,hunting around in the small creeks and inlets for crawfish with which to bait his hook1 he chanced to stumble upon the outcrop of a coal bed which crosses the ,james ,river about twelve miles above ,richmond4 ,he made his discovery known1 and further examination disclosed a seam of rich bituminous coal1 which has since been conceded to be a formation of ,mesozoic time rather than of the ,carboniferous age4 ,mining operations were soon begun1 and were carried on so successfully that by the year #agge the coal was in general use in the vicinity for smithing and domestic purposes4 ,it played a part in the war for independence by entering into the manufacture of cannon balls1 and by #aghi it had achieved so much of a reputation that it was being shipped to ,philadelphia1 ,new ,york1 and ,boston1 and sold in those markets4 ,but the mines were operated by slave labor1 and mining was carried on in the most primitive fashion for three quarters of a century4 ,so late as #ahfj the improved systems of mining1 long in use in the ,north1 were still comparatively unknown at the ,virginia mines4 ,during the war of the rebellion these mines were seized by the ,confederate government and operated by it1 in order to obtain directly the necessary fuel for purposes of modern warfare2 and upon the cessation of hostilities the paralysis which had fallen upon all other ,southern industries fell also upon this4 ,but with the revival of business1 mining was again begun in the ,richmond field1 and from #ahgd to the present time the industry has prospered and grown1 and ,virginia has furnished to the country at large a considerable amount of an excellent quality of bituminous coal4 ,this coal bed covers an area of about #ahj square miles1 and has an average thickness of twenty-four feet4 ,it is supposed to contain about #ej1jjj1jjj of tons yet unmined4 ,another of the early discoveries of coal in the ,united ,states was that of the ,rhode ,island anthracite bed in #agfj4 ,mines began to be regularly worked here in #ahjh1 but only about #gej1jjj tons1 all told1 have been taken from them4 ,for reasons which have been already given these mines cannot be profitably worked in competition with the anthracite mines of ,pennsylvania1 in which the location and formation of the coal beds are greatly superior4 ,it is impossible to say when the coal of the great bituminous district of ,pennsylvania and ,ohio was first seen by white men4 ,in the summer of #agee ,general ,braddock led his army through western ,pennsylvania by a military road to that terrible defeat and slaughter in which he himself received his death wound4 ,this road1 laid out by the army's engineers and graded by its men1 was so well built that its course can still be traced1 and it is seen to have crossed the outcrop of the ,pittsburgh coal seam in many places4 ,it is not improbable that a large number of the soldiers in the ,english army were familiar with the appearance of coal1 and knew how to mine it and use it4 ,indeed1 ,colonel ,james ,burd1 who was engaged in the construction of the road1 claims to have burned about a bushel of this coal on his camp-fire at that time4 ,some of the ,english soldiers who survived that terrible disaster to their arms afterward returned and purchased lands in the vicinity1 and it is reasonable to suppose that the coal was dug and put to use by them4 ,a lease1 still in existence1 dated ,april #aa1 #agfg1 making a grant of lands on 8,coal ,pitt ,creek10 in ,westmoreland ,county1 indicates that there were coal openings there at that date4 ,captain ,thomas ,hutchins1 who visited ,fort ,pitt 7now ,pittsburgh7 in #agfj1 mentions the fact that he found an open coal mine on the opposite side of the ,monongahela ,river1 from which coal was being taken for the use of the garrison4 ,from #aggj to #aggg it was common for maps of certain portions of the ,ohio ,river country to have marked on them sites of coal beds along the shores of that stream in regions which are now known to contain seams of the great bituminous deposit4 ,probably the ,susquehanna ,river region was the first in which this coal was dug systematically and put to use4 ,it was burned by blacksmiths in their forges1 and as early as #aghe the river towns were supplied with it by ,samuel ,boyd1 who shipped it from his mines in arks4 ,in #ahac ,philip ,karthaus took a quantity of coal to ,fort ,deposit1 and sent it thence by canal to ,philadelphia4 ,after this he sent cargoes regularly to ,philadelphia and ,baltimore1 and sold them readily at the rate of thirty-three cents per bushel4 ,this trade was stopped1 however1 by the building of dams across the ,susquehanna1 and it was not until many years afterward that the mineral resources of this section of the coal field were developed again through the introduction of railroads4 ,in the ,pittsburgh region the demand for coal increased with the increase of population1 and at the beginning of the present century it was in general use1 not only in the manufacturing industries but also as a domestic fuel1 throughout that section of country4 ,the first coal sent from ,pittsburgh to an eastern market was shipped to ,philadelphia in #ahjc4 ,it was carried by the ,louisiana1 a boat of #cej tons burden1 and was sold at the rate of thirty-seven and a half cents per bushel4 ,from that time the increase in the mining of bituminous coal in the ,pittsburgh region has been steady and enormous4 ,its presence1 its quality and abundance1 have induced the establishment of great manufacturing enterprises in that section of the ,state1 and many millions of tons of it are sent every year to the markets of the seaboard4 ,pennsylvania was a region much in favor with the ,north ,american ,indians1 and it is more than probable that they were aware1 to some extent1 of the existence of mineral wealth beneath her soil1 long before white men ever came among them4 ,besides the numerous outcroppings of coal which1 in their journeyings1 they must have crossed and recrossed for centuries1 there were many places where the coal seams1 having been cut through by creeks and rivers1 were exposed fully to view4 ,in this way1 in the ,wyoming district1 the seven feet vein along the ,nanticoke ,creek had been disclosed1 and the nine feet vein on ,ransom's ,creek at ,plymouth2 while at ,pittston the ,susquehanna ,river had bared the coal seams in the faces of its rocky banks1 and up the ,lackawanna the black strata were frequently visible4 ,but whatever knowledge the ,indians had on the subject was1 with proverbial reticence1 kept to themselves4 ,it is said that about the year #agej a party of ,indians brought a bag of coal to a gunsmith living near ,nazareth in ,pennsylvania1 but refused to say where they had obtained it4 ,the gunsmith burned it successfully in the forge which he used for the purpose of repairing their guns4 ,the presumption that the ,indians knew something of the uses of coal1 and actually mined it1 is borne out by the following incident3 ,in the year #agff a trader by the name of ,john ,anderson was settled at ,wyoming1 and carried on a small business as a shopkeeper1 trading largely with the red men4 ,in ,september of that year a company of six ,nanticoke1 ,conoy1 and ,mohican ,indians visited the governor at ,philadelphia1 and made to him the following address3 8,brother1,as we came down from ,chenango we stopped at ,wyoming1 where we had a mine in two places1 and we discovered that some white people had been at work in the mine1 and had filled three canoes with the ore2 and we saw their tools with which they had dug it out of the ground1 where they had made a hole at least forty feet long and five or six feet deep4 ,it happened formerly that some white people did take1 now and then1 only a small bit and carry it away1 but these people have been working at the mine1 and have filled their canoes4 ,we desire that you will tell us whether you know anything of this matter1 or if it be done by your consent4 ,we inform you that there is one ,john ,anderson1 a trader1 now living at ,wyoming1 and we suspect that he1 or somebody by him1 has robbed our mine4 ,this man has a store of goods there1 and it may happen when the ,indians see their mine robbed they will come and take away his goods40 ,there is little doubt that the mines referred to were coal mines4 ,the presence of coal on the same side of the river a few miles below ,wyoming was certainly known1 if not at that time then very soon afterward2 for in #agfh ,charles ,stewart made a survey of the ,manor of ,sunbury opposite ,wilkes ,barre for the 8,proprietaries'0 government1 and on the original map of the survey 8stone coal0 is noted as appearing on the site of what is now called ,rosshill4 ,this valley of ,wyoming1 the seat of such vast mineral wealth1 was first settled by people from ,connecticut in #agfb1 and in the fall of that year they reported the discovery of coal4 ,these energetic1 enterprising ,yankee settlers could not fail to know the location of the coal beds before they had been long in the valley4 ,some of them were probably familiar with the ,english bituminous coals1 which were then being exported in small quantities to ,america under the name of 8sea coal20 and from the fact that our anthracite was known to them as 8stone coal0 it is probable that there were those among them who knew that the ,english people had a very hard coal which they could not burn1 and to which they had given the name 8stone coal40 ,specimens of this ,wyoming valley stone coal had already been gathered and sent to ,england for examination4 ,indeed1 there is no doubt that the first anthracite coal ever found by white men in the ,united ,states was discovered in this valley4 ,but these ,yankee settlers could not make their stone coal burn4 ,repeated trials met with repeated failures4 ,there was one among them1 however1 ,obadiah ,gore1 a blacksmith1 who would not be discouraged4 ,in #agfi he took a quantity of these coals to the blacksmith's shop conducted by him and his brother1 put them in his forge1 and continued his efforts and experiments until finally the black lumps yielded to his persistency1 and he had the satisfaction of seeing the blue flames dart from them1 and the red color creep over them1 and of feeling the intense heat sent out by their combustion4 ,but their ignition and burning were dependent upon the strong air current sent through them by the bellows2 without that he could do nothing with them4 ,so this ,yankee blacksmith1 who was afterwards one of the associate judges of the courts of ,luzerne ,county1 became1 so far as is known1 the first white man to demonstrate practically the value of anthracite coal as a fuel4 ,the success of ,gore's experiments soon became known1 other smiths began to recognize the merits of the lately despised stone coal1 and it was not long before the forge fires of nearly every smithy in the region were ablaze with anthracite4 ,the fame of the new fuel soon spread beyond the limits of the valley1 and if the difficulties of transportation checked its use elsewhere1 the knowledge of how to use it in forges and furnaces was not uncommon4 ,the demand for it overcame1 at times1 even the obstacles in the way of shipment1 and it was sent to points at long distances from the mines4 ,in #aggf the proprietary government of ,pennsylvania had an armory at ,carlisle in that ,state1 in which they were manufacturing firearms to be used by the ,continental troops in the war with ,great ,britain2 and the first coal ever sent out from the ,wyoming valley was shipped by them to ,carlisle during that year and the succeeding years of the war1 for use in their armory4 ,the next discoveries of anthracite were made in what is now known as the ,southern coal field4 ,it had long been a matter of tradition among the stolid ,german farmers of ,pennsylvania that coal existed in the rugged hills along the ,lehigh ,river1 but no one succeeded in finding it there until the year #agia4 ,it was then discovered by one ,philip ,ginther1 a hunter and backwoodsman1 who had built a rough cabin in the forest near the ,mauch ,chunk mountain1 and there gave to himself and his family a precarious support by killing game1 large and small1 carrying it to the nearest settlement1 and exchanging it at the village store for the necessaries of life4 ,telling the story afterward1 himself1 he said that at one time the supply of food in his cabin chanced to run out1 and he started into the woods with his gun in quest of something which should satisfy the hunger of those who were at home4 ,it was a most unsuccessful hunting expedition4 ,the morning passed1 the afternoon went by1 night approached1 but his game-bag was still empty4 ,he was tired1 hungry1 and sadly disappointed4 ,a drizzling rain set in as he started homeward across the ,mauch ,chunk mountain1 darkness was coming rapidly on1 and despondency filled his mind as he thought of the expectant faces of little ones at home to whom he was returning empty-handed4 ,making his way slowly through the thick1 wet undergrowth1 and still looking about him1 if perchance something in the way of game might yet come within the range of his gun1 his foot happened to strike a hard substance which rolled away before him4 ,he looked down at it1 and then bent over and picked it up1 and saw by the deepening twilight that it was black4 ,he was familiar with the traditions of the country concerning the existence of stone coal in this region1 and he began to wonder if this1 indeed1 was not a specimen of it4 ,he carried the black lump home with him that night1 and the next day he set out with it to find ,colonel ,jacob ,weiss at ,fort ,allen1 now ,weissport1 to whom he exhibited what he had found4 ,colonel ,weiss became deeply interested in the matter1 and brought the specimen to ,philadelphia1 where he submitted it to the inspection of ,john ,nicholson1 ,michael ,hillegas1 and ,charles ,cist4 ,these men1 after assuring themselves that it was really anthracite coal1 authorized ,colonel ,weiss to make such a contract with ,ginther as would induce him to point out the exact spot where the mineral was found4 ,it happened that the hunter coveted a vacant piece of land in the vicinity containing a fine water-power and mill-site1 and on ,colonel ,weiss agreeing to obtain a patent for him from the ,state for the desired lot of land1 he very readily gave all the information in his possession concerning the 8stone coal40 ,in the ,pottsville district of the ,southern anthracite region coal was discovered at about the same time as in the ,mauch ,chunk field4 ,this discovery too was made by accident1 and the discoverer in this case also was a hunter1 ,nicholas ,allen4 ,he had been out with his gun all day1 and at nightfall had found himself too far away from his home to make the attempt to reach it4 ,he accordingly built a fire under a projecting ledge at the foot of ,broad ,mountain1 and1 lying down by it1 soon fell asleep4 ,he was wakened in the night by a strong light shining on his eyes1 and by the sensation of great heat4 ,springing to his feet1 he discovered that the ledge itself was burning1 or1 as he afterward expressed it1 8that the mountain was on fire40 ,he could not understand the phenomenon1 and remained in the vicinity until morning1 when he saw1 by daylight1 that what he had thought to be a ledge of rocks was really a projecting outcrop of mineral coal1 which had become ignited from his camp-fire of sticks4 ,whether this story is or is not authentic1 it is certain that no practical results attended the discovery of coal in this region4 ,it was not until twenty-six years after ,obadiah ,gore's experiments in the ,wyoming valley that coal was successfully burned here in a blacksmith's forge4 ,the attempt was made by one ,whetstone1 and met with the same marked success that had attended the earlier effort4 ,but owing to the difficulty still ordinarily experienced in combustion1 the coal of this region was not generally used until after the year #ahjf4 ,in that year ,david ,berlin1 another blacksmith1 experimented with it in his forge1 with such complete success that a new impetus was given to the coal trade1 mining was resumed1 and the new fuel came into general use in the blacksmiths' shops of the vicinity4 ,in the ,middle anthracite district coal was not discovered until #ahbf4 ,this discovery also was made by a hunter1 ,john ,charles4 ,on one of his hunting expeditions he chanced to find a groundhog's hole1 and1 laying down his rifle1 he began to dig for his game4 ,in the course of the excavation he uncovered a projecting shelf of stone coal4 ,he made his discovery known1 further explorations were set on foot1 the coal bed was located1 and a company called the ,hazleton ,coal ,company was formed to work the field4 ,from these several points of discovery the search for anthracite coal was extended in all directions1 the limits of the beds were eventually defined1 and each field was surveyed and mapped with much care4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,the ,,introduction ,,of ,,coal ,,into ,,use4 ,at the beginning of the present century the anthracite or stone coal was in general use1 in all the districts where it was found1 as a fuel for the blacksmith's fire and the iron worker's forge4 ,this1 however1 was the limit of its utility4 ,it was thought to be necessary to force a strong artificial air current up through it to make it burn1 and since this could not well be done in grates1 stoves1 or furnaces1 there was no demand for coal for domestic use1 or for the great manufacturing industries4 ,efforts were indeed made to overcome this difficulty4 ,schemes without number were set on foot and abandoned4 ,it was proposed1 at one time1 to force air through a tube to the under part of the grate by means of clockwork operated by a weight or by a spring4 ,but the cost of such an arrangement made it impracticable4 ,it seems1 however1 that ,weiss1 ,cist1 and ,hillegas1 who were developing the discovery made by ,ginther in the ,mauch ,chunk mountain1 also solved the problem of burning the stone coal without an artificial draft4 ,they had sent specimens of their coals to ,philadelphia1 and presumably had accompanied them with instructions as to the proper method of burning them4 ,this presumption is borne out by certain letters sent to ,jacob ,cist of ,wilkes ,barre1 a son of ,charles ,cist the printer1 who was in company with ,weiss and ,hillegas4 ,two of these letters are now in the possession of the ,wyoming ,historical and ,geological ,society at ,wilkes ,barre4 ,an extract from one of them reads as follows3 8,i have experienced the use of them0 7the ,lehigh coals7 8in a close stove and also in a fireplace that may be closed and opened at pleasure1 so constructed1 as to cause a brisk current of air to pass up through a small contracted grate on which they were laid4 ,i find them more difficult to be kindled than the ,virginia coal1 yet a small quantity of dry wood laid on the grate under them is sufficient to ignite them1 which being done1 they continue to burn while a sufficient amount be added to keep up the combustion1 occasionally stirring them to keep down the ashes4 ,they produce no smoke1 contain no sulphur1 and when well ignited exhibit a vivid bright appearance1 all which render them suitable for warming rooms40 ,this letter is dated 8,philadelphia1 ,feb4 #aeth #ahjc10 and is signed 8,oliver ,evans40 ,the second letter is similar in its recommendation and report of success1 and states that the writer1 8,fredk ,graff1 clerk of the ,water ,works of ,phila 444 made a trial of the ,lehigh coals in the year #ahjb in the large stove at the ,pennsylvania ,bank in ,phila40 ,so far as is known these are the first recorded instances of any successful attempts to burn anthracite coal in grates and stoves4 ,dr4 ,james of ,philadelphia has also left on record the fact that he made constant use of anthracite coal for heating purposes from the year #ahjd4 ,these well-authenticated instances of the use of anthracite appear to destroy the commonly accepted belief that ,judge ,jesse ,fell of ,wilkes ,barre was the first person whose attempts to burn this coal in an open grate were rewarded with complete success4 ,nevertheless the value of ,judge ,fell's experiments cannot be questioned1 nor can he be deprived of the full measure of credit due to him for bringing those experiments to a successful issue4 ,until the year #ahjh all efforts in the ,wyoming valley to burn the 8stone coal0 of the region without an artificial air blast had utterly failed4 ,people did not believe that it could be done4 ,the successes of ,evans and ,graff in this direction were either not known or not credited4 ,it is certain that ,judge ,fell had not heard of them4 ,his opinion that this coal could be made to burn in an open fireplace was based wholly on the reasoning of his own mind4 ,he was a member of the ,society of ,friends1 and had come to ,wilkes ,barre some years before from ,berks ,county4 ,he was a blacksmith by trade1 the proprietor of the best hotel in town1 and he came afterward to be one of the associate judges of ,luzerne ,county4 ,when he had fully considered the matter of burning the stone coal1 and had reached definite conclusions1 he began to experiment4 ,at first he constructed a grate of green hickory sticks1 and the presumption is that the fire he kindled in it was a success2 for he began1 immediately afterward1 to make an iron grate similar to the grates now in use4 ,the work was done by his nephew ,edward ,fell and himself in the blacksmith shop of the former1 and was completed in a single day4 ,judge ,fell took the grate home late in the afternoon and set it with brick in the fireplace of his bar-room4 ,in the evening he kindled in it1 with oak wood1 a glowing coal fire1 and invited a large number of the most respected citizens of the place to come in and see the stone coal burn4 ,only a few came1 however1 in response to his invitation2 they believed his theory to be impracticable1 and feared that they might be made the victims of a hoax4 ,but to those who came the fire was a revelation4 ,it cleared the way for immense possibilities4 ,judge ,fell himself realized the importance of his discovery1 and thought the incident worthy of record4 ,being a devoted member of the order of ,free and ,accepted ,masons1 he chose from his library a book entitled 8,the ,free ,mason's ,monitor10 and wrote on the fly-leaf1 in a clear1 bold hand1 this memorandum3 8,fe'b #aath1 of ,masonry #ehjh4 ,made the experiment of burning the common stone coal of the valley in a grate in a common fire place in my house1 and find it will answer the purpose of fuel2 making a clearer and better fire1 at less expense1 than burning wood in the common way4 ,signed ,,jesse ,,fell4 8,,borough ,,of ,,wilkesbarre1 ,february #aath #ahjh40 ,the complete success of ,judge ,fell's experiment was soon noised abroad1 and a new era of usefulness for anthracite coal set in4 ,from ,wilkes ,barre up and down the entire ,wyoming valley fireplaces for wood were discarded and grates were set for the burning of the new domestic fuel4 ,this was followed1 not long after1 by the introduction of stoves1 so that by #ahbj1 says ,stewart ,pearce in his 8,annals of ,luzerne ,county10 grates and coal stoves were in general use throughout the valley1 coal for domestic purposes selling at three dollars per ton4 ,at the time of ,judge ,fell's experiment there was no outside market for the product of the mines of the ,wyoming valley4 ,the distances to the large cities and manufacturing centres were too great1 the means of transportation too rude1 and the knowledge of the use of anthracite too limited1 to warrant any serious effort to create a foreign market for it4 ,the attempt had nevertheless been made in #ahjg by ,abijah ,smith1 who shipped an ark-load of coal down the ,susquehanna ,river to ,columbia1 and was obliged to leave it there unsold4 ,in #ahjh the experiment was repeated by ,abijah and his brother ,john1 who1 profiting by the success of ,judge ,fell's late experiment1 took with them an iron grate1 set it up at ,columbia1 and proceeded to demonstrate to the doubting inhabitants the practical value of their coal as a domestic fuel4 ,the venture proved successful1 and after this they found no difficulty in selling at the river towns all the coal they could mine4 ,after #ahab they extended their trade by running their coal to ,havre de ,grace1 and sending it thence by schooner to ,new ,york4 ,the success which attended the efforts of the ,smiths appears to have been an inducement to other enterprising citizens of the ,wyoming valley to embark in the coal trade1 and in #ahac and #ahad ,colonel ,george ,m4 ,hollenback1 ,colonel ,lord ,butler1 ,joseph ,wright1 ,esq41 and ,crandal ,wilcox all engaged in the mining and shipping of coal4 ,they sent the product of the mines down the river in arks1 and up to #ahcj #he1jjj tons had been mined in the valley for such shipment4 ,after that year coal was sent by the ,north ,branch ,canal just completed to ,nanticoke1 and in #ahdf the ,lehigh and ,susquehanna ,railroad pierced the valley1 and opened a new era in transportation4 ,so it came about that this region1 which in #ahjg opened the anthracite coal trade with a shipment of fifty-five tons1 sent to market in #ahhg a grand total of #ai1fhd1ibi tons4 ,illustration3 ,,map ,,showing ,,anthracite,,coal,,fields -,,of- ,,pennsylvania ,in the mean time ,weiss1 ,cist1 and ,hillegas pushed their coal enterprise on the ,mauch ,chunk mountain1 opening what was afterward known as the ,great ,summit ,mine1 and in #ahjc started six ark-loads of coal down the ,lehigh ,river1 to be floated to its junction with the ,delaware1 and thence to ,philadelphia4 ,only two of the arks reached their destination1 the others having met with disaster on the way1 owing to swift currents and unskillful navigation4 ,of the two cargoes that arrived safely at ,philadelphia not a lump could be sold4 ,the owners made strenuous efforts to find a market for it1 but people did not wish to purchase a fuel that they could not make burn4 ,at last the city authorities were appealed to1 and1 after some hesitation1 they agreed to take the coal and try to make use of it for a steam-engine employed at the city waterworks4 ,this they did2 but all their attempts to make the alleged fuel burn proved unavailing4 ,they finally gave up the task in disgust1 declared the coal to be a nuisance1 and caused what remained of it to be broken up and spread on the footpaths of the public grounds1 in place of gravel4 ,this was indeed a most ignominious failure4 ,it caused a sudden cessation of mining operations at ,summit ,hill1 and for several years the ,lehigh ,mine ,company1 utterly discouraged1 made no effort to retrieve its fallen fortunes4 ,william ,turnbull attempted to revive the project a few years later1 but his effort also met with a dismal failure4 ,in #ahac ,charles ,miner1 ,jacob ,cist1 and ,john ,w4 ,robinson1 all of ,wilkes ,barre1 renewed the enterprise at ,summit ,hill with great energy1 and on the #ith of ,august1 #ahad1 started their first ark-load of coal down the river to ,philadelphia4 ,before it had gone eighty rods from the place of starting it struck a ledge which tore a hole in the bow of the boat1 8and10 ,mr4 ,miner says1 8the lads stripped themselves nearly naked to stop the rush of water with their clothes40 ,after many and varied adventures on the swift currents of the rivers the ark reached its destination on the following ,sunday morning at eight o'clock1 having been five days on the way4 ,its arrival had been anticipated by its owners1 and they had called public attention to its cargo by means of handbills printed in both ,english and ,german1 and distributed freely throughout the city4 ,these handbills1 besides advertising the coal1 gave information as to the method of burning it in grates1 stoves1 and smith's forges4 ,they were also accompanied by printed certificates from blacksmiths and others attesting the value and availability of the ,lehigh coal as a fuel4 ,the owners of the ark went still farther4 ,they put up stoves in conspicuous public places in the city1 built coal fires in them1 and invited the people to stop and inspect them4 ,they went to private houses and prevailed on the inmates to be allowed to kindle anthracite fires in the grates which had been built for the use of ,liverpool coals4 ,they attended at blacksmith's shops1 and even bribed the journeymen to give their coals a fair trial in the forge4 ,thus1 by persistent and industrious1 nay by presumptuous1 efforts1 these men succeeded in awakening public interest in their enterprise1 and in creating a demand for their wares4 ,the proprietors of the ,lehigh coals gave particular attention also to the instruction of the people in the matter of igniting the new fuel4 ,having once disabused them of the idea that a strong artificial air current was necessary1 the next step was to prevent them from disturbing the coals constantly by poking1 punching1 and raking them1 a proceeding which the uninitiated seemed to consider of prime importance1 in order to induce them to ignite4 ,and1 strange as it may seem1 this fallacy was the hardest to overcome4 ,among the purchasers of the ,lehigh coals in #ahad was the firm of ,white ,hazard1 manufacturers of iron wire at the falls of the ,schuylkill4 ,they had been told by ,mr4 ,joshua ,malin1 proprietor of a rolling mill1 that he had succeeded in using the new fuel1 and as the ,virginia coal was very scarce at that time1 ,white ,hazard decided to test the qualities of the anthracite4 ,they purchased a cart-load of it1 paying a dollar a bushel for it1 and took it to their works4 ,here they tried to build a fire with it in their furnace1 giving it what they considered the most skillful manipulation and the most assiduous attention4 ,their efforts were in vain4 ,the entire cart-load was wasted in a futile attempt to make the coals burn4 ,nothing daunted1 they obtained another cartload1 and determined to spend the night1 if need should be1 in the work of building a coal fire4 ,and they did spend the night4 ,but when morning came they were apparently as far from the attainment of their object as ever4 ,they had poked and punched and raked2 they had labored incessantly2 but notwithstanding the most constant manipulation1 the coals above the burning wood would not sufficiently ignite4 ,by this time the men were disheartened and disgusted1 and slamming the door of the furnace1 they left the mill in despair1 and went to breakfast4 ,it happened that one of them had left his jacket in the furnace room1 and returning for it about half an hour later1 he discovered that the furnace door was red-hot4 ,in great surprise he flung the door open and found the interior glowing with intense white heat4 ,the other hands were immediately summoned1 and four separate parcels of iron were heated and rolled by the same fire before it required renewing4 ,seeking for the cause of this unexpected result the men came to the conclusion that it was due to simply letting the fire alone1 a theory the correctness of which they afterward abundantly proved4 ,thus1 by chance1 these men hit upon the secret of success in the matter of building a fire of anthracite coals4 ,that secret is simply to throw the coals loosely on the burning wood1 and then let them alone4 ,the incident at ,white ,hazard's mills becoming generally known1 people learned more from it about the process of building a coal fire than they had learned from all their previous instruction4 ,nevertheless the enterprise of the ,lehigh operators was still not destined to meet with success4 ,they had embarked in the coal trade in #ahad1 while the war with ,great ,britain was still in progress1 when it was impossible to procure coal from ,england1 and when coal from the ,richmond district was very scarce4 ,they were therefore able to obtain fourteen dollars per ton for the ,lehigh coal1 but even at this price the cost and risk of mining and shipping was so great that the business was barely a paying one4 ,in #ahae1 however1 peace was concluded with ,great ,britain1 the market was again opened to the reception of foreign coals1 and the ,lehigh operators1 being unable to compete with the sellers of soft coal1 were obliged to abandon the field4 ,notwithstanding the efforts and energy of these proprietors the ,summit ,hill mining industry did not pay1 and in #ahag the mines passed into the hands of ,josiah ,white and ,erskine ,hazard4 ,they perfected a system of slack-water navigation on the ,lehigh1 and in #ahbj made their first shipment of #cfe tons4 ,the tables commonly printed showing the growth of the anthracite coal trade usually make that trade begin with this shipment of ,lehigh coal in #ahbj4 ,this1 however1 is not quite correct1 as we have seen that coal was sent to market from the ,wyoming region at a much earlier date4 ,it is remarkable that1 whereas in #ahbj the #cfe tons of ,lehigh coal stocked the market1 in #ahca1 the year in which the system of slack water navigation was superseded by shipment on the ,delaware division of the ,pennsylvania ,canal1 this region sent down #dj1iff tons4 ,and in #ahhg there was sent to market from the ,lehigh district a total of #d1cdg1jfa tons1 an amount which would have been much greater had not a prolonged strike of coal miners seriously interfered with the output4 ,in the ,schuylkill region of the ,southern coal field similar obstacles to the introduction of coal were encountered4 ,nicholas ,allen1 the discoverer of coal in that region1 had formed a partnership with ,colonel ,george ,shoemaker1 and the firm had purchased a tract of coal land near ,pottsville1 on which they began mining operations in the year #ahab4 ,they raised several wagon loads of coal1 and offered it for sale in the vicinity1 but with the exception of a few blacksmiths1 who had been taught its value as a fuel by ,colonel ,shoemaker1 no one could be found to purchase it4 ,allen soon became disheartened and sold his entire interest in the property to his partner1 who1 still persisting in the enterprise1 mined a considerable quantity of the coal1 filled ten wagons with it1 and took it to ,philadelphia in quest of a market4 ,but it did not meet with a ready sale4 ,people looked at the coals curiously1 considered them to be nothing more than black stones1 and1 seeing no reason why they should burn better than stones of any other color1 would not buy them4 ,colonel ,shoemaker sounded the praises of his wares so vigorously and persistently1 however1 that at last a few purchasers were induced to take them in small quantities1 just for trial4 ,the trials1 as usual1 proved to be unsuccessful1 and the people who had purchased the coals1 believing they had been victimized1 denounced ,colonel ,shoemaker as a cheat and a swindler2 while one person1 whose wrath rose to a high pitch1 procured a warrant for the colonel's arrest1 on the charge that he was a common impostor4 ,at this stage of the proceedings1 ,colonel ,shoemaker1 believing discretion to be the better part of valor1 quietly left the city and started toward his home by a circuitous route1 driving1 it is said1 some thirty miles out of his way1 in order to avoid the officer of the law holding the warrant for his arrest4 ,this was indeed a discouraging beginning for the ,schuylkill coal trade4 ,fortunately1 however1 not all of the colonel's customers at ,philadelphia had met with failure in the effort to burn his coal4 ,messrs4 ,mellen ,bishop1 a firm of iron factors in ,delaware ,county1 at the earnest solicitation of ,colonel ,shoemaker1 made the experiment with the small quantity of coals purchased by them1 and finding that the fuel burned successfully they announced that fact through the ,philadelphia newspapers4 ,other iron workers were thus induced to try the coal1 and finally all the furnaces along the ,schuylkill had open doors for it4 ,eventually it came into use for the purpose of generating steam1 the experiments of ,john ,price ,wetherill in that direction having been only partially satisfactory1 but those at the ,phnixville iron works in #ahbe meeting with complete success4 ,still the prices which coal commanded in the ,philadelphia market were not sufficient to pay for the labor of mining it and the cost of shipping it4 ,so that1 prior to #ahah1 nearly all the coal mined in the ,schuylkill region was sold to the blacksmiths of the surrounding country4 ,in that year1 however1 the improvements of the ,schuylkill navigation were completed1 and afforded an additional1 though not by any means safe or sufficient1 outlet for the products of the mines4 ,by #ahbf and #ahbg the growing importance of the coal trade became manifest1 the ,schuylkill navigation system was placed in excellent repair1 and the mining business of the district grew rapidly to enormous proportions4 ,the northeasterly extension of the ,wyoming coal basin1 leaving the ,susquehanna ,river at ,pittston1 follows the valley of the ,lackawanna up to a point seven miles beyond ,carbondale1 where it cuts slightly into the counties of ,wayne and ,susquehanna1 and there runs out4 ,this extension is known as the ,lackawanna region4 ,coal was dug up and experimented with here at the beginning of the present century4 ,its outcrop at the river bank was noted by ,preston1 a surveyor1 in #ahjd4 ,in #ahab it was mined at ,providence and burned in a rude grate by ,h4 ,c4 ,l4 ,von ,storch4 ,about this time the brothers ,william and ,maurice ,wurts1 having been attracted by the mineral wealth of the region1 came there from ,philadelphia and began explorations for the purpose of ascertaining the location1 area1 and quality of the beds of anthracite coal4 ,william1 the younger brother1 in the course of his wanderings through the rugged hills and thick forests of the country1 chanced to meet a hunter by the name of ,david ,nobles1 who1 having fled from the adjoining county of ,wayne to avoid imprisonment for debt1 was leading a precarious existence in the woods4 ,nobles was well acquainted with the country1 knew where the outcroppings of coal were1 and having entered into the service of ,wurts1 rendered him most valuable assistance4 ,their investigations having proved the presence of large bodies of coal1 the ,wurts brothers next procured title to the lands containing it1 and then turned their attention to the problem of finding an outlet to market4 ,they decided finally to ship coal on rafts by the ,wallenpaupack ,creek to the ,lackawaxen1 by the ,lackawaxen to the ,delaware1 and thence to ,philadelphia4 ,this method was experimented on from #ahad to #ahbb with varying degrees of disaster4 ,in the year last mentioned they succeeded in taking to ,philadelphia #ajj tons of coal1 only to find the market flooded with #b1bdj tons of ,lehigh coal4 ,competition was apparently hopeless2 but instead of abandoning the enterprise1 as men of less energy and perseverance would now have done1 ,maurice ,wurts turned his attention to a new project4 ,this was nothing less than to make an outlet to the ,new ,york market by building a canal which should reach from the ,hudson ,river at ,rondout1 across to the ,delaware at ,port ,jervis1 and thence up that stream and the ,lackawaxen to the nearest practicable point east of the coal beds4 ,but when that point should be reached there would still be the ,moosic ,mountain1 with its towering heights and precipitous bluffs1 lying between the boats and the mines4 ,the ,wurts brothers did not acknowledge this to be a serious obstacle4 ,they proposed to overcome this difficulty by building across the mountains a railroad1 which should consist largely of inclined planes1 the cars to be drawn up and let down these planes by means of stationary steam-engines1 and to move along the stretches between the planes by force of gravity4 ,having formed their plans they set to work to carry them out4 ,they procured the necessary legislation from the ,states of ,new ,york and ,pennsylvania1 they secured a charter in #ahbc-be for a corporation known as the ,delaware and ,hudson ,canal ,company1 and by dint of supreme personal effort they succeeded in obtaining capital enough to begin and carry on the work4 ,in #ahbh the canal was completed to its terminus at ,honesdale1 the gravity railroad having been already constructed from the coal fields to that point1 and in #ahbi the company began to ship coal to tide-water on the ,hudson4 ,it was a bold and ingenious scheme1 and for those days it was an enterprise of immense proportions4 ,that these two men conceived it and earned it out in the face of great difficulties and against overwhelming odds entitles them to a place in those higher orders of genius that are touched with the light of the heroic4 ,the ,lackawanna region has been pierced by many other lines of railway1 and to-day by these great highways a vast amount of ,lackawanna coal is sent to the eastern cities and the seaboard4 ,but as a rule1 men who invested their money in coal lands in the early days after the discovery of coal lost the amount of the investment4 ,they1 with prophetic vision1 saw the comfort1 the commerce1 the manufactures1 of a nation dependent on the products of the coal mines1 but the people at large could not see so far4 ,these pioneers made ready to supply an anticipated demand1 but it did not come4 ,talking did not bring it4 ,exhibitions of the wonderful utility of the black coals served to arouse but a passing interest4 ,no other product of the globe which has obtained a position of equal importance ever had to fight its way into public favor with such persistent effort through so many years4 ,but when at last its worth became generally recognized1 when the people had reached the conclusion that they wanted it1 and its value in dollars had become fixed and permanent1 then the pioneers of the industry had vanished from the field2 they were disheartened1 destitute1 or dead2 new hands and brains took up the work1 matured the plans of the elders1 and reaped the fortunes of which former generations had sown the seed4 ,in the beginning the coal lands were mostly divided into small tracts1 and held by persons many of whom thought to open mines on their property and carry on the business of mining as an individual enterprise4 ,this plan of work was partially successful so long as coal could be dug from the outcrop and carted away like stones from a quarry2 but when it became necessary1 as it soon did1 to penetrate more deeply into the earth for the article of trade1 then the cost of shafting1 tunneling1 and mining in general usually exceeded the resources of the individual operator1 and either he succumbed to financial distress1 or disposed of his mining interests to men or firms with more money4 ,as the art of mining advanced with its necessities1 it was learned1 sometimes after bitter experience1 that the business was profitable only when a large amount of capital was behind it4 ,therefore men who had invested a few thousand dollars transferred their interests to men who had a few hundred thousand to invest1 and these1 in turn1 associating other capitalists with them1 doubled or trebled the investment or ran it into the millions1 forming companies or corporations to accomplish with their more perfect organization that which would be impossible to the individual4 ,so it has come about that in these later days the individual operators have given place largely to the corporations2 those who still remain in the field often operating their mines on a small capital at great disadvantage4 ,in the bituminous regions1 however1 this rule does not hold good4 ,there the coal lies near the surface1 is accessible1 and easily mined4 ,it needs only to be carried to the river bank and screened as it is loaded into boats and started on its way to market4 ,compared with the anthracite regions1 it requires but a small capital here to sustain an extensive plant1 and produce a large quantity of coal4 ,therefore we find1 as we should expect to find1 that in the bituminous districts the bulk of the coal is produced by individuals1 firms1 and small companies4 ,in the anthracite regions1 however1 this rule is reversed4 ,of the #cf1bjd1jjj tons of anthracite produced in the year #ahhg1 #af1aji1chg tons1 or nearly one half1 were mined by five great companies2 namely3 ,the ,philadelphia and ,reading2 ,delaware and ,hudson2 ,delaware1 ,lackawanna1 and ,western2 ,lehigh ,valley2 and ,pennsylvania ,coal ,company4 ,the immense out-put of as many more large corporations left but a very small proportion of the total product to the small companies1 firms1 and individuals4 ,it follows1 as a matter of course1 that the acreage of coal lands held by these companies bears the same proportion to the total acreage that their coal out-put bears to the entire coal out-put4 ,that is1 they either own or hold under lease the great bulk of the coal beds of the anthracite regions4 ,the value of coal lands varies with the number1 thickness1 and accessibility of the coal seams contained in it4 ,in the very early days of anthracite mining these lands were purchased from farmers and others at from twenty and thirty dollars to one hundred dollars per acre4 ,before #ahej the price had advanced1 in the ,wyoming region1 to from seventy-five dollars to two hundred dollars per acre4 ,recently a piece of coal land was sold in this region for #a1bjj per acre1 and another piece1 containing thirty-six acres1 was sold at the rate of #a1ejj per acre4 ,perhaps from #hjj to #a1jjj per acre might be considered an average price4 ,in the ,middle and ,southern anthracite regions the coal lands are of still greater value2 not because the quality of the mineral is better1 nor because the market for it is more accessible1 but because the coal seams dip at a greater angle1 and1 therefore1 a given number of acres contains a larger amount of coal4 ,the system of leasing coal lands to coal operators is a very common one1 especially in the ,wyoming valley1 where the surface is so richly adapted to agricultural uses4 ,the proprietor can1 in this way1 retain the use of the soil1 and at the same time reap a handsome profit from the development of the mineral deposits beneath it4 ,he invests no capital1 runs no risk1 and is sure of a steady income4 ,as it is usual to work leased coal seams1 wherever convenient1 from openings made on the adjoining lands owned by the company1 it is not often that the surface of leased property is interfered with1 or if it is1 but a comparatively small area of it is taken4 ,the contract of lease usually stipulates that a certain royalty shall be paid to the lessor for each ton of coal mined1 and it binds the lessee to mine not less than a certain number of tons each year2 or at least to pay royalties on not less than a certain number of tons each year1 whether that number is or is not mined4 ,twenty years or more ago coal lands in the ,wyoming district could be leased at the rate of ten cents per ton4 ,lately a large body of coal land was rented to the ,lehigh ,valley ,coal ,company at forty-five cents per ton1 and it is said that one proprietor at ,kingston has been offered a lease at fifty cents per ton1 and has refused it4 ,perhaps from twenty-five cents to thirty-five cents per ton would be an average rate4 ,as an example of the immense purchases made by these companies1 it may be noted that the ,philadelphia and ,reading ,company1 in #ahga1 purchased one hundred thousand acres of coal lands in the ,schuylkill region1 at a cost of forty millions of dollars4 ,and as an example of the amount of business done in a year1 it may be noted that the ,delaware and ,hudson ,canal ,company paid in #ahhg #e1jai1adg4af for the single item of mining coal1 and that their coal sales for the same year amounted to #aj1ajj1aah4fi4 ,this concentration of coal lands and coal mining in the hands of great corporations1 aside from its tendency to stifle healthy competition1 is productive of many benefits4 ,coal can be mined much cheaper when the mining is done on a large scale4 ,this is the rule1 indeed1 in all productive industries4 ,an enterprise backed by the combined capital of many individuals is more certain to become successful and permanent than an enterprise inaugurated by1 and carried on with1 the entire capital of a single individual4 ,especially is this the rule in a business attended with as much risk as is the business of coal mining4 ,one person may put his entire fortune of two or three hundred thousand dollars into a single colliery4 ,a depression in the coal trade1 a strike among the miners1 an explosion1 or a fire would be very apt to bring financial ruin on him4 ,a company1 with its great resources and its elastic character1 can meet and recover from an adverse incident of this kind with scarcely a perceptible shock to its business4 ,it is simply one of the items of loss which it is prepared to cover with a larger item of profit4 ,there is also the additional assurance that all work that is done will be well done4 ,the most careful observations and calculations are made of the amount and quality of included coal in any tract of land before it is purchased1 and the best surveyors are employed to mark out the boundary lines of lands4 ,the services of the most skillful mining engineers are retained1 at salaries which no individual operator could afford to pay4 ,their forces are well organized1 their mining operations are conducted with system and economy1 and they are able to keep abreast of the age in all inventions and appliances that insure greater facility in mining and manufacturing1 and greater safety to the workmen4 ,their employees are paid promptly at stated periods1 and the possibility of a workman losing his wages by reason of neglect or failure on the part of his employer is reduced to a minimum4 ,in general1 it may be said that the control of the anthracite coal business by the great corporations1 rather than by individual operators1 is an undoubted benefit1 not only to all the parties in direct interest1 but to commerce and society as a whole4 ,the only danger to be feared is from an abuse of the great powers to which these companies have attained2 a danger which1 thus far1 has not seriously menaced the community4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,the ,,way ,,into ,,the ,,mines4 ,a wise coal operator never begins to open a mine for the purpose of taking out coal until he knows the character of the bed and the quality of the mineral4 ,this knowledge can only be obtained by an exhaustive search for1 and a careful examination of1 all surface indications1 and by drilling or boring holes down to and through the strata of coal4 ,this is called 8prospecting40 ,the examiner in a new field will first look for outcrops4 ,he will follow up the valleys and inspect the ledges and the banks of streams4 ,if he be so fortunate as to find an exposure of the coal seams1 or of any one of them1 he will measure its thickness1 will calculate its dip and strike1 and will follow its outcrop4 ,he will also study and make careful note of the rock strata with which it is associated1 for by this means he may be able to determine the probability of other seams lying above or below it4 ,this examination of the rock strata he will make1 whether coal is visible or not visible4 ,it will be of much service to him4 ,for instance1 it is known that the great ,baltimore vein in the ,wyoming valley is usually overlaid by a coarse red sandstone4 ,if the examiner finds rock of this character in that section1 he has good reason to hope that coal lies beneath it4 ,under the lowest coal seam of the anthracite beds there is found1 as a rule1 a rock known as the conglomerate4 ,if1 therefore1 the explorer finds an outcrop of conglomerate1 he will know that1 as a rule1 he need not look for coal beyond it4 ,this rock1 coming to the surface on the westerly side of the ,moosic range of mountains1 marks the limit of the ,lackawanna coal field toward the east4 ,no one1 having once studied the conglomerate rock1 could mistake it for any other1 though its composition is very simple4 ,it is nothing more than white1 water-worn quartz pebbles1 held together by a firm1 lead-colored cement4 ,but it is a rock of unusual hardness and durability4 ,it is proof against the erosive action of water1 grows harder by exposure to the air1 and has a consistency that approximates to that of iron4 ,in the coal districts it is used largely for building purposes1 where heavy walls and foundations are required4 ,experience has taught that there are no coal seams below the conglomerate1 so that wherever this is found as a surface rock1 or wherever it is pierced by the drill1 it is usually unnecessary to explore below it4 ,if no coal outcrop is found1 the bed of a stream is searched for fragments of the mineral1 and1 if any are discovered1 they are traced to their source4 ,coal is sometimes exposed where a tree has been uprooted by the wind1 and pieces of it have been found in the soil thrown out at a groundhog's burrow4 ,wagon roads crossing the country may be scanned for traces of the 8smut0 or 8blossom40 ,this is the decomposed outcrop1 which has become mingled with the soil1 and may be more readily distinguished in the bed of a traveled road than elsewhere4 ,other surface indications failing1 the topographical features of this section of country should be studied4 ,wherever the coal seams come to the surface1 being softer than the rock strata above and below them1 they are disintegrated and eroded more rapidly by the action of the atmosphere and the elements4 ,this wearing away of the exposed coal leaves the surface outline in the form of a bench or terrace1 which follows the line of the outcrop4 ,and this form is retained even with a thick deposit of soil over the edges of the strata4 ,small shafts may be sunk or tunnels driven through this thickness of earth1 and the outcrop explored in this way4 ,this process of examination is of more value in the bituminous than in the anthracite regions1 since the bituminous coal1 being soft1 is more rapidly eroded1 and the terrace formation resulting from such erosion is more distinct and certain4 ,in these days1 in the anthracite coal fields1 there is hardly an area of any great extent in which mines have not been actually opened4 ,these mines1 therefore1 in the facilities they afford for studying exposed strata and developed coal seams1 offer the best means of acquiring knowledge concerning the coal beds of adjoining tracts4 ,in a country where no surface indications of coal are found over a large area1 it is hardly worth while to explore for it by boring4 ,in the anthracite regions of ,pennsylvania the limits of the coal beds are now so accurately defined that it is seldom necessary to bore for the purpose of testing the presence of coal4 ,but it is always advisable1 before opening a mine in a new field1 to test the depth1 dip1 and quality of the coal and the character of the seams by sinking one or more bore holes4 ,surface measurements of a seam are1 at best1 very uncertain1 as indications of its continuing character4 ,the angle of dip may change radically before a depth of one hundred feet shall be reached4 ,and coal undergoes so great deterioration by long exposure to the atmosphere that1 in order to judge the quality of a coal bed1 it is necessary to have a specimen fragment from it that has been hidden away in the rocks4 ,hence the necessity of boring4 ,hand drills were generally used in the early days of prospecting1 and a sand pump drew out the sludge or borings for examination4 ,this was superseded by the spring pole method1 which in turn gave way to the rope method in use in the oil regions1 the borings in each case being carefully preserved for inspection4 ,the diamond drill is the one now in common use in the coal regions4 ,its cutting end is in the form of a circle set with black1 amorphous diamonds4 ,it cuts an annular groove in the rock as it descends1 forming a core1 which is withdrawn with the drill1 and which may be examined in vertical section4 ,the sludge is washed out by a stream of water which passes down through the centre of the drill rod1 and is forced back to the surface between the rod and the face of the bore hole4 ,the invention of this rotary cutting drill is due to ,leschot of ,geneva1 and the method of flushing the hole to ,flauvelle4 ,after having obtained all possible information concerning his coal property1 and1 if he be wise1 embodying it in the form of maps1 the coal operator must decide where he shall make an opening for mining purposes1 and what kind of an opening he shall make4 ,the answers to these two questions are1 to a certain extent1 dependent on each other1 as certain kinds of openings must be located at certain places4 ,when coal was first gathered for experiment or observation1 it was taken up loosely from the ground1 where it had fallen or been broken down from the outcrop of some seam4 ,as it came into demand for practical purposes1 it was quarried from this outcrop backward and downward1 as stones for building purposes are now quarried1 the seam being uncovered as the work proceeded4 ,this process was followed along the line of the outcrop1 but excavations were not made to any considerable depth1 owing to the great expense of uncovering the coal4 ,the open quarry system of mining coal has been successfully practiced in ,america in but a few places4 ,one of these was the great ,summit ,hill open mine1 near ,mauch ,chunk1 where the ,lehigh coal was first discovered4 ,here1 on a hill-top1 was a horizontal coal bed1 some sixty acres in extent1 and varying in thickness from fifteen to fifty feet4 ,over this was a covering of rock1 slate1 and earth from three to fifteen feet in thickness4 ,this bed was mined by simply removing the covering and taking the coal out as from a quarry4 ,other examples of this method are seen at ,hollywood ,colliery1 and at ,hazleton ,no4 #f ,colliery1 both near ,hazleton1 in ,luzerne ,county4 ,there are isolated instances of this method of stripping elsewhere in the anthracite regions1 but as a rule the conditions are not favorable for it4 ,ordinarily there are four methods of making an entrance into a mine for the purpose of taking out coal4 ,these are known as the drift1 the tunnel1 the slope1 and the shaft4 ,to the early miners the drift was the favorite mode of entry4 ,finding an exposed seam of coal in the face of a ledge or cliff1 they would dig in on it and bring the coal out from the opening in wheelbarrows4 ,a place was selected1 if possible1 where a creek or river ran at the base of the ledge1 and the coal was dumped from the wheelbarrow directly into a boat4 ,in default of a water way a wagon road was built at the foot of the hill or cliff1 a platform extended out over it1 and the coal was thus loaded from the wheelbarrow into the wagon4 ,illustration3 ,,cross ,,section ,,of ,,drift ,,or ,,gangway ,,with ,,timbers ,,and ,,lagging4 ,the modern drift1 though fashioned on an improved plan1 is the simplest and least expensive way of making an entrance into a coal mine4 ,the outline of the proposed opening is first marked out on the edge of the exposed coal seam4 ,from fifteen to eighteen feet is an ordinary width to accommodate two tracks1 and ten feet will readily accommodate one4 ,seven feet is an average height1 though1 if the seam be comparatively flat1 the coal will be taken down until the rock is reached1 even though a greater height should be attained4 ,with this width and height the opening is cut into the hill through the coal seam4 ,the floor of the drift must have a constant upward grade as it progresses inward1 in order that the water may run out1 and that loaded cars may be hauled more easily4 ,the mouth of the drift must be above the level of the adjacent valley or stream1 so that the water may be carried away1 and the drift is therefore what is known as a water-level opening4 ,it is usually necessary to support the roof and sides of the drift by timbers joined together in the form of a bent1 and placed more or less closely to each other4 ,these timbers are also sometimes lined by sticks placed behind and over them horizontally1 and known as 8lagging40 ,it will be seen that the conditions under which the opening by drift may be made place a serious limitation on the use of this method4 ,it will also now be seen why the drift is the simplest and most economical mode of making an entrance to a mine4 ,in this method there is no expense for removing earth or for cutting through rock1 nor any cost at any time of pumping water or of hoisting coal4 ,when the fact is remembered that it sometimes costs from #ej1jjj to #ajj1jjj to sink a deep shaft through hard rock1 and that to this amount must be added the cost of buildings1 machinery1 and repairs1 and the perpetual cost of pumping water and of hoisting coal1 the economy of the drift method will be appreciated4 ,but the day of drift mining in the anthracite regions has gone by4 ,those portions of the coal beds lying above water level have been largely mined out1 and the areas of coal that are now accessible by drift are very limited4 ,in the bituminous districts1 however1 where the seams lie comparatively flat and the coal is mostly above water level1 the method by drift is still almost universally used4 ,next to a drift1 the tunnel is the simplest and most economical method1 under certain circumstances1 of making an entrance into a mine4 ,this is a passage driven across the measures1 and at right angles to the seam1 in order to reach coal which at the point of opening is not exposed4 ,the tunnel is usually driven into the side of a hill4 ,the earth is first dug away until the rock is exposed1 or1 if the soil be too deep for that1 only enough of it is taken to make a vertical face for the mouth of the tunnel4 ,the opening is then driven into the hill at about the same width and height that a drift would be made1 and in practically the same manner4 ,if there is a section of earth tunneling at the mouth1 the timbering must be close1 and the lagging will be of heavy planks4 ,when the solid rock is reached1 however1 it is not often that any timbering is necessary1 the sides and roof being so hard and firm as not to need support4 ,this passage is driven against the face of a coal seam1 and when the coal is finally reached the tunnel proper ends1 a passage is opened to the right and one to the left along the strike of the seam1 and from these gangways the coal is mined4 ,the tunnel1 like the drift1 must be above water level1 and its floor must have a descending grade toward the mouth1 to carry off water4 ,the expense of the tunnel1 and its superiority to the slope or shaft1 will depend upon the distance through which the rock must be pierced before coal is reached4 ,it is especially advisable1 therefore1 before opening a tunnel1 to have an accurate map of the location and dip of the coal seams to be struck by it1 otherwise no approximate calculation can be made of the extent or cost of the work4 ,in the anthracite districts1 where the seams are sharply pitching1 tunnels are driven in the interior of a mine from the workings of a seam already opened across the intervening measures to strike an adjacent seam4 ,in this way two1 three1 or more coal seams can be worked1 and the coal can all be brought out at one surface opening4 ,this is virtually the only kind of tunneling that is now done in the anthracite regions2 for1 as has already been explained1 the coal that lay above water level and was thus accessible by tunnel has now been mostly mined out4 ,if there is an outcrop of coal on the tract to be mined1 and the dip of the seam is more than twenty degrees1 it is usually advisable to enter the mine by means of a slope4 ,this is a passage which1 beginning at the outcrop1 follows the coal seam down until the necessary depth is reached4 ,it is driven in the coal4 ,the distinction between the drift and the slope is that the drift is driven from the surface on the strike of the seam while the slope is driven on its dip4 ,where the coal seam comes within a moderate distance of the surface1 as at an anticlinal ridge1 a slope may be driven through the rock until the coal is reached at the axis1 and from that point follow the seam down4 ,sometimes a shaft is sunk to the top of an anticlinal ridge1 and from its foot two slopes are driven1 one down each side of the roll1 in opposite directions4 ,if the seam is very irregular1 or if it is much broken by faults1 there may be a great deal of rock cutting to be done in order to preserve the uniformity of grade necessary for the slope4 ,the cost may1 indeed1 in this case1 amount to more than would have been sufficient to sink a shaft to the same depth1 although1 as a rule1 the entrance by slope should cost only about one fourth of that by shaft4 ,illustration3 ,,cross ,,section ,,of ,,slope ,,with ,,double ,,track4 ,the same methods are employed in sinking a slope as are used in driving a drift1 except that generally the timbering need not be so heavy4 ,the minimum height of the slope is about #f feet1 the width at the top1 or collar1 about #h feet1 and the width at the bottom1 or spread1 about #ab feet4 ,if a double track is desired the spread should be #ah feet and the collar #ad feet4 ,in the ,wyoming region1 where the dip is usually less than twenty degrees1 with infrequent outcrops1 the slope is not in general use2 but in the ,southern coal field1 where the dip varies from twenty degrees to the vertical1 the slope is the most common method of entering a mine4 ,there the opening is driven down for a distance of #cjj feet1 at which point gangways are started out to right and left1 along the strike1 and chambers driven from them back toward the surface4 ,this is called the first lift4 ,the slope is then continued downward for another distance of #cjj feet1 new gangways and chambers are laid off1 and this is called the second lift4 ,this process is continued until the synclinal basin is reached4 ,where the dip of the slope is less than thirty degrees the coal is brought to the surface in the car into which it was first loaded in the mine4 ,at a greater angle than this the ordinary mine car is superseded by a car or carriage especially adapted to carrying coal up a steep incline4 ,where there is no outcrop in the tract to be mined1 and the coal lies below water level1 the best mode of making an entrance to it is by shaft4 ,in the ,wyoming region1 since the upper veins have been so generally mined out1 nearly all the openings are by shaft4 ,the location of the shaft at the surface should be such that when it is completed its foot shall be at the bottom1 or nearly at the bottom1 of the synclinal valley into which it is sunk4 ,as will be more readily seen hereafter1 this is necessary in order to carry the water of the mine to the foot of the shaft1 to facilitate the transportation of coal under ground1 and to get room to open up the greatest possible working area4 ,the depth to which a shaft must be sunk depends on the seam to be reached1 and on the district in which it is located4 ,at ,carbondale1 in the northeasterly extremity of the ,wyoming basin1 the average depth to the conglomerate or bed of the lowest coal seam is #bej feet4 ,from ,scranton to ,pittston it is from #ejj to #fjj feet4 ,at ,wilkes ,barre it is #a1bjj feet4 ,it reaches its greatest average depth a mile northeast of ,nanticoke1 where it is from #a1ejj to #a1fjj feet4 ,this will be the limit of depth for shafts in the ,wyoming region4 ,at present the average depth is from #cjj to #djj feet1 and there are few that are more than #hjj feet deep4 ,the red-ash vein to which most of the shafts are now being sunk is1 at ,pittston in the middle of the general basin1 from #dej to #fej feet below the surface4 ,in the southern anthracite region the average depth of shafts is somewhat greater1 the maximum depth being reached in the vicinity of ,pottsville1 where the ,pottsville deep shafts are about #a1fjj feet in depth4 ,in beginning to open a shaft a rectangular space is staked out on the ground from four to eight feet wider and longer than the proposed dimensions of the shaft2 and the soil and loose stones are thrown out from this larger area until bed rock is reached1 which is usually done1 except in the river bottom lands1 within a depth of twenty feet4 ,from this rock as a foundation a cribbing of solid timber1 twelve inches square1 is built up to the surface on the four sides of the opening to prevent the earth from caving in4 ,sometimes heavy walls of masonry are built up instead of the timber cribbing1 and though the original cost is greater1 the purpose is far better answered by the stone curbing4 ,when this has been completed1 sinking through the rock goes on by the ordinary process of blasting1 plumb lines being hung at the corners of the shaft to keep the opening vertical4 ,an act of the ,pennsylvania legislature1 approved ,june #cj1 #ahhe1 regulates the conduct of coal mining in the ,state so far as the safety of persons employed in and about the mines is concerned4 ,former acts are consolidated and revised in this1 and new provisions are added4 ,by virtue of this act both the anthracite and bituminous coal fields are divided into districts1 each of which is placed in charge of an inspector1 whose duty it is to see that the provisions of the law are carried out1 and to make annual report to the ,secretary of ,internal ,affairs of such facts and statistics as the law requires to be made4 ,as there will be frequent occasion hereafter to refer to various provisions of this act of assembly1 it will be mentioned simply as the act of #ahhe4 ,the matter is brought up here in order that the rules relating to the sinking of shafts1 as laid down in the act1 may be referred to4 ,these rules provide the manner in which the necessary structures at the mouth of the opening shall be erected1 what precautions shall be taken to prevent material from falling into the pit1 how the ascent and descent shall be made1 that all blasts during the process of sinking shall be exploded by an electric battery1 etc4 ,all these rules have but one object1 the safety of the workmen4 ,the horizontal dimensions of the modern shaft average about twelve feet in width by thirty feet in length4 ,this space is divided crosswise1 down the entire depth of the shaft1 into compartments of which there are usually four4 ,the first of these compartments is the pump way1 a space devoted to the pipes1 pump-rod1 and other appliances connected with the pumping system4 ,to this six feet in breadth is allowed4 ,then come1 in succession1 the two carriage ways1 each of which may be seven feet wide1 and1 finally1 the air passage through which the foul air is exhausted from the mine1 and to which ten feet is appropriated4 ,the partitions between these compartments are made of oak sticks six inches square1 called buntons4 ,the ends of the buntons are let into the rock sides of the shaft1 and they are placed horizontally at a vertical distance from each other of about four feet4 ,these bunton partitions are then closely boarded down the entire distance4 ,the partition between the hoisting compartment and the airway is not only boarded up1 but the boards are matched and are rabbeted together4 ,it is necessary to make as nearly air-tight as possible this way for the passage of air1 and where the edges of the boarding meet the rock sides of the shaft the irregularities are carefully filled in with brick and mortar4 ,fastened to the buntons at each side of each hoisting compartment are continuous strips of hard wood1 from four to six inches square1 reaching from the top of the shaft to its bottom4 ,these are the 8guides40 ,to each side of the carriage1 which raises and lowers men and materials1 is fastened an iron shoe1 shaped like a small rectangular box without top or ends4 ,this shoe fits loosely on to the guide1 slides up and down it1 and serves to keep the carriage steady while it is ascending or descending4 ,this invention is due to ,john ,curr of ,sheffield1 ,england1 who introduced it as early as #agih4 ,the ordinary carriage consists of a wooden platform with vertical posts at the middle of the sides united by a cross-beam at the top1 and all solidly built and thoroughly braced4 ,the posts are just inside of the guides when the carriage is in place1 and are kept parallel to them by the shoes already mentioned4 ,to the middle of the cross-beam is attached the end of a wire cable1 from which the carriage is suspended1 and by which it is raised and lowered4 ,on the floor of the platform1 which is planked over1 a track is built uniform with the track at the foot and head of the shaft1 and continuous with it when the carriage is at rest at either place4 ,the mine car is pushed on to the platform of the carriage and fastened there by a device which clings to the axle or blocks the wheels4 ,illustration3 ,,vertical ,,section ,,at ,,foot ,,of ,,shaft1 ,,with ,,ascending ,,carriage4 ,at the mouth of the shaft and projecting into it are the 8wings10 8keeps10 or 8cage rests10 which are pressed against the sides of the shaft by the ascending carriage1 but spring back into place underneath it and support it while it is at rest4 ,when the carriage is ready to descend the wings are withdrawn by hand levers4 ,the safety carriage is now in general use in at least one hoisting compartment of every shaft4 ,this carriage is built of wrought iron instead of wood2 it has a bonnet or roof as a protection against objects falling down the shaft1 and it has safety clutches or dogs to stop the carriage and hold it in place in case of accident by breaking ropes or machinery4 ,operators are required by the act of #ahhe to provide safety carriages for the use of their employees1 and also to keep movable gates or covers at the mouth of each shaft to prevent persons and materials from falling into the opening4 ,where mining is done by shaft there is seldom any other way provided for the passage of workmen in and out than the way by the carriage4 ,a small shaft for the admission of air is sometimes driven down to the highest part of the seam1 and ladders are placed in the opening on which men may climb up and down1 but these ladders are seldom used save in an emergency4 ,it is made obligatory upon operators1 by the act of #ahhe1 to provide two openings to every seam of coal that is being worked2 these openings to be at least sixty feet apart underground1 and one hundred and fifty feet apart at the surface4 ,the object of this rule is to provide a way of escape for workmen in case of accident to the main outlet4 ,it is seldom necessary1 however1 in these days1 to sink a separate shaft in order to comply with this provision of the law2 the underground workings of the mines having such extensive connections that often not only two but many openings are accessible from each seam4 ,as to the comparative cost of the different methods of entry1 the drift is of course the cheapest4 ,in this method the very first blow of the pick brings down a fragment of coal that may be sent to market and sold4 ,for this reason the sinking of a slope is less expensive than tunneling or shafting1 because the excavation is made in the coal4 ,it may be said to cost from twenty-five to fifty dollars per linear yard to sink an ordinary double track slope1 from fifty to seventy-five dollars per linear yard to drive a tunnel of average cross-section to accommodate two tracks1 and from three hundred to five hundred dollars per linear yard to sink a shaft with four compartments4 ,of course circumstances1 especially the character of strata1 may greatly increase or lessen these limits of cost4 ,indeed1 it has happened that a shaft in process of sinking1 which had already cost many thousands of dollars1 has been necessarily abandoned because an intractable bed of quicksand has been encountered4 ,the experienced coal operator1 knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each of these methods of entering a mine1 and the adaptability of each to his particular coal bed1 will find no difficulty in making a selection from them4 ,indeed1 there may be1 and usually is1 practically1 no choice4 ,the selection of a site for the opening is ordinarily attended with but little more freedom of choice4 ,the outcrop1 if there be one1 the topography of the surface1 the outline of the coal seam1 the accessibility of the spot1 the location of the breaker1 all govern in the selection of the site1 and usually all point to the one most available spot4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,a ,,plan ,,of ,a ,,coal ,,mine4 ,the progress that has been made in the science of mining coal within the last half century bears favorable comparison with the progress that has been made in the other industrial sciences4 ,to-day the ripest experience and the best engineering skill in the land are brought to bear upon the problems connected with coal mining4 ,in comparison with the marked ability employed and the marked success attained in the mining enterprises of to-day1 the efforts of the early miners are almost amusing4 ,the pick and the wedge were the chief instruments used in getting out coal4 ,powder was not thought to be available until ,john ,flanigan1 a miner for ,abijah ,smith1 introduced it into the mines in #ahah4 ,it is said that when openings were first made for coal in the vicinity of ,pottsville shallow shafts were sunk1 and the coal was hoisted in a large vessel by means of a common windlass4 ,as soon as the water became troublesome1 which was usually as soon as the shaft had reached a depth of twenty or thirty feet1 this opening was abandoned1 a new shaft sunk1 and the process repeated4 ,the mine operator of to-day1 having decided upon the shaft as the best method of entry into his mine1 sinks it to the bottom of the coal bed1 so that its longest dimension shall be with the dip of the seam4 ,then from each side of the shaft1 and at right angles to it1 he cuts a passage out through the coal with a width of from ten to fourteen feet4 ,these are the beginnings of the 8gangways40 ,then from each end of the rectangular foot of the shaft he cuts another passage1 at right angles to the first one1 about six or eight feet wide1 and extending to a distance of from fifteen to thirty feet4 ,these are the first 8cross-headings40 ,at the extremities of the cross-headings passages are now driven parallel to the gangways4 ,these last passages are called 8airways40 ,when the gangways and airways have reached a distance of from sixty to one hundred feet from the foot of the shaft they are united by new cross-headings4 ,it is now apparent that two pillars of coal1 each from fifteen to thirty feet wide and from sixty to one hundred feet long are left on each side of the shaft4 ,larger pillars than these may be left if the roof about the shaft should need more support4 ,it is also apparent1 the coal seam being inclined1 that the level of one of the airways is higher than the level of the gangway1 and the level of the other airway is lower4 ,it will be remembered that the design was to sink the shaft so that its foot should be nearly to the bottom of the synclinal valley or basin4 ,if this has been done1 then it is possible that the passage below the foot of the shaft parallel to the gangway actually runs along the synclinal axis4 ,but if the bottom of the valley is still lower1 the cross-headings will be driven farther down and a new parallel passage made1 and1 if necessary1 still another4 ,these openings now slope from the foot of the shaft downward1 and in them is collected not only the water that may fall from the shaft1 but1 as the work advances1 all the water that comes from all parts of the mine4 ,this basin which is thus made to receive the mine water is called the 8sump10 and from it the water is pumped up through the shaft and discharged at the surface4 ,if the mine happens to be a very wet one it will require the constant labor of the most powerful pumping engine to keep the level of the water in the sump lower than the foot of the shaft4 ,in some cases1 in older workings1 a section of the mine which has been worked out and abandoned is used for a sump1 and then the water may cover an area many acres in extent4 ,when a shaft has been newly sunk1 the openings for the sump are the only ones that are made below the level of the foot of the shaft or below the level of the gangway4 ,henceforth all the workings will be made on the upper side of the gangway1 extending up the slope of the seam1 until such time as it may be deemed advisable to sink an inside slope to open a new set of workings on a lower level4 ,the main gangway on one side of the shaft and the airway above it are now carried along simultaneously1 and parallel with each other1 and are united at distances of from forty to sixty feet by cross-headings4 ,as soon as the last cross-heading is opened the one which immediately preceded it is walled up as tightly as possible4 ,this is to insure ventilation4 ,a current of air comes down the hoisting-way of the shaft1 passes into the gangway and along it to the last cross-heading1 where it crosses up into the airway and traverses the airway back to the cross-heading that was driven up from the upper end of the foot of the shaft4 ,passing down this cross-heading it comes to the air compartment of the shaft1 and is drawn out to the surface by a powerful fan4 ,this is the ventilating system of the mine in its simplest form4 ,it is apparent that if any of the cross-headings nearer to the shaft than the last one should be left open1 the air current would take a short course through it up to the airway1 and so back to the shaft1 without going to the extremity of the gangway at all4 ,this gangway is the main artery of the mine2 it is the highway by which all the empty cars go in to the working faces1 and by which all the loaded cars come out to the foot of the shaft2 it is the general watercourse by which the entire mine above it is drained1 and by which the water is carried to the sump4 ,in comparatively flat seams its height is the height of the slate or rock roof of the coal bed1 but in steep pitching seams it is made seven or eight feet high with a roof wholly or partly of coal4 ,in some cases the roof and sides are so firm that no timbering is required1 and in other cases the timbering must be close and heavy in order to give the necessary support and security4 ,the floor of the gangway must be given a constantly ascending grade1 usually from six inches to one foot in every hundred feet1 as it is driven inward4 ,this is to facilitate drainage and the movement of loaded cars4 ,where the strata are horizontal1 or nearly so1 as in many of the bituminous mines1 the gangway may1 and usually does1 take a perfectly straight course4 ,this is also true where the line of strike has but a single direction1 no matter how steep the pitch of the seam may be4 ,but both of these conditions are so rare in the anthracite regions that one seldom finds a gangway driven for any considerable distance in one direction4 ,the surface of an inclined coal seam is not dissimilar to the surface of one side of a range of small hills4 ,any one who has seen a railroad track winding in and out along such a range1 keeping to the surface of the ground and preserving a uniformity of grade1 can understand why1 for the same reasons1 the gangway must often change direction in following the seam of coal4 ,it must curve in around the valleys and hollows that indent the seam in the same manner that a surface railroad curves in around the depression where some hillside brook runs down to meet the stream1 the course of which the railroad tries to follow2 and it must strike out around the projections of the seam in the same way in which a surface railroad bends out around the projecting spurs of the hill range along which it runs4 ,but the coal seam is more irregular and more uncertain in its outline than the hillside1 and the curves in it are sharper and more varied4 ,the surface railroad too may shorten its route and relieve its curves by bridging its small valleys and cutting through its narrow ridges4 ,for the gangway this cannot be done4 ,as a rule the coal seam must be followed1 no matter where it leads4 ,and it often leads in strange courses1in courses that at times curve back on themselves like a horseshoe and point toward the foot of the shaft4 ,the mining superintendent or engineer never knows in advance just what tortuous course his main artery may take4 ,he cannot go over the ground and stake out his line as a civil engineer does for a surface railway2 he must build as he advances1 not knowing what the rock and coal may hide in the next foot ahead of him4 ,he must be prepared to encounter faults1 fissures1 streams of water1 diluvial deposits1 and every other obstacle known to mining engineers4 ,there are several systems of laying out a mine for actual working after the gangway has been driven a sufficient distance4 ,the one most commonly in use in the anthracite region is known as the 8pillar and breast0 system4 ,in the bituminous mines it is called the 8pillar and room10 and in the mines of ,great ,britain the 8bord and pillar40 ,it will be borne in mind that the mine which is now being described is in the ,wyoming region1 where the seams are comparatively flat1 the entrance usually by shaft1 and the method of working is the pillar and breast system4 ,the gangway and airway are not driven far1 not more than two or three hundred feet1 perhaps1 before the openings are made for the larger production of coal4 ,beginning on the upper side of the airway1 at such a distance from the shaft as will leave a reasonably large sustaining pillar1 perhaps from sixty to one hundred feet1 an opening is made and driven up the seam at right angles to the airway4 ,this opening is called a 8chamber0 or 8breast40 ,in the bituminous districts it is known as a 8room40 ,the chamber is usually about twenty-four feet wide1 though where the roof is exceptionally good its width may be increased to thirty-six feet4 ,it is not often opened the full width at the airway4 ,instead of this a narrow passage1 large enough to accommodate the mine car track1 is driven up to a distance not exceeding fifteen feet1 and it is from this point that the chamber is driven up at its full width4 ,this narrow opening can be more easily closed in case it is desired to prevent the passage of air through it1 and besides a greater proportion of coal is left in pillars along the airway to prevent the passage from becoming blockaded by falls4 ,when the first chamber has been driven up a distance equal to its width1 a new chamber is begun parallel to it and on the side farthest from the shaft4 ,these two chambers are now separated by a wall of coal from fourteen to twenty feet thick4 ,if1 however1 the workings are deep and there is danger from the weight of superincumbent strata1 the wall should be made as thick as the chamber is wide4 ,when the new chamber has been driven to a distance of twenty-five feet1 or1 if the mine is free from gas and the ventilation is good1 to a distance of forty or sixty feet1 the wall between the two chambers is pierced by an opening from six to ten feet wide4 ,this is called a cross-heading or 8entrance40 ,a partition is now built across the airway between the openings to the two chambers1 and the air current is thus forced up into the last chamber1 across through the entrance into the first1 down it to the airway again1 and so in its regular course back to the foot of the shaft4 ,in the mean time progress has been made in the first chamber1 and by the time the second chamber has been driven another distance of thirty or sixty feet1 the entrance which will then be cut through the wall will find the first chamber still in advance4 ,the inner extremity of the chamber is called the 8face40 ,it is sometimes spoken of also as the 8breast10 though this last name is properly that of the chamber as a whole4 ,the wall of coal at the side of the chamber is called the 8rib40 ,a third chamber is now begun and driven up parallel to the other two1 then a fourth1 a fifth1 and so on2 as many chambers1 indeed1 as can be laid off in this way without deviating too greatly from a right angle to the airway4 ,but the face of the first chamber is kept in advance of the face of the second1 the face of the second in advance of the face of the third1 and so on1 until the limit of length is reached4 ,this limit is determined1 to some extent1 by the dip of the seam4 ,in comparatively flat workings a set of chambers may be driven in to a distance of five hundred1 or even six hundred feet4 ,where the pitch is steep1 however1 two hundred or three hundred feet is the greatest length at which chambers can be economically worked4 ,the limit of length of chambers is sometimes determined also by an outcrop1 an anticlinal axis1 a fault1 or a boundary line4 ,the wall of coal left between any two chambers is divided by the entrances cut through it into a line of pillars nearly uniform in size4 ,as soon as the second entrance from the airway is cut through the wall the first entrance is blocked tightly up1 and as soon as the third entrance is cut through the second is closed1 and so on to the extremity of the line of pillars4 ,this is to compel the air current to pass up to the very face of the chamber before it can find a way across to the other chambers and down again into the airway4 ,if the air of the mine is bad1 or if the coal is giving off deleterious gases with rapidity1 a 8brattice0 or rude board partition is built from the lower side of the last entrance diagonally up toward the face of the chamber to force the air to the very point where men are working before it finds its way out through an open entrance4 ,these boards are sometimes replaced by a sheet of coarse canvas1 called brattice cloth1 which is lighter1 more easily handled1 and answers the same purpose4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,plan ,,of ,,an ,,anthracite ,,mine ,,with ,a ,,shaft ,,entrance4 ,from the mine car track in the gangway a branch track is built1 crossing the airway and running up each chamber to its face4 ,up this branch track a mule draws the empty car1 and when it is loaded it is let down to the gangway by the miner's laborer4 ,if the dip of the chamber is too steepmore than ten degreesfor a mule to draw the car up1 a light car1 used only in the chamber and called a 8buggy10 is pushed up by hand1 and when the dip is too steep for this the coal is pushed or allowed to slide down to the foot of the chamber4 ,chambers are often driven up obliquely in order to reduce the grade1 or are curved in their course for the same reason4 ,when1 on account of the steepness of pitch or a change in the direction of the gangway1 or for any other reason1 one set of parallel chambers is brought to a close1 a new set is begun farther along with a different course4 ,the direction in which a gangway1 airway1 or chamber is to be driven is fixed by the mine boss4 ,his bearings are obtained with a small miner's compass1 and he marks on the roof1 near the face of the opening1 a chalk line in the direction desired4 ,the miner1 sighting back on this line1 is thus able to take his course and to keep his opening straight4 ,sets of chambers similar to those described are driven up from the gangway along its entire length4 ,this length may be limited by various causes4 ,a boundary line of property1 a fault1 a thinning out of the coal seam1 are some of them4 ,they are usually driven1 however1 as far as strict principles of economy will allow4 ,a gangway that requires no timbering and is easily kept in good working condition may be driven to a distance of three or four miles4 ,but where these conditions are reversed1 a mile may be as great a distance as coal can be hauled through with economy4 ,beyond that limit it will be cheaper to sink a new shaft or slope than to increase the distance for underground haulage4 ,as the main gangway progresses inward it may separate into two branches1 each following a depression in the coal seam1 and these branches may separate into others2 so that there may be a number of gangways all keeping the same general level1 from each of which sets of chambers are driven4 ,when the chambers tributary to a gangway have reached their limit of length1 and there is still an area of coal above them to be mined1 a new gangway is opened along the faces of the chambers1 or is driven just above them in the solid coal1 and from this1 which is called a 8counter-gangway10 new sets of chambers are driven up the seam4 ,it is often necessary to raise and lower cars passing from one gangway to the other on an inclined plane1 on which the loaded cars1 descending1 and attached to one end of a rope1 pull up the light cars1 ascending and attached to the other end1 the rope itself winding around a revolving drum at the head of the plane4 ,this system can be put into use on any incline where the gradient is one in thirty1 or steeper4 ,by this general system of gangways1 counter-gangways1 airways1 chambers1 and planes1 the area of coal lying on the upper side of the main gangway and on both sides of the shaft is mined out1 hauled by mules to the foot of the shaft1 and raised to the surface4 ,on long straight gangways the mule is sometimes replaced by a small mine locomotive1 and in these later days the electric engine has been introduced into the mines as a hauling agent4 ,so far1 however1 in this mine which we are supposed to be working1 not a tap of a drill nor a blow of a pick has been made into the coal on the lower side of the gangway save where the sump was excavated at the foot of the shaft4 ,if this shaft has been sunk nearly to the bottom of the basin or synclinal axis1 a short tunnel may be driven from the main gangway through the rock or upper bench of coal across the valley to the rise of the seam on the other side4 ,a new gangway may here be driven right and left1 and this area of coal be made tributary to the shaft already sunk4 ,it often happens that a large body of coal lies between the main gangway and the synclinal axis1 for these two lines may diverge greatly as they recede from the shaft4 ,but chambers cannot be driven down from the main gangway owing to the difficulties of transportation and drainage4 ,it therefore becomes necessary1 in order to work this area1 to sink a slope from the main gangway down to or toward the synclinal axis1 and from the foot of this slope to drive a new gangway4 ,from this new gangway chambers will be opened extending up the seam to the line of the main gangway1 but not generally breaking through into it4 ,the coal is run down to the lower level gangway1 hauled to the foot of the slope1 and hoisted up it to the main gangway4 ,it is apparent1 however1 that the inclined plane system cannot work here2 the conditions are reversed2 the loaded cars are drawn up and the light ones are let down4 ,to do this work it is necessary to bring into use a small steam stationary engine1 or one working by compressed air4 ,a common method is to locate the steam engine on the surface vertically above the head of the underground slope1 and to carry power to the sheaves below by wire ropes running down through bore holes drilled for that purpose4 ,the system of slope mining by lifts1 which is in common use in the ,middle and ,southern anthracite districts1 has been explained in a preceding chapter4 ,in this system the sump is always made by extending the slope a short distance below the level of the gangway4 ,this gangway is driven from the foot of the slope to the right and left in the same manner as in the ,wyoming region1 except that1 the seam being so greatly inclined1 the gangway roof1 or a part of it at least1 will usually be of coal instead of slate or rock1 and in very steep pitching seams the airway will be almost vertically above the gangway4 ,the gangway is not usually so crooked as where the workings are flat1 and having been started only three hundred feet down the slope from the surface1 it often follows the coal to some low point on the line of outcrop1 and is then known as a water level gangway1 which is practically the same as a drift4 ,the system of opening and working breasts differs somewhat from that in use in the ,northern field4 ,beginning at such a distance from the foot of the slope as will leave a good thick slope pillar for its protection1 a narrow shute is driven up from the gangway into the coal to a distance of perhaps thirty feet1 at a height of six feet1 and with a width of from six to nine feet4 ,it is then opened out to its full width as a breast and continued up the seam toward the outcrop1 not often breaking through to daylight unless an airway or manway is to be made4 ,parallel breasts are then laid off and worked out by the usual pillar and breast system4 ,if the dip is less than twelve or fifteen degrees1 the coal may be run down from the working face in a buggy1 dumped on to a platform or into the shute1 and loaded thence into a mine car standing on the gangway4 ,if the dip is more than fifteen degrees the pieces of coal will slide down the breast to the shute1 though if it is under twenty-five or thirty degrees the floor of the breast should be laid with sheet iron to lessen the friction and give greater facility in movement4 ,in a steep-pitching breast a plank partition is built across the shute just above the gangway1 to hold back the coal until it is desired to load a car with it4 ,this partition is called a 8battery10 or1 if there is a similar partition to hold the coal in the breast1 a 8check battery40 ,in this partition there is an opening through which the coal may be drawn when desired1 and through which the men may also go to their work1 though a separate manway is often provided4 ,in these steep-pitching breasts the miner works by standing on the coal which he has already mined1 and which is held back by the battery1 in order to reach the uncut coal above him4 ,there are various systems of shutes1 batteries1 man ways1 etc41 in use1 but all are based on the same principles4 ,illustration3 ,,ground ,,plan ,,and ,,longitudinal ,,section ,,of ,,chamber4 ,when the gangway of the first lift has reached its limit in both directions1 and the breasts from it have been worked up to their limit1 the slope is sunk to another distance of three hundred feet1 and the process is repeated4 ,from the gangway of the second lift the breasts are not extended up far enough to break through into the gangway above2 a wall of coal is left between that gangway and the faces of the breasts1 from fifteen to forty feet in thickness1 known as the 8chain-pillar40 ,this is for the protection of the upper gangway against falls and crushes1 and is also necessary to hold back water from escaping into the lower level4 ,these lifts will continue1 at distances of about three hundred feet apart1 until the synclinal valley is reached4 ,when the method of opening the mine by a shaft is employed in these steep-pitching seams1 the shaft is sunk to the lowest level1 and the successive sets of gangways and breasts are laid off as the work progresses upwards2 that is1 the slope method of extending the lifts downwards is simply reversed4 ,the method of mining by tunnel and drift1 and by slope in the flat workings1 is not different from the method already described for shafts4 ,so soon as the drift1 tunnel1 or slope has extended far enough into the coal seam it becomes a gangway1 chambers are laid off from it1 and mining goes on in the familiar mode4 ,various modifications of the pillar and breast system are employed in the anthracite coal mines1 but no system is in use which is radically different4 ,in the 8long wall system10 common in ,great ,britain1 and used to some extent in the bituminous mines of ,pennsylvania and the ,western ,states1 the process of cutting coal is carried on simultaneously along an extended face4 ,the roof is allowed to fall1 back of the workers1 roads being preserved to the gangway1 and the roof at the face is temporarily supported by an abundance of wooden props4 ,the descriptions of underground workings that have now been given have1 of necessity1 been very general in their character4 ,it is impossible1 in a limited space1 to describe the various methods and modifications of methods which are in use4 ,no two mines1 even in the same district1 are worked exactly alike4 ,sometimes they differ widely in plan and operation4 ,that system must be employed in each one which will best meet its peculiar requirements4 ,there is large scope here for the play of inventive genius4 ,there is scarcely a mine of any importance in the entire coal region in which one cannot find some new contrivance1 some ingenious scheme1 some masterpiece of invention devised to meet some special emergency which may have arisen for the first time in the history of mining4 ,yet the general features of all coal mining methods must of necessity be the same in underground workings4 ,no one reasonably familiar with them could ever mistake a map of a coal mine for a map of anything else under the sun4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,the ,,miner ,,at ,,work4 ,the number of persons employed in a single mine in the anthracite regions varies from a dozen in the newest and smallest mines to seven hundred or eight hundred in the largest and busiest4 ,the average would probably be between two hundred and three hundred4 ,in the bituminous districts the average is not so large4 ,first among those who go down into the mine is the mine boss1 or1 as he is sometimes called1 the 8inside boss40 ,it is his duty 8to direct and generally supervise the whole working of the mine40 ,all the workmen are under his control1 and everything is done in obedience to his orders4 ,he reports to1 and receives instructions from1 the general superintendent of the mines4 ,next in authority is the fire boss4 ,it is his duty to examine1 every morning before the men come to their work1 every place in the mine where explosive gas is evolved or likely to be evolved1 and to give the necessary instructions to the workmen regarding the same4 ,he also has general oversight of the ventilating system1 and sees that all stoppings1 doors1 brattices1 and airways are kept in proper condition4 ,the driver boss has charge of the driver boys and door boys1 and sees that the mules are properly cared for and are not abused4 ,each driver boy has charge of a mule1 and the mule draws the empty cars in along the gangway and up to the faces of the chambers1 and draws the loaded cars out to the foot of the shaft4 ,the door boy must stay at his post all day and open and close the door for the cars to pass in and out4 ,the use and necessity of these doors will be explained in a subsequent chapter4 ,then there are the footmen1 carpenters1 blacksmiths1 masons1 and tracklayers1 whose occupations in the mines are apparent from the names which indicate their several callings4 ,finally we have the miners and the miners' laborers1 and it now becomes a matter of especial interest to inquire into the character of their work and their manner of performing it4 ,to drive a gangway or airway is much the same as driving a chamber1 except that the gangway is only about one third the width of a chamber1 and must be driven on a slightly ascending grade4 ,gangway driving is special work1 for which the miner receives special wages1 it being impossible in this work to send out as much coal with the same amount of labor as can be sent out in chamber work4 ,and since the great bulk of coal is taken from the chambers1 it will be better to observe in one of them the processes of mining4 ,there are usually four workmen1 two miners and two laborers1 employed in each chamber4 ,the miners are employed by1 or are under contract with1 the coal company1 and the laborers are employed by the miners1 subject to the approval of the mining superintendent4 ,the two miners divide their profits or wages equally with each other1 and are called 8butties40 ,a miner's butty is the man who works the chamber with him on halves4 ,a laborer's butty is the man who is associated with him in the employ of the same miners4 ,between the miner and the laborer there is a well-defined and strictly observed line of social demarcation4 ,the miner belongs to the aristocracy of underground workers2 the laborer is of a lower order1 whose great ambition it is to be elevated1 at an early day1 to that height on which his employer stands4 ,now as to the work done by these four men4 ,before the chamber has progressed a pillar's length above the airway1 propping will usually be necessary to sustain the roof1 so large an area of which has been left without support4 ,hardwood props about nine inches in diameter are used for the purpose4 ,they are purchased by the mining companies in large quantities1 and are usually cut and hauled to the railroad in the winter time to be shipped at any season to the mines4 ,by the law of #ahhe the person or company operating a mine is obliged to furnish to the miner1 at the face of his chamber1 as many props of the required length as he may need4 ,having received the props the miner himself sets them on each side of the middle line of the chamber at such points as he thinks require them1 or at such points as the mine boss designates4 ,he drives the prop to its place by means of a large flat wedge inserted between the top of it and the roof1 thus making the stick tight and firm and also giving it a larger bearing against the roof4 ,some chambers require very few props2 others must be well lined with them4 ,their necessity depends upon the character of the roof4 ,if it is soft1 slaty1 and loose it must be supported at frequent intervals4 ,it very rarely occurs that a chamber1 worked to its limit1 has needed no propping from its foot to its face4 ,usually a good part of the miner's time is occupied in setting props as his work at the face advances4 ,every seam has its top and bottom bench of coal1 divided about midway by a thin slate partition1 and one bench is always taken out to a horizontal depth of four or five feet before the other one is mined4 ,if the upper bench contains the best and cleanest coal1 with the smoothest plane of cleavage at the roof1 that is first taken out2 but if the choice coal lies at the bottom1 then the lower bench is first mined4 ,the reason for this is that a shot heavy enough to blast out effectually the section of rough1 bony1 or slaty coal which sticks to the roof or floor would be heavy enough to shatter the adjoining bench of clean brittle coal1 and make a large part of it so fine as to be useless4 ,let us now suppose that the miner has a clean1 vertical wall of coal at the face of his chamber in which to begin work4 ,making sure that his tools and materials are all at hand1 he first takes up his drill4 ,this is a round or hexagonal iron bar about one and an eighth inches in diameter1 and about five and a half feet long1 tipped at the working end with steel4 ,this end is flattened out into a blade or chisel1 having a slight concave curve on its edge1 and being somewhat wider at its extremity than the diameter of the bar4 ,at the other end of the drill the diameter is increased to one and a half inches1 forming a circular ridge at the extremity of the bar1 in one side of which ridge a semicircular notch is cut into the face of the drill4 ,the use of this notch will be subsequently explained4 ,this1 then1 is the tool with which the miner begins his work4 ,selecting the bench to be first mined he chooses a point a few feet to the right or left of the middle line of the face and delivers upon it the first stroke with the sharp edge of his drill2 and as he strikes successive blows he rotates the drill in his hands in order to make the hole round4 ,the drill is never struck on the head with sledges4 ,its cutting force depends on the momentum given to it in the hands of the miner1 and the stroke made by it is a jumping or elastic stroke4 ,instead of the bar drill1 which has been described1 many of the miners use a machine hand-drill for boring holes4 ,this machine works upon the same principle that the jackscrew does4 ,it is operated by hand by means of a crank1 and an auger-like projection forces its way into the coal4 ,the work of turning the crank is more laborious than that of drilling with the bar-drill1 but the extra labor is much more than compensated for by the greater speed at which boring is done4 ,it is probably due to the spirit of conservatism among miners that this machine is not in general use by them4 ,coal-cutting machines1 working by steam or compressed air1 are not used in the anthracite mines4 ,the character of the coal1 the thickness of the seams1 and the inclination of the strata make their employment impracticable4 ,when the hole has been drilled to a depth of about four and a half feet it is carefully cleaned out with a scraper4 ,this is a light iron rod with a handle on one end of it and a little spoon1 turned up like a mustard spoon1 on the other end4 ,then the cartridge is inserted and pushed in to the farther extremity of the hole4 ,the cartridge is simply a tube made of heavy manila paper formed over a cartridge stick1 filled with black powder1 and folded at the ends4 ,dynamite and other high explosives are not used1 because they create too much waste4 ,ready-made cartridges in jointed sections are largely used1 but as a rule the miner makes his own cartridge as he needs it4 ,the miner's needle is an iron rod about five and one half feet in length1 with a handle at one end4 ,it is about five eighths of an inch in diameter at the handle end1 and tapers to a point at the other end4 ,when the cartridge has been pushed in to the extreme end of the bore hole1 the needle is inserted also1 the point of it piercing the outer end of the cartridge4 ,the needle is then allowed to rest on the bottom or at the side of the drill hole while the miner gathers fine dirt from the floor of the mine1 dampens it slightly if it is dry1 and pushes it into the hole alongside4 ,this dirt is then forced in against the cartridge with the head of the drill4 ,more dirt is put in and driven home1 and still more1 until1 by the time the hole is filled to its outer extremity1 the packing is hard and firm4 ,this process is called tamping4 ,it can now be seen that the semicircular notch on the rim of the blunt end of the drill is for the purpose of allowing the drill to slip along over the needle1 which still retains its position1 and at the same time to fill the diameter of the hole4 ,the tamping being finished the miner takes hold of the needle by the handle1 turns it once or twice gently in its bed1 and then slowly withdraws it4 ,a round1 smooth channel is thus left from the outside directly in to the powder of the cartridge1 and into this channel the squib is inserted4 ,the squib is simply an elongated fire-cracker4 ,it has about the diameter of a rye straw1 is about four inches in length1 and its covering projects an inch or two at one end and is twisted up for a fuse4 ,the covering of the squib may indeed be of straw1 sometimes it is of hempen material1 but more often1 in these days1 it is made of paper4 ,it is filled with powder and is then dipped into a resinous mixture to make it water-proof1 to coat over the open end so that the powder shall not run out1 and to make the wick at the other end mildly inflammable4 ,if the bore hole should be very wet an iron or copper tube1 through which the needle is run1 is laid to the cartridge before the hole is tamped1 and when the needle is withdrawn the squib is inserted into the mouth of the tube4 ,if inflammable gases are exuding from the coal through the bore hole1 or if for any other reason it is feared that the cartridge will be exploded too quickly1 a short piece of cotton wick1 dipped in oil1 is attached to the fuse of the squib to lengthen it1 and this extra section of fuse is allowed to hang down from the mouth of the bore hole against the face of coal4 ,when all is ready the tools are removed to a safe distance1 a lighted lamp is touched to the fuse1 the men cry 8,fire60 to warn all who may be in the vicinity1 and1 retreating down the chamber1 they take refuge behind some convenient pillar4 ,the fuse burns so slowly that the men have ample time in which to get out of harm's way1 if ordinary care is taken4 ,when the fire reaches the powder in the squib the same force that propels a fire-cracker or a rocket acts upon the squib and sends it violently through the channel or tube into contact with the powder of the cartridge4 ,the explosion that results throws out a section of coal from the face1 breaking it into large pieces4 ,so soon as the place has settled after the firing of the shot the men go back to the face to note the result4 ,the broken coal is pushed to one side1 and preparations are made for drilling the next hole4 ,it usually takes five shots to break down a single bench4 ,when both benches of coal have been blasted out the length of the chamber has been increased by five or six feet4 ,in blasting1 the miner must take advantage of such conditions as are presented to him at the face of the working1 and he will bore his hole and fire his shot where1 in his judgment1 the best result will be attained4 ,he cannot always take one position at his drilling2 it is rarely that he finds a comfortable one4 ,sometimes he must hold the drill at arm's length above his head1 at other times he must rest on his knees while working1 still oftener he is obliged to lie on his back or side on the wet floor of the mine1 and work in that position1 with occasional respite1 for hours at a time4 ,in nearly every chamber the miner has a powder chest which he keeps locked1 and which is stored at some safe and convenient place1 not too close to the face4 ,in this chest he keeps1 besides his powder1 his cartridge paper1 cartridge pin1 squibs1 lamp-wick1 chalk1 and such other little conveniences and necessaries as every workingman must have at hand4 ,the other tools are usually at the face4 ,he has there a mining pick4 ,this pick is straight and pointed1 and from the head or eye1 where the handle enters1 it will measure about nine inches to each end4 ,it is used for bringing down slate and coal from roof1 ribs1 and face4 ,the bottom pick is used by the laborer for breaking up the coal after it is down4 ,this pick measures about two feet from tip to tip1 and is curved slightly upward at the points4 ,each miner has two drills1 and perhaps a hand machine-drill4 ,he has also a steel crowbar for prying down loose portions of the roof1 and for turning heavy pieces of slate or coal4 ,he has an eight-pound steel hammer1 with a handle two feet and four inches in length1 which he uses in setting props2 and he has a heavy sledge for breaking rock and coal4 ,the list is completed by three large scoop shovels1 used generally to shovel the smaller pieces of broken coal from the floor of the chamber into the mine car4 ,illustration3 ,,miner',s ,,tools4 ,the miner must furnish his own tools4 ,his powder1 fuse1 and oil he gets from the company that employs him1 and they are charged to him in the account that is stated between them monthly4 ,it will not do to omit the miner's lamp from the list of appliances used in his calling2 it is too great a necessity4 ,without it he could do absolutely nothing2 he could not even find his way to his chamber4 ,formerly candles were much used in the mines2 in ,great ,britain they are still common2 but the anthracite miner invariably uses a lamp4 ,this is a round1 flat-bottomed tin box1 about the size of a small after-dinner coffee cup4 ,it has a hinged lid on top1 a spout on one side1 and a handle shaped like a hook with the point down on the opposite side4 ,by this hooked handle the lamp is fastened to the front of the miner's cap1 and he wears it so at his labor1 removing it only for the purpose of renewing the material in it1 or of approaching the powder chest1 or of examining more closely some portion of his work4 ,in the lamp he burns crude petroleum1 which is fed from a cotton wick emerging from the spout4 ,very recently electricity has been introduced into the gangways of some large mines1 for lighting purposes1 and has given great satisfaction4 ,perhaps the day is not far distant when an electric light will swing from the roof at the face of every working chamber4 ,when the coal has been blasted down and the props have been set the miner's work is done2 the rest belongs to the laborers4 ,they must break up the coal1 load it into the cars1 run it down to the gangway1 pile up the refuse1 and clear the chamber for the next day's work4 ,the mine carpenters have laid a track1 consisting of wooden rails set into caps or notched ties1 as far up the chamber as the working at the face would permit4 ,up this track the mule and driver boy have brought the empty car and left it at the face4 ,the laborers throw into it first the smaller pieces of coal which they shovel up from the floor of the chamber1 then huge chunks are tumbled in and piled skillfully on top until the car is almost overbalanced with its load4 ,it is then pushed out to the gangway to await the coming of the driver boy1 who attaches it to his trip of loads and takes it to the shaft4 ,the mine car is usually but a smaller edition of the coal cars that can be seen any day on the surface railways of the country4 ,the running portion is of iron1 and the box is stoutly built of hardwood1 braced and stiffened by iron tie-rods1 bolts1 and shoes4 ,at the end of the car is a vertical swinging door1 hung from the top by an iron rod1 which crosses the box4 ,this door is latched on the outside near the bottom1 and the coal is dumped from the car by tipping it up and letting the unlatched door swing outward4 ,the size of the car depends greatly on the size and character of the workings in which it is used4 ,perhaps an average size would be ten feet long1 five feet wide1 and five feet high from the rail4 ,such a car would contain about one hundred cubic feet1 and would hold from two and one half to three tons of coal4 ,the track gauges in common use vary by three inch widths from two feet and six inches to four feet4 ,the miner and laborer start to their work in the morning at six o'clock4 ,if they enter the mine by shaft they must go down before seven o'clock1 for at that hour the engineer stops lowering men and begins to hoist coal4 ,immediately after arriving at the face of his chamber the miner begins to cut coal4 ,if the vein is thick and clean1 if his shots are all effective1 and if he has good luck generally1 he will cut his allowance of coal for the day by ten or eleven o'clock in the forenoon4 ,it will be understood that by the system in use by most of the coal companies not more than a certain number of carloads may be sent out from each chamber per day4 ,and when the miner has blasted down enough coal to make up that number of loads his day's work is done4 ,it is very seldom indeed that he is not through before two o'clock in the afternoon4 ,but he never stays to assist the laborer4 ,it is beneath his dignity as a miner to help break up and load the coal which has been brought down by means of his judgment and skill4 ,so the laborer is always last in the chamber4 ,his work is seldom done before four or five o'clock in the afternoon4 ,he has just so much coal to break up1 load1 and push down to the gangway1 no matter how successful the miner may have been4 ,he consoles himself1 however1 by looking forward to the time when he shall himself become a miner4 ,blasting is always a dangerous occupation1 and the law in ,pennsylvania1 embodied in the act of #ahhe1 has recognized its especial danger in the mines1 by making certain provisions concerning it for the protection of life and limb4 ,the rules laid down are strict and complete1 yet1 in spite of them1 accidents from powder explosions and premature blasts are frequent and destructive4 ,but it must be said that these accidents are due1 in most part1 to violations of these rules4 ,it is impossible for colliery authorities to keep constant watch over the workmen in every chamber4 ,the conduct of these men must be largely governed by themselves1 and the frequency of accidents1 both serious and fatal1 as a result of carelessness on the part of workmen1 does not seem to deter other workmen from constantly running the same risks4 ,the most prevalent and the most serious source of danger to the miner is not1 however1 in blasting1 but in falls of coal1 slate1 and rock from the roof1 ribs1 and face of the chamber4 ,material that has become loosened by blasting is pulled down carelessly1 or falls without warning4 ,in many cases the roof is insufficiently propped1 and large sections of it give way4 ,men are caught under these falling masses every day1 and are either killed outright or seriously injured4 ,yet1 as in the case of blasting1 their injuries are largely the result of their own carelessness4 ,any one who reads the reports of these cases cannot fail to be convinced of this fact4 ,the mine inspector's reports of ,pennsylvania show that during the year #ahhg there were in the anthracite district three hundred and thirteen fatal accidents which occurred in and about the mines4 ,of this number one hundred and forty-seven were due to falls of roof and coal1 while only twenty-one were caused by explosions of blasting material4 ,these figures indicate plainly the direction in which the skill and supervision of operators and the care and watchfulness of workmen should be exerted for the protection of life4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,,when ,,the ,,mine ,,roof ,,falls4 ,a first visit to a coal mine will be prolific of strange sights and sounds and of novel sensations4 ,if one enters the mine by a shaft1 the first noteworthy experience will be the descent on the cage or carriage4 ,the visitor will probably be under the care of one of the mine foremen1 without whose presence or authority he would not be allowed to descend1 and indeed would not wish to4 ,from the head to the foot of every shaft a speaking tube extends1 and signaling apparatus1 which is continued to the engine-room4 ,these appliances are required by law4 ,in these days the signals are often operated by electricity4 ,at the head of the shaft is stationed a headman and at the foot of the shaft a footman1 whose assistants aid in pushing cars on and off the carriages4 ,the footman is notified of your coming1 and you take your place on the empty safety carriage4 ,it swings slightly as you step on to it1 just enough to make you realize that you have passed from the stable to the unstable1 and that besides the few inches of planking under your feet1 there is nothing between you and the floor of the mine1 five hundred feet or more below you4 ,when all is ready the foreman cries3 8,slack off60 the signal to the engineer is given1 the carriage is slightly raised1 the wings are withdrawn1 and the descent begins4 ,if the carriage goes down as rapidly as it ordinarily does your first sensation will be that of falling4 ,it will seem as though that on which you were standing has been suddenly removed from beneath your feet1 and your impulse will be to grasp for something above you4 ,you will hardly have recovered from this sensation when it will seem to you that the motion of the carriage has been reversed1 and that you are now going up more rapidly than you were at first descending4 ,there will be an alternation of these sensations during the minute or two occupied in the descent1 until finally the motion of the carriage becomes suddenly slower1 and you feel it strike gently at the bottom of the shaft4 ,as you step out into the darkness nothing is visible to you except the shifting flames of the workmen's lamps2 you cannot even see distinctly the men who carry them4 ,you are given a seat on the footman's bench near by until your eyes have accommodated themselves to the situation4 ,after a few minutes you are able to distinguish objects that are ten or fifteen feet away4 ,you can see through the murky atmosphere the rough walls of solid coal about you1 the flat1 black1 moist roof overhead1 the mine car tracks at your feet4 ,the carriages appear and disappear1 and are loaded and unloaded at the foot of the shaft1 while the passage1 at one side of which you sit1 is filled with mine cars1 mules1 and driver boys in apparently inextricable confusion4 ,the body of a mule looms up suddenly in front of you2 you catch a glimpse of a boy hurrying by2 a swarthy face1 lighted up by the flame of a lamp gleams out of the darkness1 but the body that belongs to it is in deep shadow1 you cannot see it4 ,bare1 brawny arms become visible and are withdrawn1 men's voices sound strange1 there is a constant rumbling of cars1 a regular clicking sound as the carriage stops and starts1 incessant shouting by the boys2 somewhere the sound of falling water4 ,such are the sights and sounds at the shaft's foot4 ,if now you pass in along the gangway1 you will be apt to throw the light of your lamp to your feet to see where you are stepping4 ,you will experience a sense of confinement in the narrow passage with its low roof and close1 black walls4 ,occasionally you will have to crowd against the rib to let a trip of mine cars1 drawn by a smoking mule1 in charge of a boy with soiled face and greasy clothes1 pass by4 ,perhaps you walk up one of the inclined planes to a counter gangway4 ,you are lucky if you are in a mine where the roof is so high that you need not bend over as you walk4 ,the men whom you meet have little lamps on their caps1 smoking and flaring in the strong air current4 ,you can see little of these persons except their soiled faces4 ,everything here is black and dingy2 there is no color relief to outline the form of any object4 ,now you come to a door on the upper side of the gangway4 ,a small boy jumps up from a bench and pulls the door open for the party to pass through4 ,as it closes behind you the strong current of air nearly extinguishes your lamp4 ,you walk along the airway for a little distance1 and then you come to the foot of a chamber4 ,up somewhere in the darkness1 apparently far away1 you see lights twinkling1 four of them4 ,they appear and disappear1 they bob up and down1 they waver from side to side1 till you wonder what strange contortions the people who carry them must be going through to give them such erratic movements4 ,by and by there is a cry of 8,fire60 the cry is repeated several times1 three lights move down the chamber toward you and suddenly disappear1 then the fourth one approaches apparently with more action1 and disappears also4 ,the men who carry them have hidden behind pillars4 ,you wait one1 two1 three minutes1 looking into darkness4 ,then there is a sudden wave-like movement in the air2 it strikes your face1 you feel it in your ears2 the flame of your lamp is blown aside4 ,immediately there is the sound of an explosion and the crash of falling blocks of coal4 ,the waves of disturbed air still touch your face gently4 ,soon the lights reappear1 all four of them1 and advance toward the face4 ,in a minute they are swallowed up in the powder smoke that has rolled out from the blast2 you see only a faint blur1 and their movements are indistinct4 ,but when the smoke has reached and passed you the air is clearer again1 and the lights twinkle and dance as merrily as they did before the blast was fired4 ,now you go up the chamber1 taking care not to stumble over the high caps1 into the notches of which the wooden rails of the track are laid4 ,on one side of you is a wall1 built up with pieces of slate and bony coal and the refuse of the mine1 on the other you can reach out your hand and touch the heavy wooden props that support the roof1 and beyond the props there is darkness1 or if the rib of coal is visible it is barely distinct4 ,up at the face there is a scene of great activity4 ,bare-armed men1 without coat or vest1 are working with bar and pick and shovel1 moving the fallen coal from the face1 breaking it1 loading it into the mine car which stands near by4 ,the miners are at the face prying down loose pieces of coal4 ,one takes his lamp in his hand and flashes its light along the black1 broken1 shiny surface1 deciding upon the best point to begin the next drill hole1 discussing the matter with his companion1 giving quick orders to the laborers1 acting with energy and a will4 ,he takes up his drill1 runs his fingers across the edge of it professionally1 balances it in his hands1 and strikes a certain point on the face with it1 turning it slightly at each stroke4 ,he has taken his position1 lying on his side perhaps1 and then begins the regular tap1 tap1 of the drill into the coal4 ,the laborers have loaded the mine car1 removed the block from the wheel1 and now1 grasping the end of it firmly1 hold back on it as it moves by gravity down the chamber to the gangway4 ,you may follow it out1 watch the driver boy as he attaches it to his trip1 and go with him back to the foot of the shaft4 ,you have seen something of the operation of taking out coal1 something of the ceaseless activity which pervades the working portions of the mine4 ,but your visit to the mine has been at a time when hundreds of men are busy around you1 when the rumble1 the click1 the tap1 the noise of blasting1 the sound of human voices1 are incessant4 ,if you were there alone1 the only living being in the mine1 you would experience a different set of sensations4 ,if you stood or sat motionless you would find the silence oppressive4 ,one who has not had this experience can have no adequate conception of the profound stillness of a deserted mine4 ,on the surface of the earth one cannot find a time nor a place in which the ear is not assailed by noises2 the stirring of the grasses in the field at midnight sends sound-waves traveling through space4 ,wherever there is life there is motion1 and wherever there is motion there is sound4 ,but down here there is no life1 no motion1 no sound4 ,the silence is not only oppressive1 it is painful1 it becomes unbearable4 ,no person could be long subjected to it and retain his reason2 it would be like trying to live in an element to which the human body is not adapted4 ,suppose you are not only in silence but in darkness4 ,there is no darkness on the surface of the earth that is at all comparable with the darkness of the mine4 ,on the surface the eyes can grow accustomed to the deepest gloom of night4 ,clouds cannot shut out every ray of light from hidden moon or stars4 ,but down in the mine1 whether in night-time or daytime1 there is no possible lightening up of the gloom by nature2 she cannot send her brightest sunbeam through three hundred feet of solid rock4 ,if one is in the mines without a light1 he has before him1 behind him1 everywhere1 utter blackness4 ,to be lost in this way1 a mile from any opening to day1 in the midst of a confusion of galleries1 in an abandoned mine1 and to be compelled to feel one's way to safety1 is a painful experience1 is one indeed which the writer himself has had4 ,there comes a time in the history of every mine when it is pervaded only by silence and darkness4 ,all the coal that can be carried from it by the shaft or slope or other outlet has been mined and taken out1 and the place is abandoned4 ,but before this comes to pass the work of robbing the pillars must be done4 ,this work consists in breaking from the pillars as much coal as can possibly be taken without too great risk to the workmen4 ,the process is begun at the faces of the chambers1 at the farthest extremity of the mine1 and the work progresses constantly toward the shaft or other opening by which the coal thus obtained is taken out4 ,it can readily be seen that robbing pillars is a dangerous business4 ,for so soon as the column becomes too slender to support the roof it will give way and the slate and rock will come crashing down into the chamber4 ,the workmen must be constantly on the alert1 watchful for every sign of danger1 but at the best some will be injured1 some will perhaps be killed1 by the falling masses from the roof4 ,yet this work must be done1 otherwise coal mining would not be profitable1 the waste would be too great4 ,the coal that can be taken out under the prevailing systems will average only fifty per cent4 of the whole body in the mine1 and at least ten per cent4 more will be lost in waste at the breaker1 so that it behooves a company to have its pillars robbed as closely as possible4 ,it is after all this has been done1 and all tools and appliances have been removed from the mine1 that it is abandoned4 ,perhaps the lower levels of it become filled with water4 ,it is a waste of crushed pillars1 fallen rock1 and blocked passages4 ,indeed1 it is difficult to conceive of anything more weird and desolate than an abandoned mine4 ,to walk or climb or creep through one is like walking with ,dante through the regions of the lost4 ,there are masses of rock piled up in great confusion to the jagged roof1 dull surfaces of coal and slate1 rotting timbers patched here and there with spots of snow-white fungus1 black stretches of still water into which a bit of falling slate or coal will strike and send a thousand echoes rattling through the ghostly chambers4 ,for a noise which on the surface of the earth will not break the quiet of a summer night1 down here will almost make your heart stand still with fear1 so startling is it in distinctness4 ,but it is not only in abandoned mines that falls of roof take place1 nor yet alone at the unpropped face of breast or gangway4 ,they are liable to occur at almost any point in any mine4 ,sometimes only a small piece of slate1 not larger perhaps than a shingle1 will come down2 again the roof of an entire chamber will fall4 ,it is possible that two or more chambers will be involved in the disturbance1 and instances occasionally occur in a working mine where a fall covers an area many acres in extent4 ,the falls that are limited in extent1 that are confined to a single chamber or the face of a chamber1 do not interfere with the pillars and can be readily cleared away4 ,they are due to lack of support for the roof1 to insufficient propping and injudicious blasting1 and may1 to a great extent1 be guarded against successfully by care and watchfulness4 ,but to foresee or prevent the more extended falls is often impossible4 ,they are due to the general pressure of overlying strata over a considerable area1 and both props and pillars give way under so great a strain4 ,sometimes they come without a moment's warning2 usually1 however1 their approach is indicated by unmistakable signs days or even weeks in advance of the actual fall4 ,there will be cracks in the roof1 small pieces of slate will drop to the floor1 the distance between floor and roof will grow perceptibly less1 pillars will bulge in the middle and little fragments of coal not larger than peas will break from them with a crackling sound and fall to the floor1 until a deposit of fine coal is thus formed at the base of each pillar in the infected district4 ,this crackling and falling is known as 8working10 and this general condition is called a 8crush0 or a 8squeeze40 ,if one stands quite still in a section of a mine where there is a squeeze1 he will hear all about him1 coming from the 8working0 pillars1 these faint crackling noises1 like the snapping of dry twigs under the feet4 ,sometimes the floor of underclay or the roof of shale is so soft that the pillar1 instead of bulging or breaking1 enters the strata above or below as the roof settles4 ,when this occurs it is called 8creeping40 ,in the steep-pitching veins the tendency of the pillars on the approach of a squeeze is to 8slip10 that is1 to move perceptibly down the incline4 ,when these indications occur the workmen are withdrawn from the portion of the mine which is 8working10 and vigorous measures are taken to counteract the pressure1 by props and other supports placed under the roof4 ,sometimes this work is effectual1 sometimes it is of no avail whatever4 ,often the fall comes before the first prop can be set2 and when it comes the crash is terrible1 the destruction is great4 ,however1 not many feet in thickness of the roof strata can come down2 the slate and rock which first fall are broken and heaped in such irregular masses on the floor that they soon extend up to the roof and afford it new and effectual support4 ,it is therefore only near the outcrop1 or where the mine is not deep1 that a fall in it disturbs the earth at the surface4 ,but in the mining of the upper veins such disturbances were frequent4 ,in passing through the coal regions one will occasionally see a depression1 or a series of depressions1 in the earth's surface to which his attention will be attracted on account of their peculiar shape4 ,they are not often more than ten or fifteen feet in depth1 and though of irregular outline their approximate diameter seldom exceeds sixty feet4 ,they are the surface indications of a fall in shallow mines1 and are known as 8caves0 or 8cave holes40 ,a section of country one or more acres in extent may1 however1 be so strewn with them as to make the land practically valueless4 ,when the upper vein in the ,wyoming region was being mined1 buildings on the surface were occasionally disturbed by these falls1 but not often4 ,if houses had been erected over a shallow mine before the coal was taken out1 strong pillars were left under them to support the roof1 and if the mining had already been done and the pillars robbed1 no one would risk the erection of a building over a place liable to fall1 for these places were known1 and points above them on the surface could be definitely located4 ,sensational stories are sometimes started concerning a mining town or city that it is liable any night1 while its inhabitants are asleep1 to be engulfed in the depths of some mine1 the vast cavities of which are spread out beneath it4 ,it is almost unnecessary to say that such dangers are purely imaginary4 ,there is probably not a town or city in the mining districts so located that a single stone of it in the populated portion would be disturbed by a fall in the mines underneath it1 supposing there were mines underneath it1 and that a fall is liable to take place in them4 ,the areas of surface which could possibly be disturbed by a fall are too limited in extent1 and are too well known1 to make such a general catastrophe at all within the possibilities4 ,the mines in the upper coal seams have for the most part been worked out and abandoned long ago1 and the roof rock has settled into permanent position and rigidity4 ,in the deep mines of the present day no fall1 however extensive1 could be felt at the surface4 ,the broken masses of roof rock that come down first would have filled up the cavities and supported the strata above them1 long before any perceptible movement could have reached the surface4 ,the conditions that lead to surface falls in the ,middle and ,southern regions are somewhat different from those that prevail in the ,wyoming field4 ,in the first-mentioned districts steep-pitching coal seams are the rule1 and they all come to the surface in lines of outcrop4 ,in driving breasts up from the gangway of the first level1 it is intended to leave from ten to twelve yards of coal between the face of the breast and the outcrop2 while over the outcrop will be from twelve to twenty feet of soil4 ,any experienced miner can tell when the face of the breast is approaching the outcrop2 the coal becomes softer1 changes in color1 breaks into smaller pieces1 sometimes water runs down through4 ,it is obviously unsafe to erect buildings on the line of this outcrop1 or immediately inside of it1 where the roof is thin4 ,there is no assurance that the body of coal left will not slip down the breast2 and the pillars of coal near the surface are so soft that any disturbance of this kind may cause them to give way and let down the entire thickness of strata above them4 ,this was what occurred at the ,stockton mines near ,hazleton on ,december #ah1 #ahfi4 ,two double tenement houses were situated over the face of a worked-out breast1 near the outcrop4 ,about five o'clock in the morning the roof fell1 carrying both houses down with it a distance of about eighty feet into the old breast4 ,the inhabitants of one of the houses escaped from it a moment before it went down1 those in the other house1 ten in number1 were carried into the mine1 and were killed4 ,the buildings in the pit took fire almost immediately1 and rescue of the bodies crushed there among the dbris was impossible4 ,illustration3 ,,gangway ,,in ,,kohinoor ,,colliery1 ,,near ,,shenandoah1 ,,pa4 ,accidents of this class are happily very rare4 ,the exercise of ordinary judgment is sufficient to prevent them4 ,the list of disasters due to falls of roof at the faces of chambers might1 as has already been explained1 be greatly reduced by the same means4 ,but it is often impossible to prevent1 or even to guard against1 those falls which cover a large area1 though their coming may be heralded for days by the working of pillars and all the indications of a squeeze4 ,this was the case at the fall in the ,carbondale mines in #ahdf1 one of the most extensive falls that has ever been known4 ,it covered an area of from forty to fifty acres1 fourteen persons were killed by it1 and the bodies of eight of them were never recovered4 ,although this disaster occurred more than forty years ago1 the writer had the privilege1 in the summer of #ahhh1 of hearing an account of it from one of the survivors1 ,mr4 ,andrew ,bryden4 ,mr4 ,bryden is now1 and has been for many years1 one of the general mining superintendents for the ,pennsylvania ,coal ,company1 with headquarters at ,pittston1 ,pennsylvania4 ,his story of the fall is as follows3 8,this disaster occurred on the twelfth day of ,january1 #ahdf1 at about eight o'clock in the forenoon4 ,it was in ,drifts ,no4 #a and ,no4 #b of the ,delaware and ,hudson ,canal ,company's mines at ,carbondale4 ,the part of the mine in which the caving in was most serious was on the plane heading1 at the face of which ,i was at work4 ,we heard the fall2 it came like a thunderclap4 ,we felt the concussion distinctly1 and the rush of air occasioned by it put out our lights4 ,i and those who were working with me knew that the fall had come1 and we thought it better to try immediately to find our way out1 although we had no idea that the fall had been so extensive or the calamity so great4 ,we did not doubt but that we should be able to make our way along the faces of the chambers1 next to the solid coal1 to an opening at the outcrop2 so we relighted our lamps and started4 ,we had gone but a little way before we saw the effects of the tremendous rush of air4 ,loaded cars had been lifted and thrown from the track1 and the heavy walls with which entrances were blocked had been torn out and the dbris scattered through the chambers4 ,we began then to believe that the fall had been a large one1 but before we reached the line of it we met a party of twenty-five or thirty men4 ,they were much frightened1 and were running in toward the face of the heading1 the point from which we had just come4 ,they said that the entire mine had caved in2 that the fall had extended close up to the faces of the chambers along the line of solid coal1 leaving no possible means of escape in the direction we were going2 and that the only safe place in the entire section was the place which we were leaving1 at the face of the heading4 ,this heading having been driven for some distance into the solid coal1 the fall could not well reach in to the face of it4 ,we were greatly discouraged by the news that these men told us1 and we turned back and went with them in to the face of the heading4 ,we had little hope of being able to get out through the body of the fall1the way in which we did finally escape1for we knew that the mine had been working1 and that the roof had been breaking down that morning in the lower level4 ,indeed1 we could hear it at that moment cracking1 crashing1 and falling with a great noise4 ,we felt that the only safe place was at the face of the heading where we were1 and most of the party clung closely to it4 ,some of us would go out occasionally to the last entrance to listen and investigate1 but the noise of the still falling roof was so alarming that no one dared venture farther4 ,after a long time spent thus in waiting ,i suggested that we should start out in parties of three or four1 so that we should not be in each other's way1 and so that all of us should not be exposed to the same particular danger1 and try to make our way through the fall4 ,but the majority of the men were too much frightened to accede to this proposition2 they were determined that we should all remain together4 ,so when some of us started out the whole body rushed out after us1 and followed along until we came to the line of the fall4 ,we had succeeded in picking our way but a short distance through the fallen portion of the mine when we met my father1 ,alexander ,bryden1 coming toward us4 ,he was foreman of the mine4 ,we heard him calling us out before he reached us1 and you may be sure that no more welcome sound ever struck upon our ears4 ,he was outside when the fall came1 but the thunder of it had scarcely ceased before he started in to learn its extent1 and to rescue1 if possible1 the endangered men4 ,he had not gone far when he met three men hastening toward the surface1 who told him how extensive and dreadful the calamity had been1 and urged him not to imperil his life by going farther4 ,but my father was determined to go1 and he pushed on4 ,he made his way over hills of fallen rock1 he crawled under leaning slabs of slate1 he forced his body through apertures scarcely large enough to admit it1 he hurried under hanging pieces of roof that crashed down in his path the moment he had passed2 and finally he came to us4 ,i have no doubt that he was as glad to find us and help us as we were to see him4 ,then he led us back through the terrible path by which he had come1 and brought us every one beyond the fall to a place of safety4 ,when we were there my father asked if any person had been left inside4 ,he was told that one1 ,dennis ,farrell1 was at the face of his chamber1 so badly injured across his spine that he could not walk4 ,the miners in their retreat to the face of our heading had found him lying under a heavy piece of coal4 ,they had rolled it off from him1 but seeing that he could not walk they set him up in the corner of his chamber1 thinking it might be as safe a place as the one to which they were going1 and gave him a light and left him4 ,my father asked if any one would go in with him and help carry ,dennis out1 but none of them dared to go2 it was too dangerous a journey4 ,so my father made his way back alone through the fallen mine1 and found the crippled and imprisoned miner4 ,the man was totally helpless1 and my father lifted him to his back and carried him as far as he could4 ,he drew him gently through the low and narrow passages of the fall1 he climbed with him over the hills of broken rock1 and finally he brought him out to where the other men were4 ,they carried him to the surface1 a mile farther1 and then to his home4 ,dennis and his brother ,john were working the chamber together1 and when the piece of coal fell upon ,dennis his brother ran into the next chamber for help4 ,he had scarcely got into it when the roof of the chamber fell and buried him1 and he was never seen again1 alive or dead4 8,it was only a little while after we got out before the roof fell in on the way we had come and closed it up1 and it was not opened again for a year afterward4 ,but we knew there were others still in the mine1 and after we got ,farrell out my father organized a rescuing party1 and kept up the search for the imprisoned miners night and day4 8,john ,hosie was in the mine when the fall came4 ,he was one of the foremen1 and he and my father were friends4 ,two days had passed in unavailing search for him1 and it was thought that he must have been crushed under the rock with the rest4 ,but on the morning of the third day my father met him face to face in one of the desolate fallen portions of the mine4 ,he was in darkness1 he was almost exhausted1 his clothing was in rags1 and his fingers were torn and bleeding4 ,when he saw my father he could give utterance to only two words3 #8,oh1 ,bryden6' he said1 and then his heart failed him and he cried like a child4 ,he had been caught in the fall and had lost his light1 and though he was familiar with the passages of the mine he could not find his way along them on account of the dbris with which they were filled1 and the utter confusion into which everything had been thrown4 ,he had wandered about for two days and nights in the fallen mine1 clambering over jagged hills of rock1 digging his way1 with torn fingers1 through masses of wreckage1 in constant peril from falling roof and yawning pit1 hungry1 thirsty1 and alone in the terrible darkness4 ,what wonder that his heart gave way in the moment of rescue6 8,the bodies of some of those who were shut in by the fall1 or buried under it1 were found when the drift was again opened1 but for others the mine has been an undisturbed grave for more than forty years40 ,,note ,,added ,,in #ahih4,the latest disaster resulting from a squeeze or fall in the mines occurred ,june #bh1 #ahif1 at the ,twin ,shaft of ,the ,newton ,coal ,mining ,company at ,pittston1 ,luzerne ,county1 ,pennsylvania4 ,this mine had been working for some days1 and when the fall came the ,superintendent1 together with his foremen and workmen1 were engaged in timbering or propping the affected region1 in order1 if possible1 to prevent a fall4 ,the effort was useless1 however1 and these officials and workmen were caught while at their work1 and perished in the disaster4 ,there were fifty-eight of them4 ,superhuman efforts were put forth to rescue them1 but the attempt was useless1 and later on it was found utterly impossible even to recover their bodies1 owing to the extent and magnitude of the fall4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,,air ,,and ,,water ,,in ,,the ,,mines4 ,man is an air-breathing animal4 ,so soon as his supply of air is cut off he dies4 ,in proportion as that supply is lessened or vitiated1 his physical and mental energies fail4 ,one of the first requisites1 therefore1 in all mining operations is that the ventilation shall be good4 ,to accomplish this end an air current must be established4 ,it is true that into any accessible cavity atmospheric air will rush1 but if it be allowed to remain in that cavity without any replacement it becomes dead and unfit to breathe4 ,if1 in addition to this1 it takes up deleterious gases1 like those which escape from the coal measures1 it becomes poisoned and dangerous to human life4 ,hence the necessity of a continuous current4 ,provisions for such a current are made with the opening into every mine4 ,the separate air compartment of a shaft has already been noticed4 ,in drifts1 tunnels1 and slopes a part of the opening is partitioned off for an airway1 or1 what is more common1 a separate passage is driven parallel with1 and alongside of1 the main one4 ,in drifts and tunnels1 since the mines there are not deep1 air shafts are often driven at some other point above the workings1 or slopes are sunk from the outcrop to accommodate the return air from the mine4 ,it is due to the necessity of maintaining an air current that all passages and chambers are driven in pairs or sets in the manner already explained4 ,it has also been explained how the fresh air going in at the carriage ways of the shaft1 or other openings1 passes along the gangway to its extremity1 back along the airway1 up to and across the faces of each set of chambers1 and then down into the airway again1 to be carried to the foot of the shaft and up by the air passage to the surface4 ,but in the larger mines there are many passages besides the main gangway that must be supplied with air1 and the current must therefore be divided or split to accommodate them2 so these separate currents1 taken in this way from the main current1 and themselves often divided and subdivided1 are called 8splits40 ,the air channels thus branching1 uniting1 crossing1 and recrossing form a most complicated system of ventilation4 ,but the current goes nowhere by chance4 ,every course is marked out for it4 ,on the fact that it follows that given path depends the lives of the workmen and the successful operation of the mine4 ,sometimes it becomes necessary to carry two currents of air through the same passage in opposite directions4 ,in that case the passage will either be partitioned along its length1 or a wooden box laid through it to conduct one of the air currents4 ,if one air course crosses another1 as is often the case1 a channel will be cut in the roof of one of the passages1 and the lower side of the channel will be closed tightly by masonry1 to prevent any possible intermingling of the currents1 a circumstance which might prove disastrous4 ,entrances and cross-headings cut through between parallel passages for purposes of ventilation are closed as soon as the next cross-heading is made1 for reasons already explained4 ,this closing is usually done by building up in the aperture a wall of slate1 rock1 and coal1 and filling the chinks with dirt from the floor of the mine4 ,sometimes wooden partitions are put in instead1 and between principal air passages the cross-headings are closed by heavy walls of masonry4 ,when it is necessary to turn the air from any traveling way1 or to prevent it from further following such traveling way1 a partition is built across the passage1 and in the opening left in the partition a door is swung4 ,if this is across a way through which mine cars pass1 a boy will be stationed at the door to open it when the cars come and close it as soon as they have gone through4 ,he is called a 8door boy40 ,all doors are so hung as to swing open against the current of air1 and are therefore self-closing4 ,the law directs that this shall be done4 ,there are several patented devices for giving an automatic movement to mine doors2 but few if any of them are in practical operation in the anthracite mines4 ,the conditions here are not favorable for the use of self-acting doors1 and besides this the act of #ahhe provides that all main doors shall have an attendant4 ,the law is very explicit on this subject of ventilation2 it is a matter of the utmost importance in operating a mine4 ,a failure of the air current for even an hour might1 in some mines1 result in the death of all those who chanced to be inside4 ,for this current not only supplies air for breathing purposes1 but it takes up the smoke1 the dust1 the dangerous and the poisonous gases1 and carries them to the surface4 ,in the same way pure air is drawn into the lungs1 loaded with the refuse matter brought there by the blood1 and then expelled4 ,so life is preserved in both cases4 ,in order to create this circulation of air and make it continuous1 artificial means are ordinarily used4 ,the earliest method of creating an artificial air current which should be constant1 and one still in use to a limited extent1 is that by the open furnace4 ,this is an ordinary fireplace with grate bars1 built near the foot of an opening into the mine1 and having a bricked-in smoke-flue which leads into the air passage of that opening at some little distance above the floor of the mine4 ,the volume of heat thus passing into the airway will rarefy the air therein1 and so create and maintain a strong1 invariable1 upward current4 ,sometimes the furnace is placed at the foot of an air shaft a long distance from the main opening1 thus making it an upcast shaft4 ,the reverse1 however1 is usually the case4 ,all air that enters the mine by any opening is usually drawn out at the main shaft or other main entrance4 ,but as the air returning from the working places of the mine is often laden with inflammable gases1 it is not allowed to come into contact with the fire of the furnace1 but is carried into the shaft by a channel cut into the rock above the roof of the mine4 ,furnace ventilation in mines in which explosive gases are generated is dangerous at the best1 and is now prohibited by the act of #ahhe4 ,the modern and most common method of creating and maintaining a circulation of air in a mine is by a fan built at the mouth of the air compartment of the shaft or slope4 ,the fan exhausts the air from the mine by the airway1 and fresh air rushes in by the carriage way1 or any other opening to the surface to restore the equilibrium4 ,sometimes the fan is used as a blower and forces air into the mine instead of exhausting it4 ,the advantage of this method is that it gives better air to the workmen at the faces of chambers and headings1 but the objection to it is that it brings all the smoke and gases out by the main gangway4 ,this is a serious objection1 not only making this principal passage unfit to see or breathe in1 but making it dangerous also by the presence of inflammable gases4 ,the fan is therefore commonly used as an exhauster4 ,there are various kinds of fans in use at the mines1 but the kind generally employed is patterned after ,guibal's invention4 ,it is simply a great wheel without a rim1 and instead of spokes it has blades like those of a windmill4 ,it is run by a steam-engine1 makes forty revolutions per minute at an average rate of speed1 and sends from one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand cubic feet of fresh air per minute into the mine4 ,the act of #ahhe requires the mine operator to furnish two hundred cubic feet of air per minute to every man in the mine4 ,this is the maximum amount necessary for perfect respiration4 ,in the larger workings perhaps six hundred men and boys are employed4 ,for this number one hundred and twenty thousand cubic feet of air per minute would be required by law4 ,a large fan would supply this amount by running at almost its minimum rate of speed4 ,so long1 therefore1 as the fan and air passages are in good working condition there need be no fear of lack of proper ventilation4 ,but to give absolutely pure air to the workers in the mine is an utter impossibility under any system that has yet been devised4 ,the outer atmosphere that is drawn into the mines has hardly got beyond the light of the sun before it has taken up a certain percentage of impurities4 ,as it passes by the working faces of the chambers it carries along with it the gases evolved from the coal2 principally the carbonic acid gas or black damp1 and the light carbureted hydrogen or fire damp4 ,it also takes up and carries along the powder smoke1 the organic matter contained in the exhalations of men and animals1 the products of decaying timber1 and the dust which is always in the air4 ,nor is this the only deterioration which this air current undergoes4 ,the proportion of oxygen in it is diminished by the burning of many lamps1 by the respiration of many men1 and by the constant decay of wood4 ,it is seen1 therefore1 that the air in which the miner must breathe is far from being the pure oxygen and nitrogen of the outside atmosphere4 ,it follows also that the longer the route is of any particular current1 and the more working faces it passes in its course1 the more heavily laden will it be with impurities1 and the more poisonous for those men who last breathe it on its return to the upcast air shaft4 ,this evil1 however1 is limited in extent by the act of #ahhe1 which provides that no more than seventy-five persons shall be employed at the same time in any one split or current of air4 ,the wonder is that the health of these mine workers does not sooner fail them1 especially when we take into consideration the wet condition of many of the mines4 ,it is a fact1 however1 that miners as a class are not more subject to disease than other workmen4 ,the decimation in their ranks is due mostly to accidents producing bodily injuries and death1 not to diseases which attack them as a result of their occupation4 ,next in importance to the matter of ventilation in mines is the matter of drainage4 ,the first difficulty experienced from water is while the shaft or slope is in process of sinking4 ,it is usually necessary to hold the water in one side of the opening while work is going on in the other side4 ,a small pumping engine is generally sufficient to keep the pit clear until the bottom is reached1 but occasionally the amount of water is such that a large engine and pumping appliances have to be put in place at once4 ,in ,europe much trouble is often experienced from the excessive flow of water while sinking the shaft1 and a watertight casing has frequently to follow the shaft downward in order that work may go on at all4 ,such appliances are not as a rule necessary in this country1 though much difficulty has been encountered in sinking shafts through the quicksand deposits of the ,susquehanna basin in the ,wyoming valley4 ,the general principle of mine drainage has been already explained4 ,it is1 in brief1 that the floor of the mine shall be so graded that all water will gravitate to a certain point4 ,that point is near the foot of the shaft or slope1 and is at the mouth of the drift or tunnel4 ,but from the sump of the shaft or slope the water must be raised by artificial means4 ,a powerful steam pumping engine1 located at the surface1 is employed to do this work1 and one compartment of the shaft or slope1 known as the pump-way1 is set aside for the accommodation of pipe1 pump-rods1 and supporting timbers1 which extend from the top to the bottom of the shaft4 ,the most powerful of these pumps will throw out a volume of twelve hundred gallons of water per minute4 ,it is seldom that the tonnage of water pumped from a mine falls below the tonnage of coal hoisted1 and in some of the wet collieries of the ,lehigh district eight or ten tons of water are pumped out for every ton of coal hoisted4 ,in the ,wyoming district a thousand tons of water a day is not an unusual amount to be thrown out of a mine by a single pump4 ,in driving gangways or chambers toward abandoned workings that have been allowed to fill with water much care is necessary1 especially if the new mine is on a lower level1 which is usually the case4 ,the act of #ahhe provides that 8whenever a place is likely to contain a dangerous accumulation of water1 the working approaching such place shall not exceed twelve feet in width1 and there shall constantly be kept1 at a distance of not less than twenty feet in advance1 at least one bore hole near the centre of the working1 and sufficient flank bore holes on each side40 ,it often happened1 before accurate surveys of mines were required to be made and filed1 that operators would drive chambers or gangways toward these reservoirs of water in ignorance of their whereabouts4 ,the firing of a blast1 the blow of a pick1 perhaps1 would so weaken the barrier pillar that it would give way and the water breaking through would sweep into the lower workings with irresistible force1 carrying death to the workmen in its path and destruction to the mine4 ,some very distressing accidents have occurred in this way4 ,it is customary now for operators1 when approaching with their workings a boundary line of property1 to leave a barrier pillar at least one hundred feet thick between that line and the outer rib or face of their workings2 and this whether the area on the other side of the line is or is not worked out4 ,under the present system of accurate surveying and mapping1 accidents resulting from flooding by mine water should be rare1 since the location of boundary lines may be calculated almost to the inch1 as well as the location of all workings in their relation to each other4 ,but accidents due to a flooding by surface water are not always to be obviated4 ,sometimes when a stream crosses the line of outcrop the water will break through into the mine and flood the lower levels in an incredibly short space of time2 and this too when good judgment and prudence have been used in leaving sufficient coal for protection4 ,the continuity and character of the strata lying between the earth's surface and the coal face cannot always be determined4 ,it is not often that accidents from flooding occur while mining is going on under large bodies of water4 ,the precautionary measures taken in presence of a known danger are sufficient to reduce that danger to a minimum4 ,disasters occur occasionally as the result of a peculiarly deceptive condition of the overlying strata1 whereby a rush of earth1 quicksand1 or mud into a mine causes loss of life and destruction of property4 ,the bed of a stream cut deep into the rocks in some former geological period1 and then filled to the level of the surrounding country with drift in some later age1 leaves a dangerous and unsuspected depression in the strata which the miner's drill may pierce or his blast break into at any time with disastrous results4 ,one of the most characteristic of this class of accidents occurred at ,nanticoke in the ,wyoming region on the #ahth of ,december1 #ahhe1 in a mine operated by the ,susquehanna ,coal ,company4 ,a miner by the name of ,kiveler broke into a depression of this kind while blasting1 and immediately through the aperture a great volume of water1 quicksand1 and culm came rushing down4 ,it filled up that entire portion of the mine1 burying twenty-six men and boys beyond possible hope of rescue and endangering the lives of hundreds of others4 ,energetic efforts were made to tunnel through the masses of sand and culm packed in the passages of the mine in order to reach those whose avenues of escape had been cut off1 many believing that they had been able to reach high enough ground to escape the flood4 ,these efforts1 lasting through many weeks1 were wholly unsuccessful4 ,the men were never reached4 ,bore holes1 drilled into the chambers where they were imprisoned1 both from the inside and from the surface1 proved conclusively that the passages were crowded full of sand and culm1 and that the men must have perished immediately upon the occurrence of the disaster4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,,the ,,dangerous ,,gases4 ,one of the chief dangers to which workmen in the mines are subject arises from the gases given off by minerals and metals4 ,though these deleterious gases are commonly found in more or less abundance in the coal mines1 and are usually considered in connection with such mines1 they are1 nevertheless1 not confined to the coal measures4 ,they have been noticed also in mines of lead1 sulphur1 salt1 and other substances4 ,it is said that anthracite contains a much larger proportion of these gases than do bituminous or other coals1 but that being hard it holds them more tenaciously1 and is therefore worked with less risk4 ,the soft coals1 on the contrary1 being porous as well as soft1 allow the gases to escape from them much more readily1 and so increase the danger at the working faces of the mines4 ,the gas given out most abundantly by the coal is light carbureted hydrogen1 known as marsh gas1 from the fact that being a product of vegetable decomposition under water1 bubbles of it rise to the surface on stirring the waters of a marsh4 ,this is the gas that is known to miners as fire damp4 ,the ,french call it grisou4 ,marsh gas1 in its simple form1 consists of four parts of hydrogen to one of carbon4 ,it is about one half the weight of air1 and therefore rises and gathers at the roof of a mine chamber1 extending downward as it accumulates4 ,when it is mixed with from four to twelve times its volume of atmospheric air it becomes violently explosive4 ,if the mixture is above or below this proportion it is simply inflammable1 burning without explosive force1 with a pale blue flame4 ,the value of a perfect ventilating current across the faces of chambers which are making gas rapidly can now be appreciated4 ,it is not only necessary that the supply of air should be sufficient to make the gas non-explosive1 but that it should be sufficient to dilute it beyond even the point of inflammability4 ,for to its inflammable more than to its explosive quality is due most of the disasters with which it is accredited4 ,a peculiar and dangerous feature of this gas is that it does not always escape from the coal at a uniform rate1 but often comes out suddenly in large compact bodies4 ,these are called 8blowers40 ,they are found most commonly in faults1 in cracks in the coal seams1 or in open spots in the body of coal1 where they have opportunity to accumulate4 ,they contain1 besides marsh gas1 less than one per cent4 of carbonic acid1 and from one to four per cent4 of nitrogen4 ,it is impossible to anticipate their coming2 the miner's drill may strike into one and free it at any time without a moment's warning4 ,it may even burst through the face by its own power4 ,in such cases danger is imminent1 disaster is most common4 ,when the naked light of the miner comes into contact with any considerable quantity of fire damp in an explosive state the shock that follows is terrific4 ,men and mules1 cars and coal1 are hurled together to destruction4 ,walls are swept out1 iron rails are bent double1 doors are torn from their fastenings1 the mine is laid waste4 ,the damage which results from an explosion of gas is of course much greater than that which is due to mere ignition and burning without the explosive force4 ,in the latter case1 however1 the danger to the miner is but slightly diminished4 ,he is liable to receive injuries which may prove immediately fatal4 ,his burning lamp no sooner touches the body of fire damp than it bursts into flame1 which1 propelled by expansive force1 passes swiftly down along the roof of the chamber4 ,taking up enough oxygen from the atmospheric air to make combustion more fierce1 it returns to the face of the chamber with a violent contractile surge1 scorching everything in its path1 and then1 perhaps after another brief sally1 it burns itself out4 ,the miner who accidentally fires a block of fire damp falls suddenly flat on his face on the floor of the mine1 burying his mouth1 nose1 and eyes in the dirt to protect them from the flame and intense heat4 ,then he clasps his hands over the back of his head and neck to protect these parts from injury1 and lies waiting for the minute or two to pass before the fire shall have burned itself out4 ,but he must not wait too long4 ,the fatal after damp follows quick upon the heels of the flame1 and his only safety from certain death lies now in immediate flight4 ,the danger from inflammable gases was known and appreciated very early in the history of mining4 ,but it was long thought to be an unavoidable danger4 ,light must be had or no work could be done1 and the only light that could be obtained was from the flame produced by combustion4 ,candles were commonly used4 ,they were stuck into a ball of clay and fastened to the sides of the working places at the most advantageous points4 ,the bituminous mines of ,england were peculiarly prolific of inflammable gases2 accidents were almost of daily occurrence4 ,on the #beth of ,may1 #ahab1 a great disaster occurred at ,felling ,colliery1 near ,newcastle1 in which eighty-nine persons lost their lives by explosion of fire damp1 and public attention and the public conscience were directed to the matter of safety in mines more intensely than ever4 ,sir ,humphrey ,davy was then in the zenith of his fame4 ,in ,april1 #ahae1 he returned to ,london after a triumphal tour through ,france and ,italy1 in which his progress had been marked by a series of brilliant experiments4 ,he had no sooner reached home than he was asked by ,mr4 ,buddie1 a well-known colliery owner of that day1 to turn his attention toward improved methods of lighting the mines4 ,specimens of the dangerous gas were sent to him from ,newcastle1 and he experimented with them4 ,he found that the flame from them would not pass through a small tube1 nor through a set of small tubes standing side by side4 ,he found also that the length of the tube was immaterial4 ,he therefore shortened them until they were mere sections1 until his set of parallel tubes became simply wire gauze4 ,the proper proportion between the substance of the wire and the size of the aperture was found to be twenty-eight wires to the linear inch1 and seven hundred and eighty-four apertures to the square inch1 a proportion that is still in use4 ,this wire gauze was then made into the form of a cylindrical tube about six inches long and one and one half inches in diameter1 with a flat gauze top4 ,to the bottom of this tube was fastened a small cylindrical oil vessel1 and to the top a ring handle4 ,the wick extended up from the oil vessel inside the tube4 ,when ,sir ,humphrey had perfected his lamp to a point of safety he took it and went with ,mr4 ,buddie down to ,newcastle1 and together they traversed with impunity some of the most dangerous parts of the ,bentham seam1 at that time one of the most fiery coal beds known4 ,at about the same time the celebrated ,george ,stephenson also invented a safety lamp similar in most respects to the ,davy1 so also1 later1 did ,clanny and ,museler1 and all four kinds are in general use4 ,other styles have been invented also1 but for the purposes to which a safety lamp is properly applied the ,davy doubtless still excels all others4 ,those purposes are principally the investigation of workings to discover the presence of gas1 and to aid in the erection of proper appliances for driving it out4 ,it is not necessary1 in these days of powerful ventilating machinery1 to allow dangerous gases to remain in working places and to mine the coal there by the light of safety lamps4 ,it is far safer1 and better in every way1 to sweep the chambers clean from foul air by strong ventilating currents1 so that the miner may work by the light of his naked and most convenient common tin lamp4 ,the objection1 therefore1 to the ,davy lamp1 that the light given out by it is too dim1 need not be considered a serious one4 ,the size of the flame cannot be increased without destroying the proportion between it and the gauze cylinder1 and the size of the cylinder cannot be increased without making a dangerously large chamber for the accommodation of explosive gas4 ,therefore the light given out must1 of necessity1 be dim4 ,but the safety lamp itself must be used with care and prudence1 otherwise it may become no less an instrument of danger than the naked lamp4 ,when it is carried into a chamber that contains fire damp the gas enters freely through the gauze into the cylindrical chamber1 and is there ignited and consumed without communicating its flame to the outside body4 ,the presence of gas is indicated by the conduct of the flame of the lamp4 ,if the percentage of marsh gas is small the flame simply elongates and becomes smoky4 ,if it is mixed with from eight to twelve or fourteen times its volume of atmospheric air the flame of the wick disappears entirely1 and the interior of the cylinder becomes filled with the blue flame of burning gas4 ,it will not do to hold the lamp long in this mixture1 the wires will become red with heat1 and the outer gas may then become ignited from them4 ,neither will it do to hold the lamp in a current of gaseous air moving at a greater rate of speed than six or eight feet per second1 since in that case the flame is apt to be driven through the gauze and to set fire to the gas outside4 ,there is also danger if the lamp be thrust suddenly into an explosive mixture that the force of the explosion inside the wire-gauze cylinder will force the flame through the mesh4 ,it will be seen1 therefore1 that even the safety lamp is not an absolute protection against danger from explosive and inflammable gases4 ,the position and duties of the fire boss at each colliery have already been referred to4 ,he goes into the mine about four o'clock in the morning and makes his round before the men arrive4 ,if gas has been found in an inflammable or explosive condition the workmen are not allowed to enter the place until it has been cleared out by the erection of brattices and other ventilating appliances4 ,if only an insignificant quantity has been found in any chamber1 the miner who works the place is warned of its existence and told to brush it out4 ,in obedience to this order he goes to the working face1 sets his lamp on the floor1 and removing his coat swings that garment vigorously over his head1 thus mixing and diluting the gas and driving it down into the current4 ,it is not in the working chambers1 however1 that the most dangerous accumulations of fire damp are found1 but in the worked out and abandoned portions of the mine4 ,here it may collect unnoticed until large bodies of it are formed1 and then when some one blunders into it with a naked lamp a terrific explosion is the inevitable result4 ,the act of #ahhe recognizes this especial danger1 and makes it obligatory on operators to keep old workings free of dangerous bodies of gas2 and to this end it directs that they shall be inspected at least once a week by the fire boss or his assistant4 ,where it is known that such gas exists1 or is liable to accumulate in old workings1 the entrances to such places are barred across1 and the word 8,fire60 is written conspicuously at the opening to them4 ,but notwithstanding all rules and precautions1 ignitions and explosions of fire damp are still dangerously common4 ,among the thousands of mine workers there is always some one who is careless1 some one who blunders2 the lessons of perfect watchfulness and obedience are hard lessons to be learned4 ,as has already been intimated1 the danger which results from the burning of fire damp lies not alone in the fierce flame given forth1 but also1 and perhaps in a still greater degree1 in the product of its combustion4 ,this product is known to the miner as 8after damp10 and consists principally of carbonic acid gas with some nitrogen4 ,it is irrespirable1 and a single inhalation of it1 in its pure state1 will produce immediate insensibility and speedy death4 ,it is heavier than atmospheric air and therefore falls to the bottom of the mine as soon as it is formed from the combustion of the light carbureted hydrogen4 ,it is for this reason that the miner1 who has fallen on his face on the floor of the mine to escape the flame of the burning fire damp1 rises as soon as that flame has disappeared and hastens1 if he is able1 to a place of safety4 ,indeed1 it is easier to protect one's self from the surging fire above than from the invisible and insidious gas below1 so quickly does it form1 so deadly is it in effect4 ,one of the most characteristic disasters of recent times1 resulting from the explosion of fire damp and the accumulation of after damp1 occurred on ,monday1 ,august #ad1 #ahga1 at the ,eagle ,shaft1 situated about a mile below the town of ,pittston1 in ,luzerne ,county1 ,pennsylvania4 ,at nine o'clock on the morning of that day a driver boy by the name of ,martin ,mangan was passing along an upper gangway1 driving a mule with a trip of mine cars4 ,just above him lay a section of the mine that had been worked out and abandoned1 in the old chambers of which a large body of fire damp had been allowed to accumulate4 ,at the hour mentioned there came a sudden and extensive fall of roof in these old workings4 ,the impulse given to the air by this fall drove it out into the working galleries1 and with it the inflammable gas4 ,when the fire damp reached the heading and touched the flame of ,martin ,mangan's lighted lamp there was a terrific explosion4 ,at the mouth of the shaft timbers were cracked1 clouds of dust poured out1 and dbris from the mine was thrown violently into the outer air4 ,people who were a mile away heard the noise of the explosion and hastened to the scene4 ,mining experts knew at once what had occurred4 ,as soon as sufficient repairs could be made to the shaft a rescuing party1 led by ,superintendent ,andrew ,bryden of the ,pennsylvania ,coal ,company's mines1 descended into the mine and began to search for victims4 ,those workmen who were on the other side of the shaft from where the explosion took place were rescued and brought out alive4 ,but little progress could be made1 however1 toward the region of the trouble on account of the after damp which had accumulated4 ,up to two o'clock on ,tuesday morning five dead bodies had been discovered1 and during that day twelve more were taken out2 all who had worked in that section of the mine4 ,the positions of these bodies showed that the men had fallen where they chanced to be when the explosion occurred4 ,the first wave of after damp that touched them had made them insensible1 and death speedily followed4 ,they died from asphyxia4 8,black damp0 is pure carbonic acid gas1 containing two parts of oxygen to one of carbon4 ,it is the principal constituent of after damp1 which may1 indeed1 contain no other elements in appreciable quantities4 ,the two mixtures are therefore often spoken of as being the same1 and the miners apply the term 8choke damp0 indiscriminately to either4 ,black damp is also given off by the coal in the same manner that fire damp is1 and frequently the two mixtures are evolved together4 ,carbonic acid gas is also one of the products of burning coal1 of burning oil1 and of the respiration of man and beast4 ,it is about one and a half times as heavy as air1 and is therefore always found next to the floor of the mine4 ,this gas is not inflammable4 ,its presence may be detected by the conduct of the flame of the lamp4 ,in an atmosphere containing but a small percentage of it the lamp light will grow dim1 and1 as the proportion of gas increases1 will become more and more feeble until it is finally extinguished4 ,an atmosphere containing from eight to ten per cent4 of this gas may be breathed without immediate danger2 it will simply occasion dullness of intellect and numbness of body4 ,this condition changes into one of insensibility as the inhalation continues1 or as the percentage of gas is increased1 and to enter an undiluted body of it means sudden death4 ,it is stated that the workmen in the ,creuzot mine1 in ,france1 descended the shaft one morning1 on their way to work1 not knowing that carbonic acid had formed in the mine during the night4 ,following one after another along the main passage1 they had reached a point not far from the foot of the shaft when the leader suddenly entered into a body of black damp and fell1 stricken with asphyxia1 before he could utter a cry4 ,the man following him fell also4 ,the third1 bending over to draw his comrade out of danger1 was himself prostrated1 and the fourth1 by reason of a similar effort1 shared the fate of the others4 ,but the fifth1 being an experienced master miner1 turned quickly in his tracks and obliged those behind him to ascend the shaft4 ,the black damp is thus quick and terrible in its effect4 ,the greatest danger from it1 however1 exists1 not at the working faces1 where it is usually swept away in the ventilating current1 but in abandoned workings1 where it often accumulates unnoticed4 8,white damp0 is a more dangerous gas than either of the others1 but is not so frequently found4 ,it is carbonic oxide1 and consists of equal portions of carbon and oxygen4 ,it is a very little lighter than air1 and has a tendency to rise4 ,when present in a sufficiently pure state it burns with a blue flame1 but ordinarily it is incombustible and produces no effect upon the flame of the lamp4 ,it is tasteless and odorless1 and its presence cannot be detected before it has done its dangerous work4 ,to breathe an atmosphere containing a very small percentage of it will speedily produce a fatal result4 ,it acts on the system as a narcotic1 and its effect is produced even more quickly than is that of black damp4 ,it is not thought to be given off in appreciable quantities by the coal at the open faces2 but it is formed when the carbonic acid passes through any ignited carbonaceous material1 or when steam passes over burning coal4 ,it is therefore produced most frequently by smouldering gob fires1 by burning wood in the mines1 or by a shaft on fire1 and may exist as one of the results of an explosion of fire damp or of blasting powder4 ,it is the most to be dreaded of any of the gases which the miner has to encounter4 ,he may possibly avoid the surging flame of the fire damp1 he may escape from the falling after damp1 and make his way unharmed through bodies of black damp lying thick about his feet1 but if he has still to encounter this terrible white damp his good fortune will have been of little avail2 death will almost surely seize him4 ,in connection with this may be mentioned the fact that under certain conditions coal dust may become violently explosive4 ,when it is mixed with air1 with or without the presence of fire damp1 and is set into sudden and intense vibration by a heavy powder blast1 a fall of roof1 or other means1 it may explode with greater destructive force than even fire damp is capable of4 ,happily such explosions are not frequent1 all the conditions necessary being rarely present at the same time4 ,it is obvious1 moreover1 that an accident of this kind could occur only in a very dry mine4 ,it is true also that the dust of bituminous coals is much more liable to be explosive than the dust of anthracite4 ,no well authenticated instances of coal dust explosions have been reported from the anthracite regions1 while in mining soft coals they have undoubtedly occurred4 ,two cases of this kind were reported from ,france1 one in #ahge and one in #ahgg4 ,no longer ago than ,november #i1 #ahhh1 a terrible explosion of coal dust occurred in a bituminous coal mine at ,pittsburg1 ,kansas1 by which more than one hundred lives were lost4 ,in some mines the inflammable and poisonous gases are given off in such abundance by the coal that it is dangerous to remain in them for even an hour after ventilation has been stopped4 ,at such collieries when1 on account of accident1 or for any reason1 the fan stops running1 the men are called out immediately1 and are not allowed to enter again until a new circulating current has been established4 ,one of the most notable mine disasters of recent years was caused by the quick accumulation of black damp and white damp in a mine1 the ventilating system of which had been destroyed and the shaft burned out by fire4 ,this was at ,avondale1 near ,plymouth1 in ,luzerne ,county1 ,pennsylvania1 on the #fth of ,september1 #ahfi4 ,there were three conditions here1 the presence and coperation of which made this calamity possible4 ,first1 the mine was ventilated by a furnace at the foot of the shaft2 second1 the breaker was built over the mouth of the shaft2 and1 third1 the shaft was the only outlet from the mine4 ,the partition of the ventilating flue took fire from the furnace draught4 ,at ten o'clock in the forenoon a young man by the name of ,palmer ,steele stepped on the carriage with a load of hay to take to the inside stables4 ,half way down the shaft the hay took fire from the burning buntons4 ,the engineer saw the flames rise from the mouth and let the carriage1 with the young man on it1 as quickly as possible to the bottom4 ,there were then in the mine one hundred and eight men4 ,not one of them came out from it alive4 ,in an incredibly short space of time the flames leaped to the top of the breaker1 one hundred feet from the ground1 and by the middle of the afternoon the great building was a mass of ruins1 covering over and blocking up the only entrance to the mine4 ,it was far into the night before the dbris had been sufficiently cleared away to permit of descent into the shaft4 ,then two men1 ,thomas ,w4 ,williams and ,david ,jones1 went down to search for the imprisoned miners4 ,they were scarcely beyond the foot of the shaft when they stumbled into a body of white damp and were stricken with death4 ,the fire occurred on ,monday4 ,it was not until ten o'clock ,tuesday morning that a sufficient ventilating current had been established to make it safe for men to descend4 ,the greatest distance that it was possible to go from the foot of the shaft on ,tuesday was seventy-five feet4 ,beyond that point the danger from suffocation was still imminent4 ,only three bodies had been thus far found4 ,wednesday morning a rescuing party went up the plane at some distance from the foot of the shaft1 and at the head of the plane they found a barrier across the gangway4 ,it had been formed by placing a mine car in position and packing the space between it and the walls with clothing and refuse4 ,this barrier was broken down1 but there was no one behind it4 ,later another party was able to go a little farther1 and came to a second barrier4 ,outside of this lay the dead body of ,john ,bowen4 ,he had come out for some purpose from behind the barricade1 leaving open an aperture through which to crawl back1 but before he could do so he had died from asphyxia4 ,this barrier was broken down1 and behind it lay the victims1 one hundred and five of them1 all dead1 suffocated by the foul gases of the mine4 ,the story of their experiences1 their struggles1 their sufferings1 can never be known4 ,the disaster which occurred at the ,west ,pittston mine on ,may #bg1 #ahga1 was similar in many respects to that at ,avondale4 ,in this case also the breaker1 built over the shaft1 the only opening to the mine1 took fire and burned to the ground1 closing the avenue of escape to thirty-six men and boys4 ,these prisoners shut themselves into a chamber1 building a barricade across the foot of it to keep out the foul gases2 but when the rescuing party broke in to them on the following day fourteen of them were found dead and the rest were unconscious4 ,of those who were brought out alive four died soon after reaching the surface4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,anthracite ,,coal ,,breaker4 ,in the act of #ahhe it is provided that 8no inflammable structure other than a frame to sustain pulleys or sheaves shall be erected over the entrance of any opening connecting the surface with the underground workings of any mine1 and no breaker or other inflammable structure for the preparation or storage of coal shall be erected nearer than two hundred feet to any such opening40 ,this was for the purpose of preventing1 if possible1 such lamentable disasters as those of ,avondale and ,west ,pittston4 ,the results of this legislation in providing greater security to the employees in mines is invaluable4 ,formerly it had been the custom to build not only the shaft-house over the opening into the mine1 but the breaker itself1 wherever there was one1 was usually erected over the mouth of the shaft4 ,this was convenient and economical1 since the coal could be hoisted directly from the mine to the top of the breaker1 without the delay of a horizontal transfer at the surface of the earth4 ,many of the shaft houses and breakers that had thus been built at the time of the passage of the act are still in operation1 and will so remain until the time of their utility is passed4 ,but all new buildings are erected in accordance with the law4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,sloan ,,coal ,,breaker1 ,,hyde ,,park1 ,,pa4 ,at the mouth of the shaft heavy upright timbers are set up1 inclosing the opening4 ,these are united by cross-beams1 and the whole structure is well braced4 ,in this head-frame are set the sheaves1 at a distance from the ground of from thirty to fifty feet1 although1 when the entire surface plant was under one cover1 they were set much lower4 ,these sheaves are huge upright wheels sixteen feet in diameter1 over which the ropes pass that connect with the cages4 ,a sheave similar in form to the bicycle wheel is now coming rapidly into use2 it is found to bear a greater strain in comparison with its weight than does any other form4 ,the hoisting engine must be in the immediate vicinity of the shaft1 and the rooms for this and the boiler1 furnace1 and pump are usually all under one roof4 ,the iron or steel wire ropes extend from the sheaves in the head frame to the drum in the engine-room1 around which they are coiled in such a manner that as one is being wound up the other is being unwound4 ,therefore as one carriage ascends the other descends by virtue of the same movement of the engine4 ,since the breaker may receive coal from two or more openings it must be so located as to be convenient to both or all of them4 ,if the ground slopes sufficiently the breaker may be so built that its head will be on a level with the head of the shaft4 ,this will save breaker hoisting4 ,when coal is brought out by a slope the track and grade of the slope are usually continued1 by an open trestlework1 from the mouth of the opening to the head of the breaker4 ,wherever it is possible to do so1 the loaded cars are run by gravity from the mouth of the opening to the breaker1 and the empty ones are drawn back by mules4 ,sometimes they are hauled both ways by mules1 and sometimes a small steam locomotive engine is employed to draw them back and forth4 ,the coal breaker is an institution that is peculiar to the anthracite coal fields of ,pennsylvania4 ,its need was made manifest early in the history of anthracite mining1 its development was rapid1 and it has now come to be wholly indispensable in the preparation of anthracite coal for the market4 ,it is very seldom indeed that one sees this coal in the shape and size in which it was mined4 ,all anthracite coal for domestic use is now broken1 screened1 and separated into grades of uniform size before being placed upon the market1 and this work is done in the coal breakers4 ,previous to the year #ahdd these breakers were unknown4 ,several experiments had been made in the matter of breaking coal by machinery1 but there had been no practical results1 and the breaking still continued to be done by hand4 ,in that year1 however1 a breaker after the modern plan was erected at the mines of ,gideon ,bast1 in ,schuylkill ,county1 by ,j4 ,s4 ,battin of ,philadelphia4 ,it was started on the #bhth of ,february1 #ahdd4 ,there were two cast-iron rollers in it1 each about thirty inches long and thirty inches in diameter1 and on the surface of these rollers were set iron teeth or projections about two and one half inches long and four inches from centre to centre4 ,these rollers were placed horizontally1 side by side1 and were so geared that1 as they revolved1 their upper surfaces turned toward each other1 and the teeth on one roller were opposite to the spaces on the other4 ,these rolls were afterward improved by being perforated between the teeth1 thus presenting less of solid surface to the coal1 and causing less crushing4 ,another set of rollers was afterward added1 being placed above the first set1 and having the teeth larger and wider apart1 so that large lumps of coal might first be broken into pieces small enough to be crushed readily by the lower set4 ,after the perfecting of the rolls came the perfecting of the screens for the purpose of separating the broken coal into grades according to size4 ,before the introduction of coal breakers a hand screen was used4 ,this screen was set in a frame1 was cylindrical in form1 and was slightly inclined from the horizontal4 ,it was turned by a crank at one end1 in the manner of a grindstone4 ,the screen placed in the breaker was of much the same pattern1 except that instead of being from five to eight feet long the length was increased to twenty feet1 and the diameter correspondingly enlarged4 ,mr4 ,henry ,jenkins of ,pottsville then invented a method of weaving thick wire into screen plates about three feet wide1 having the proper curve4 ,these curved plates being joined together formed the necessary hollow cylinder4 ,these separate plates are called jackets1 and when one of them wears out it may be taken from the cylinder and replaced1 with but little trouble and delay4 ,the screen is set in heavy framework1 and is inclined slightly from the horizontal4 ,the first segment at the upper end of the screen is made of wire woven into a mesh so fine that only the smallest particles of coal will pass through it2 the mesh of the next segment is larger1 and that of the next larger still4 ,the screen may contain from two to five segments in its length4 ,now the coal1 being poured in on top of the revolving rolls1 comes out from under them broken into small pieces1 and passes immediately into the upper or highest end of the hollow cylindrical screen as it would pass into a barrel4 ,but1 as the screen revolves on its axis1 the finer particles of coal fall out through the fine mesh of the first segment1 and are carried away in an inclined trough1 while the rest of the coal slides on to the next segment4 ,here the next smallest particles fall through and are carried away1 and the process is continued until the lower end of the screen is reached1 out of which end all the coal that was too large to pass through the mesh of the last segment is now poured4 ,it will be seen that by this means the different sizes of coal have been separated from each other and can be carried by separate shutes to the loading place4 ,this is the principle of the rolls and screens which are the main features of every coal breaker1 though each breaker usually contains two or more sets of rolls and from eight to twelve screens4 ,the ,woodward breaker recently erected near ,kingston1 ,pennsylvania1 has six pairs of rollers and twenty screens4 ,some of these screens are double2 that is1 they have a larger outside screen surrounding the smaller one1 and the coal that passes through the inner screen is caught by the outer one and again divided by means of a smaller mesh4 ,before the days of breakers and screens coal was sent to market in the lump1 as it came from the mine1 and it was generally broken and prepared for use by the consumer4 ,but when the separation of coal in the breaker became reduced to a system1 the four smaller sizes than lump coal were soon graded4 ,they were known as steamboat1 egg1 stove1 and chestnut4 ,it was thought at the time that no finer grade of coal than chestnut could be burned to advantage4 ,but it was not long before a smaller size1 known as pea coal1 was separated1 placed on the market1 and readily sold2 and now1 within recent years1 another still smaller size called buckwheat has been saved from the refuse and has come into general use4 ,everything smaller than this is culm and goes to the waste pile4 ,the names of the different sizes of marketable coal and the spaces over and through which they pass in the process of separation are given in the following table1 taken from ,saward's 8,coal ,trade ,annual10 for #ahhh3 ,,over4 ,,through4 ,inches4 ,inches4 ,lump coal bars #d to #i ,steamboat 8 #c to #e #g ,broken mesh #b to #b #c to #d ,egg 8 #a to #b #b to #b ,large stove 8 #a to #a #a to #b ,small stove 8 #a to #a #a to #a ,chestnut 8 to #a to #a ,pea 8 to to ,buckwheat 8 to to ,dirt 8 to ,the necessity which controls the form and construction of the breaker building is that the unbroken and unscreened coal must first be taken to a point in the building sufficiently high to allow of its passage1 by gradual descent1 with slow movement1 through successive rolls1 screens1 shutes1 and troughs until1 thoroughly broken and fully cleaned and separated1 it reaches the railroad cars1 standing under the pockets1 and is loaded into them for shipment4 ,it is sometimes possible1 as has already been intimated1 to locate a breaker on the side of a hill so that the coal may be run into the head of it from the mine by a surface track without the necessity of hoisting4 ,in this case the building will hug the hill1 extending for a long distance down the slope of it1 but without rising at any point to a great height from the surface of the ground4 ,in these days1 however1 the breaker is more frequently erected in the valley4 ,the general results are thought to be better1 and the special convenience to railroad outlets to market is certainly greater4 ,besides this1 the necessities of the case in shaft mining seem to demand it4 ,a peculiar and characteristic feature of a breaker so built is the great vertical height to which one portion of the building is run up4 ,this is the portion that contains the shaft up which the coal is hoisted1 and from the top of which it starts on its long descending route to the surface again4 ,from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet is not an unusual height for this portion of the building4 ,from this topmost part of the structure the roof slopes down by stages1 on one or two sides1 widening out1 running off at an angle to cover a wing1 spreading by a projection here and there until1 by the time the last ten feet in height are reached1 the ground space covered by the building has come to be very great4 ,under the last or lowest portion of the structure are the railroad sidings on which the cars stand to be loaded from the many pockets in which the shutes have terminated4 ,two engines are necessary at the breaker1 one a winding engine to hoist coal from the surface to the top of the breaker1 and the other a breaker engine to move the rolls1 screens1 and other breaker machinery4 ,the winding engine is usually put on the opposite side of the shaft tower from the rolls and screens1 and the ropes from it1 either exposed or under cover of a long sloping roof1 reach up to the sheaves in the head frame4 ,the breaker engine is usually housed in a wing at one side of the main building1 while the several nests of boilers1 under a separate cover1 are required by the act of #ahhe to be at least one hundred feet away from the breaker4 ,no one1 having once seen and examined an anthracite coal breaker1 could ever mistake one for a building erected for any other purpose4 ,these breakers have a character peculiarly their own4 ,they are the most prominent features in the landscape of every anthracite coal region1 where they tower up black1 majestic1 many-winged1 and many-windowed1 in the range of almost every outlook4 ,when the mine car full of coal is hoisted to the head of the breaker it is run by two headmen from the carriage across the scale platform to the dump shute bars on to which it is dumped4 ,these are long1 sloping1 parallel iron bars1 set two and one half inches apart4 ,the dirt and all the coal that is small enough falls through these bars into a hopper1 from which it is fed into a pair of screens1 one on each side4 ,these separate the dirt in the manner already described1 and divide the clean coal into sizes smaller than1 and including1 egg4 ,each size as it falls through the segment of1 or out at the end of1 the screen1 is caught in a separate shute and carried to a second set of revolving screens where it is again cleaned and separated1 passing from these screens into the picking shutes4 ,all the shutes or troughs in which the coal is carried have a sufficient inclination to make the material move by gravity1 and1 to decrease the amount of friction1 the bottom and sides of each shute are lined with sheet iron4 ,the large coals which passed over the dump shute bars now slide down to a second set of bars1 set four and one half inches apart1 called steamboat bars2 all coal falling through these being separated by still a third set of bars into steamboat and egg1 and eventually finding its way to the picking shutes or to the rolls which break the prepared coal4 ,all coal which passed over the steamboat bars is lump coal1 and1 after having the slate and bony coal removed from it by hand as it passes1 is carried into the lump-coal shute and sent down to the loading place2 or else it is carried1 by another shute1 into the heavy rolls and crushed4 ,as it emerges1 broken1 from these rolls1 it passes into revolving screens1 and the same process of screening and separating goes on that has been already described in the case of coal falling through the first or dump-shute bars4 ,but all this broken1 screened1 and separated coal finds its way eventually into the picking shutes4 ,these are narrow troughs down which the separate grades of coal pass slowly in shallow streams4 ,across the top of each trough1 at two or more points in its route through the picking-room1 narrow seats are placed on which boys sit facing up the shute4 ,these boys are called slate pickers4 ,it is their duty to pick out the pieces of slate1 stone1 or bone1 from the stream of coal which passes under them1 and throw this refuse into a trough at the side of the shute1 from which point it slides rapidly away4 ,the coal as it comes from the mine is full of waste material1 so that the boy who sits first or highest on the shute has no trouble in finding plenty to do1 and1 work as hard as he may1 much of the unfit material must still escape him4 ,the boy who sits below him on the shute is able to give the passing stream a closer inspection and more careful treatment1 and1 should there be one still below1 he must have sharp eyes and skillful fingers to detect worthless pieces that have been left by his comrades4 ,the boys often put their feet in the shute and dam the coal back for a moment to give them time to throw out the abundance of slate that they may see1 but no matter how careful they are1 nor how many hands the coal may pass through in the picking process1 a certain percentage of slate and bone is sure to remain4 ,the slate pickers are not all stationed in one room1 though the picking-room usually holds the greater number of them4 ,they are put at the shutes in any part of the breaker where their services may be useful or necessary4 ,indeed1 there are pickers who sit at the refuse shutes to pick out the pieces of good coal which have been inadvertently thrown in by the other pickers4 ,in some breakers the coal passes from the shute across a gently sloping platform1 by the side of which the boy sits to pick out the waste4 ,illustration3 ,,screen-,,room ,,in ,,breaker1 ,,showing ,,screen ,,and ,,shutes4 ,but the time is undoubtedly coming when the occupation of the picker boy will be gone4 ,the inventive genius of the age has already devised machinery which does its work faster1 better1 and with greater certainty than the most conscientious breaker boy could hope to do it4 ,the great collieries are1 one by one1 adopting the new methods1 and the army of breaker boys is gradually but surely decreasing4 ,nearly all the slate-picking machines are based on the fact that the specific gravity of coal is lighter than that of slate or stone4 ,one method brings the principle of friction into play4 ,a section1 a few feet in length1 of the floor of the shute down which the coal passes is made of stone4 ,at the end of this stone section is a narrow slot cut in the floor1 crosswise of the shute1 and beyond the slot the iron bottom is continued as before4 ,now when the shallow stream of broken coal strikes the stone bottom the friction between that bottom and the pieces of slate and stone is so great that these particles are impeded in their progress1 and by the time they reach the slot they have not impetus enough to cross it and must therefore drop into it and be carried away4 ,but the friction between coal and stone is slight in comparison1 and the pieces of coal retain enough of their impetus to carry them safely across the slot and on down the shute4 ,this is not a perfect separation1 and the coal and slate which it divides has usually to be looked over again1 to insure satisfactory results4 ,the best and most practicable invention thus far brought into use is that of ,mr4 ,charles ,w4 ,ziegler1 picker boss at the ,von ,storch colliery1 ,scranton4 ,this machine acts somewhat upon the method last described1 though by a system of rollers1 levers1 and screens in connection with it and attached to it1 it is able to make quite perfect separation of the coal and slate4 ,two or three of these machines placed on a single shute should do the work required of them very thoroughly4 ,the experience of domestic buyers of coal would seem to indicate1 either that the picker boys do not do their whole duty or that the picking machines have not yet been made perfect4 ,but it must be remembered that the separation of slate and bony coal from good material is made only in a rough and general way in the mine1 and that a very large percentage of the output1 as it reaches the breaker1 is unfit for use4 ,to clean and separate this material thoroughly1 therefore1 requires much labor1 and extreme care and skill4 ,after these separate streams of coal have passed the scrutiny of the picker boys or the test of the picking machine1 the shutes in which they run are narrowed into pockets or bins1 closed at the end by a gate4 ,the pocket projects over the car track high enough from it for a railroad coal car to stand beneath1 and the coal is then fed from the pocket into the car at will4 ,there is also a loading place for the rock and slate which have been separated from the coal on its way through the breaker2 and there are two or three points where the coal dirt is gathered from its pockets to be taken away4 ,all this refuse is run out by separate tracks to a convenient distance from the breaker and there dumped4 ,it is estimated that sixteen per cent4 of the material which goes into the breaker to be prepared comes out as waste1 and is sent to the refuse dump4 ,it can readily be supposed1 therefore1 that in the course of a few years these waste heaps will grow to an enormous size2 and as a matter of fact they do4 ,the dirt or culm1 which includes all material finer than buckwheat coal1 is usually dumped on a separate pile from the rock1 slate1 and bony coal1 since it is not wholly without at least prospective value4 ,it has been used frequently in the coal regions to fill in beneath railroad tracks supported by trestle-work1 and it is valuable as a foundation on which to lay stone flagging for footwalks1 since it does not yield readily to the action of frost4 ,culm has also been utilized by adding to it a certain percentage of mucilaginous or pitchy material and compressing it into bricks for fuel4 ,in some ,european countries a large amount of waste is burned in this way1 but in ,america the cost of preparation is still too great to permit of competition with prepared anthracite4 ,the most characteristic feature of scenery in the anthracite coal regions1 aside from the breakers themselves1 is the presence of these great1 bare1 black hills of culm1 shining in the sunlight1 smoothly white under the snows of winter4 ,sometimes these culm banks take fire1 either spontaneously or as the result of carelessness or accident4 ,if the pile is near enough to the breaker to menace it1 or near enough to an outcrop to carry combustion into the coal of the mine1 the fire must be extinguished1 and this is sometimes done with much labor and at great expense4 ,if no danger is apprehended1 the fire is allowed to smoulder until it burns out1 a process which may take months or even years1 during which time little blue flames flicker on the surface of the bank1 the sky above it is tinged with red at night1 and the whole black hillside is finally covered with great blotches of white ash4 ,to the poor people who live in the vicinity of the breakers these heaps of refuse coal are an unmixed blessing4 ,pieces of good coal are always being thrown out inadvertently with the waste1 and the bony coal that is discarded is not by any means without value as a fuel2 indeed it makes a very respectable fire4 ,so1 too1 one can obtain1 with a screen1 from the culm heap quite a little percentage of material that will burn4 ,thus it comes about that every day women and children and old men go to these black hills with hammer and screen and gather fuel for their fires1 and carry it home in bags1 or wheelbarrows1 or little handcarts4 ,it is the old story over again of the gleaners in the field4 ,,chapter ,,xiv4 ,,in ,,the ,,bituminous ,,coal ,,mines4 ,a brief history of the discovery and introduction into use of the bituminous coals of ,pennsylvania has already been given2 but only casual reference has been made to the methods of mining in the bituminous regions4 ,it is true that of the one hundred and twenty thousand square miles of workable coal beds in the ,united ,states less than five hundred square miles are of anthracite coal4 ,it is true1 also1 that more than two thirds of the coal produced in the ,united ,states during the year #ahhg was of the bituminous variety1 and that the income from bituminous coal during that year was nearly twice as much as the income from anthracite4 ,yet it is obvious that in any description of coal mining methods the anthracite mines should be used as the chief examples4 ,this is not only because of the greater commercial importance of anthracite1 and of its greater familiarity as a domestic fuel1 but it is principally because of the far greater skill1 judgment1 and ingenuity required in mining it and preparing it for market4 ,in the bituminous regions the coal is soft1 lies flat and near the surface1 and is mined by the simplest methods4 ,the reader is already familiar with some of the complications1 obstacles1 and problems that meet and beset the operator in the anthracite regions1 and with the great labor1 vast expenditures1 and high degree of skill necessary to reach1 take out1 and prepare the anthracite coal4 ,in view of these facts no excuse is necessary for attaching the greater importance to the description of methods in the anthracite region4 ,but a brief outline of the systems in vogue at the bituminous mines will not be uninteresting1 so far at least as they differ from those in use at the anthracite mines4 ,in the year #ahhg a little more than one third of the bituminous coal output of the ,united ,states came from the ,pennsylvania mines4 ,pittsburgh is the centre of the soft coal trade of that state1 and the principal coal seam of the region is known as the 8,pittsburgh bed40 ,it is included in an area about fifty miles square1 and varies in thickness from two or three feet in the northwestern part1 and six feet at ,pittsburgh1 to ten feet up the ,monongahela ,river1 and twelve feet up the ,youghiogeny4 ,the exhaustion of so vast a coal bed is a practical impossibility1 and the questions that engage the attention of the mining engineer in these regions are not so much questions of the economy of coal as they are questions of the economy of labor4 ,the coal lies near the surface1 and the outcrops on the flanks of the hills and banks of the rivers are so numerous that most of the mining can be1 and is1 done by drift above water level4 ,the outlay of capital required in opening a mine is therefore very small1 marketable coal being obtained at almost the first blow of the pick4 ,before mining operations are begun a complete survey is made of all outcroppings1 and their differences in level are obtained4 ,from this data a comparatively accurate knowledge may be had of the position of the coal bed under ground1 as the dip of the seams is very moderate and uniform1 and but few faults and other irregularities are encountered4 ,it is then decided where to locate the mouth of the drift so that the entry can be driven in on the rise of the coal and the mine become self-draining4 ,it is important1 however1 to have the opening at a convenient point near the river or railroad1 and it is usually so made if possible1 even though the dip should be away from the opening4 ,the inclination is always so slight as not to interfere greatly with the hauling of cars1 and it is not much of a task to make a separate opening for drainage4 ,the coal seam is divided by vertical cleavage planes1 running at right angles to each other1 one of which is known as the butt cleavage and the other as the face cleavage4 ,the main entries are driven in1 if possible1 on the face cleavage1 as are also the chambers1 or 8rooms0 as they are called here2 while the entries from which the rooms are turned are always driven on the butt cleavage4 ,the drift1 or main entry1 has an airway running parallel with it2 sometimes it has one on each side of it4 ,it is driven eight or nine feet in width1 except where two tracks are necessary1 in which case it is made from twelve to fifteen feet wide4 ,these double or treble entries are parallel to each other1 and are separated by a wall of coal from twenty-five to forty feet in width4 ,through this wall1 at about every thirty yards1 entrances1 or1 as they are called here1 8break-throughs10 are made1 having the same width as the entry4 ,the height of roof in the entries of the ,pittsburgh seam is usually five and one half or six feet in the clear4 ,at right angles to the main entry butt entries are driven in pairs1 parallel to each other and about thirty or forty feet apart1 with break-throughs or cross-cuts for the passage of air1 as on the main entries4 ,from each of these butt entries1 at right angles to them1 and in opposite directions1 the rooms are driven4 ,they are made about twenty-one feet wide1 with pillars between them twelve feet thick1 and are not often more than eighty yards in length4 ,they are usually driven to meet the faces of the rooms which are being worked from the next parallel butt entry1 or are extended to that butt entry itself4 ,at the point where the room turns off from the butt entry it is made only seven feet wide for a distance of from fifteen to twenty-one feet1 then the room is widened out to its full width of twenty-one feet4 ,the track on which the mine wagon runs is laid straight up the side of the room from the opening at the entry1 occupying a clear space about seven feet wide4 ,the rest of the room is well filled with the refuse which has been separated from the coal as mining has progressed1 and the roof is supported by an abundance of props1 or 8posts0 as they are here called4 ,in one room1 with an ordinary roof1 about six hundred and fifteen posts would be necessary4 ,the pillars are long1 the distances between break-throughs averaging thirty yards4 ,this is known as the 8double entry0 system1 to distinguish it from the single entry system which was formerly in general use4 ,the method by single entry consisted in driving the butt entries singly1 about one hundred and sixty yards apart1 and the face entries the same distance apart1 at right angles to the butt entries1 thus laying off the mine in large square blocks which were then mined out4 ,the difficulty with this system was that from twenty-five to fifty per cent4 of the pillars were necessarily lost1 while by the double entry system1 which now prevails1 all or nearly all the pillars can be taken out4 ,of course the features in the plan of each mine vary according to the special necessities of that mine1 but in general they do not differ greatly from those that have been described4 ,illustration3 ,,plan ,,of ,a ,,bituminous ,,coal ,,mine4 ,the method of cutting coal here is also peculiar to the soft coal mines4 ,the miner has a pick with sharp1 pointed ends1 and with this he cuts a horizontal groove or channel1 from two and a half to three and a half feet deep across the entire width of the entry or room4 ,this groove is cut in that horizontal section of the face known as the bearing-in section4 ,it may be in the bottom layer of coal1 or it may be one or two feet above the bottom4 ,the process itself is known as 8bearing in10 8under cutting10 8holing10 or 8undermining40 ,while he is at this work the miner must lie on the floor of the room1 partly on his side1 but with hands and arms free4 ,when the horizontal groove has been completed a vertical groove similar to it in size and shape is made at one side of the face4 ,these channels are sometimes cut with mining machines having compressed air for a motive power4 ,this machine is small but powerful4 ,it is placed on a low inclined platform at the face of coal1 and is operated by a man called a 8runner40 ,the inclination of the platform causes the machine1 which is on wheels1 to gravitate constantly toward1 and to press against1 the face of coal4 ,the compressed air cylinder drives a piston-rod to which is attached a steel bit two inches in diameter projecting from the front of the machine4 ,this bit strikes the coal with sharp1 swift blows1 chipping it out in small fragments1 and eats its way rapidly into the seam4 ,the compressed air is carried to the machine in an iron pipe from the compressing engine1 which is located at the mouth of the mine4 ,when a machine is used1 seven men usually work three rooms4 ,three of these men are contractors or partners1 three of them are laborers employed by the contractors1 and one of them1 called the 8scraper10 is a laborer employed by the coal company4 ,when the channel has been cut a sufficient depth and distance the coal above it is brought down either by wedging or blasting4 ,if blasting is to be resorted to it will be unnecessary to cut the vertical groove4 ,if the bearing-in channel was cut above the floor1 the bottom coal is then lifted by wedging1 and broken up4 ,the miners do the cutting and blasting1 the laborers break up the coal and load it into the mine wagons1 and the scraper is kept busy cleaning the cuttings away from the channels and attending to the lamps4 ,the mine car track that is extended up into the room is of wooden rails1 and the empty wagon is pushed in to the face by the laborers1 and loaded and run out by them to the entry4 ,each wagon will hold a little more than a ton1 and a mule will draw four wagons to the mouth of the drift4 ,the wheels of the mine car are set close to each other1 near the middle of the car1 to facilitate its movement around sharp curves2 the doors at the ends of the car are swung from a bar hinge at the top1 and the cars are dumped in the same manner as those in the anthracite region4 ,in some of the bituminous mines a small locomotive is used to draw the trains of mine wagons from the working parts of the mine to the opening4 ,it will draw from twelve to sixteen wagons at a time1 and will do the work of twenty mules4 ,there is usually a separate split of the air current to supply the locomotive road in order to keep the smoke out of the working rooms4 ,when a set of rooms has been driven to its limit the miners then 8draw back the rib20 that is1 take out the pillars between the rooms1 beginning at the face and working back4 ,posts must be used freely to support the roof while this work is in progress1 about sixty or seventy being necessary in drawing a rib4 ,ventilation here is obtained by both the fan and the furnace systems4 ,in mines that are worked below water level fire damp often accumulates1 but where the coal does not descend at any point below the water-level line1 there is no probability that mine gases will be found4 ,as has already been said1 the usual method of entry into the bituminous mines has been1 and still is1 by drift4 ,but as the working faces of the mines recede farther and farther from the general lines of outcrop1 it often becomes necessary to resort to the method of entry by shaft1 and this latter method will doubtless in time supersede the former almost entirely4 ,the main shaft1 as it is now constructed1 is usually about twenty feet long by nine feet wide1 and has three compartments1 two for hoisting and one for ventilation and pumping4 ,it rarely exceeds two hundred feet in depth4 ,the hoisting apparatus is much like that in use in the anthracite districts4 ,air shafts from fifty to one hundred feet deep1 sunk for purposes of ventilation and drainage1 are frequent1 and stair shafts in which are fixed ladders for the purpose of ascent and descent1 and which may be used as air shafts also1 are not uncommon4 ,slopes1 like those in the anthracite regions1 are not usual here2 the coal seams do not dip sufficiently to make them practicable4 ,narrow rock slopes are sometimes driven diagonally through the strata1 at an inclination of twenty degrees or less1 to strike the coal bed1 but they are used only as air ways1 as traveling ways for men and mules1 and to serve as the 8second opening0 required by the mine law4 ,in the bituminous regions coal breakers are unnecessary and are unknown4 ,as the vertical planes of cleavage of the coal are at right angles to each other1 and as the stratification is nearly horizontal1 the coal when broken takes a cubical form1 large blocks of it being made up of smaller cubes1 and these of still smaller1 to an almost microscopic limit4 ,all slate is separated from the coal as it is mined1 and the refuse is piled up in the room4 ,the mine wagon is loaded only with good coal1 and is taken directly from the mine to a building which1 with its appliances1 is called a 8tipple40 ,it is here dumped into a screen1 it runs from the screen into a car or boat1 and is then ready to be hauled or floated to market4 ,if the opening of the mine is practically on the same level as the tipple the arrangements are very simple1 as no extra motive power is required to get the cars to the dumping place4 ,it is usual1 however1 to find the opening at a higher point than the tipple1 since the latter must always be at the railroad track or on the bank of a river4 ,it becomes necessary1 therefore1 in this case1 to raise and lower the cars between the opening of the mine and the tipple4 ,this is usually done by the inclined plane system1 in which the loaded cars descending draw the light ones up4 ,the same system is much used in the anthracite mines1 and has already been explained4 ,the railroad tipple consists simply of a frame building from forty to sixty feet long1 fifteen feet high1 and from eighteen to thirty feet wide4 ,this structure is set upon four or five plain timber bents1 and its floor is usually twenty-seven feet higher than the top of the track rails which run beneath the outer end of it4 ,a platform on this floor is so adjusted by a single shaft that1 when a loaded car is pushed on it1 it tips forward to an angle of about thirty degrees4 ,the end gate of the wagon is then opened and the coal runs out on to the screen4 ,this screen is simply a set of longitudinal iron bars inclined outwardly at distances apart of one and one half inches4 ,all coal that passes over these bars is called 8lump coal0 and is run into a sheet-iron pan suspended from the scales platform1 where it is weighed1 and it is then dropped directly into a car standing on the track below it4 ,the coal which passed through the first set of bars has1 in the mean time1 fallen on to a second screen with bars only three quarters of an inch apart4 ,the coal that passes over these bars is called nut coal1 and is also weighed and dropped into the cars1 while the coal that passes through the bars is called 8slack40 ,this is dropped into a shute1 is carried by it into a car on the slack track1 and is run thence to the dumping ground4 ,when all three kinds of coal are loaded together it is called 8run of mine10 while lump and nut coal together make 8three quarter coal40 ,these tipples may1 of course1 be built with two sets of screens and platforms1 and thus be made to do double work1 and some of them are so built4 ,under the projecting end of the tipple there are usually four tracks2 the first or outside one for box-cars1 the next for lump-coal cars1 the next for nut-coal cars1 and the last for cars for slack4 ,four men operate a single railroad tipple2 two dump and weigh the coal above1 while the others trim and move the railroad cars on the track below4 ,to this number a helper is often added1 both above and below4 ,besides these men a boy is usually employed to rake the nut coal from the lower screening bars where it sticks and prevents the slack from passing through4 ,sometimes it takes two boys to do this work properly4 ,boys are also employed to push the slack with a scraper down the shutes into the car on the slack track when the elevation of the tipple above the rails is not sufficient to afford the necessary grade4 ,bars are being largely superseded now by revolving screens for separating slack from nut coal2 they do the work far better1 and make the employment of a raking boy unnecessary4 ,the river tipple is operated in much the same way as the railroad tipple1 except that its apparatus must be so arranged as to accommodate itself to high or low water4 ,the floor of the river tipple is usually placed from forty to fifty feet above low-water mark1 and the weighing pan is held in position by a counter-weight1 which may be raised or lowered at pleasure4 ,a small stationary engine1 or a hand windlass1 draws the empty boat or barge into position under that end of the tipple which projects over the water4 ,about twice as many men are required to operate a river tipple as are necessary to operate a railroad tipple1 and while the railroad tipple costs but from two thousand to four thousand dollars the river tipple is built at an expense of from four thousand to ten thousand dollars4 ,but even this latter figure is small when compared with the cost of an anthracite breaker1 which may run anywhere from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars4 ,,chapter ,,xv4 ,,the ,,boy ,,workers ,,at ,,the ,,mines4 ,in the coal mines of the ,united ,states boys are employed at two kinds of labor3 to attend the doors on the traveling roads1 and to drive the mules4 ,this is known as inside work4 ,their outside work consists in picking slate at the breaker1 and in driving the mules that draw mine cars on the surface4 ,no one of these different kinds of employment is such as to overtax the physical strength of boys of a proper age1 but they are all confining1 some are dangerous1 and some are laborious4 ,yet the system of child labor in the coal mines of ,america has never been comparable to that which was formerly in vogue in ,great ,britain4 ,the ,british 8,coal ,mines ,regulation ,act0 of #ahgb remedied the then existing evils to a considerable extent2 but the hardships still to be endured by children in the ,british mines are greater than those which their ,american brothers must suffer4 ,the act of #ahgb1 just referred to1 provides that boys under ten years of age shall not be employed under ground1 and that boys between ten and twelve years of age shall be allowed to work only in thin mines4 ,it is the duty of these children to push the cars1 or trams as they are called1 from the working faces to the main road and back4 ,boys who are thus employed are called 8hurriers0 or 8putters40 ,they are often obliged to crawl on their hands and knees1 pushing the car ahead of them1 because the roof of the excavation is so low4 ,that is why boys who are so young are allowed to work here2 because1 being small1 they can the more readily crawl through the passages cut in these thin seams1 which often do not have a vertical measurement of more than from twenty to twenty-eight inches4 ,the act of #ahgb forbids the employment of females in the ,british mines2 but formerly not only boys but girls and women also worked underground4 ,there was then no restriction as to age1 and girls were sent into the mines to labor at an earlier age than were boys1 because they were credited with being smarter and more obedient4 ,it was common to find children of both sexes not more than six years old working underground2 and girls of five years were employed at the same tasks as boys of six or eight4 ,they took the coal from the working faces in the thin mines to the foot of the pit4 ,sometimes they carried it1 sometimes they drew it in little carts4 ,the older children and young women had a sort of sledge1 called a 8corve10 on which they dragged the coal1 but sometimes they preferred to carry it in baskets on their backs4 ,they were called 8pannier women40 ,the girls tucked their hair up under their caps1 dressed like their brothers1 and in the darkness of the mine could scarcely be distinguished from boys4 ,and the girls and boys not only dressed alike1 but worked alike1 lived alike1 and were treated alike at their tasks1 and that treatment was rough and harsh at the very best4 ,as the girls grew they were given harder work to do4 ,on one occasion ,mr4 ,william ,hunter1 the mine foreman at ,ormiston ,colliery said that in the mines women always did the lifting or heavy part of the work1 and that neither they nor the children were treated like human beings4 8,females10 he said1 8submit to work in places in which no man nor lad could be got to labor4 ,they work on bad roads1 up to their knees in water1 and bent nearly double4 ,the consequence of this is that they are attacked with disease1 drag out a miserable existence1 or are brought prematurely to the grave40 ,says ,robert ,bold1 the eminent miner3 8,in surveying the workings of an extensive colliery underground a married woman came forward1 groaning under an excessive weight of coals1 trembling in every nerve1 and almost unable to keep her knees from sinking under her4 ,on coming up she said in a plaintive1 melancholy voice3 #8,oh1 sir6 this is sore1 sore1 sore work4 ,i would to ,god that the first woman who tried to bear coals had broken her back and none ever tried it again4'0 ,one cannot read of such things as these1 of a slavery that condemned even the babes to a life of wretched toil in the blackness of the mines1 and then wonder that the great heart of ,mrs4 ,browning should have been wrenched by the contemplation of such sorrow until she gave voice to her feeling in that most pathetic and wonderful of all her poems1 8,the ,cry of the ,children40 8,do ye hear the children weeping1 ,o my brothers6 ,ere the sorrow comes with years8 ,they are leaning their young heads against their mothers1 ,and that cannot stop their tears4 ,the young lambs are bleating in the meadows1 ,the young birds are chirping in their nest1 ,the young fawns are playing with the shadows1 ,the young flowers are blooming toward the west4 ,but the young1 young children1 ,o my brothers6 ,they are weeping bitterly2 ,they are weeping in the playtime of the others1 ,in the country of the free4 8#8,for1 oh6' say the children1 #8we are weary1 ,and we cannot run or leap2 ,if we cared for any meadows1 it were merely ,to drop down in them and sleep4 ,our knees tremble sorely in the stooping1 ,we fall upon our faces trying to go1 ,and1 underneath our heavy eyelids drooping1 ,the reddest flower would look as pale as snow4 ,for all day we drag our burden tiring1 ,through the coal dark underground1 ,or all day we drive the wheels of iron ,in the factories round and round4' 8#8,how long1' they say1 #8how long1 ,o cruel nation6 ,will you stand to move the world on a child's heart1 ,stifle down1 with a mailed heel1 its palpitation1 ,and tread onward to your throne amid the mart8 ,our blood splashes upward1 ,o gold heaper6 ,and your purple shows your path2 ,but the child's sob in the silence curses deeper ,than the strong man in his wrath4'0 ,in the ,united ,states neither girls nor women have ever been employed in or about the mines4 ,the legislative prohibition of such employment1 enacted in ,pennsylvania in #ahhe1 was therefore unnecessary but not inappropriate4 ,the general mine law of ,pennsylvania of #ahgj1 which was the first to limit the employment of boys in the mines according to their age1 fixed twelve years as the age under which a boy might not work underground2 but maintained silence as to the age at which he might work at a colliery outside4 ,this provision was amended and enlarged by the act of #ahhe1 which prohibited the employment of boys under fourteen years of age inside the mines1 and of boys under twelve years of age in or about the outside structures or workings of a colliery4 ,the duties of a driver boy are more laborious than those of a door-tender1 but less monotonous and tiresome than those of a slate picker or breaker-boy4 ,when the mules are kept in the mines night and day1 as they frequently are in deep workings1 the driver must go down the shaft before seven o'clock1 get his mule from the mine stable1 bring him to the foot of the shaft1 and hitch him to a trip of empty cars4 ,he usually takes in to the working faces four empty cars and brings out four loaded ones4 ,when he is ready to start in with his trip1 he climbs into the forward car1 cracks his whip about the beast's head1 and goes off shouting4 ,his whip is a long1 braided leather lash1 attached to a short stout stick for a handle4 ,he may have a journey of a mile or more before reaching the foot of the first chamber he is to supply2 but when he comes to it he unfastens the first car from the others and drives the mule up the chamber with it1 leaving it at a convenient distance from the face4 ,he continues this process at each of the chambers in succession1 until his supply of empty cars is exhausted4 ,at the foot of the last chamber which he visits he finds a loaded car to which he attaches his mule1 and picking up other loaded cars on his way back1 he makes up his return trip1 and is soon on the long1 unbroken journey to the shaft4 ,there are sidings at intervals along the heading1 where trips going in the opposite direction are met and passed1 and where there is opportunity to stop for a moment and talk with or chaff some other driver boy4 ,if there be a plane on the main road1 either ascending or descending from the first level1 two sets of driver boys and mules are necessary1 one set to draw cars between the breasts and the plane1 and the other set to draw them between the plane and the shaft4 ,of course1 in steep pitching seams1 all cars are left at the foot of the chamber and are loaded there4 ,there are two dangers to which driver boys are chiefly subjected2 one is that of being crushed between cars1 or between cars and pillars or props1 and the other is that of being kicked or bitten by vicious mules4 ,the boy must not only learn to drive1 but he must learn to govern his beast and keep out of harm's way4 ,he is generally sufficiently skillful and agile to do this1 but it is not unusual to read of severe injuries to boys1 given by kicking1 bucking1 or biting mules4 ,if the mine in which the boy works is entered by drift or tunnel1 his duties lie partly outside of it1 since he must bring every trip of cars not only to the mouth of the opening but to the breaker or other dumping place1 which may be located at a considerable distance from the entrance to the mine4 ,so that for a greater or less number of times each day he has from ten minutes to half an hour in the open air4 ,in the summer time1 when the weather is pleasant1 this occasional glimpse of out-of-doors is very gratifying to him4 ,he likes to be in the sunlight1 to look out over the woods and fields1 to feel the fresh wind blowing in his face1 and to breathe an unpolluted atmosphere4 ,but in the winter time1 when it is cold1 when the storms are raging1 when the snow and sleet are whirled savagely into his face1 then the outside portion of his trip is not pleasant4 ,in the mine he finds a uniform temperature of about sixty degrees ,fahrenheit4 ,to go from this1 within ten minutes1 without additional clothing1 into an atmosphere in which the mercury stands at zero1 and where the wind is blowing a hurricane1 is necessarily to suffer4 ,it cannot be otherwise4 ,so there is no lagging outside on winter days2 the driver boy delivers his loads1 gets his empty cars1 and hastens back to the friendly shelter of the mine4 ,at such openings as these the mine stable is outside1 and the boy must go there in the morning to get his mule1 and must leave him there when he quits work at night4 ,sometimes1 when the mining is done by shaft or slope1 there is a separate entrance for men and mules1 a narrow tunnel or slope1 not too steep1 and in this case1 though his duties lie entirely in the mine1 the driver boy must take the mule in from the outside stable in the morning and bring him back at night4 ,one afternoon ,i chanced to be in a certain mine in the ,wyoming district1 in company with the fire boss4 ,we were standing in a passage that led to one of these mule ways4 ,in the distance we heard a clattering of hoofs1 growing louder as it came nearer1 and1 as we stepped aside1 a mule went dashing by with a boy lying close on his back1 the flame from the little lamp in the boy's cap just a tiny backward streak of blue that gave no light4 ,they had appeared from the intense darkness and had disappeared into it again almost while one could draw a breath4 ,i looked at the fire boss inquiringly4 8,oh6 that's all right10 he said1 8they've got through work and they're going out1 and the mule is in just as much of a hurry as the boy is40 8,but the danger10 ,i suggested1 8of racing at such speed through narrow1 winding passages1 in almost total darkness60 8,oh60 he replied1 8that beast knows the way out just as well as ,i do1 and he can find it as easy as if he could see every inch of it1 and ,i don't know but what he can4 ,anyway the boy ain't afraid if the mule ain't40 ,in deep mines1 as has already been said1 it is customary to build stables not far from the foot of the shaft1 and to keep the mules there except when for any reason there is a long suspension of work4 ,at many mines1 however1 the greater convenience of having the stables on the surface induces the operators to have the mules hoisted from the shaft every night and taken down every morning4 ,they step on the carriage very demurely1 and ascend or descend without making trouble4 ,they are especially glad to go up to their stables at night4 ,where mules are fed in the mine1 and especially in those mines that have stables in them1 rats are usually found4 ,how they get down a shaft is a mystery4 ,the common explanation is that they go with the hay4 ,but they take up their quarters in the mine1 live1 thrive1 increase rapidly1 and grow to an enormous size4 ,they are much like the wharf rats that infest the wharves of great cities1 both in size and ugliness4 ,they are very bold and aggressive1 and when attacked will turn on their enemy1 whether man or beast1 and fight to the death4 ,there is a superstition among miners to the effect that when the rats leave a mine some great disaster is about to take place in it2 probably an extensive fall4 ,rats are hardly to be credited1 however1 with an instinct that would lead them to forecast such an event with more certainty than human experience and skill can do4 ,but it is not improbable that the driver boy and his mule will be superseded1 at no distant day1 by electricity4 ,in one instance at least this new motive power has already been put into use4 ,this is at the ,lykens ,valley ,colliery of the ,lykens ,valley ,coal ,company1 in ,dauphin ,county1 ,pennsylvania4 ,the duty of an outside driver boy is to take the loaded cars from the head of the shaft or slope to the breaker1 and to bring the empty ones back2 his work being all done in the open air4 ,of late this service1 especially where the distance is considerable1 is performed by a small locomotive1 which draws trains of as many cars as can well be held together4 ,the wages paid to inside driver boys by the ,pennsylvania ,coal ,company in #ahhh were from one dollar to one dollar and ten cents a day1 and to outside driver boys eighty-eight cents a day4 ,the door boys are usually younger and smaller than the driver boys1 and though their duty is not so laborious as that of the latter class1 it is far more monotonous and tiresome4 ,the door boy must be at his post when the first trip goes in in the morning1 and must remain there till the last one comes out at night4 ,he is alone all day1 save when other boys and men pass back and forth through his door1 and he has but little opportunity for companionship4 ,he fashions for himself a rude bench to sit on2 sometimes he has a rope or other contrivance attached to his door by which he can open it without rising2 but usually he is glad to move about a little to break the monotony of his task4 ,there is little he can do to entertain himself1 except perhaps to whittle4 ,he seldom tries to read2 indeed1 the light given forth by a miner's lamp is too feeble to read by4 ,in rare cases the door boy extinguishes his light1 on the score of economy1 and sits in darkness1 performing his duties by the light of the lamps of those who pass4 ,but there are few who can endure this4 ,it is hard enough to bear the oppressive silence that settles down on the neighborhood when no cars are passing2 if darkness be added to this the strain becomes too great1 the effect too depressing1 a child cannot bear it4 ,the wages of the door boy are about sixty-five cents per day4 ,although the duties of the breaker boy or slate picker are more laborious and more monotonous than those of either driver boy or door tender1 he does not receive so high a rate of wages as either of them4 ,his daily compensation is only from fifty to sixty-five cents1 and he works ten hours a day4 ,at seven o'clock in the morning he must have climbed the dark and dusty stairway to the screen room1 and taken his place on the little bench across the long shute4 ,the whistle screams1 the ponderous machinery is set in motion1 the iron-teethed rollers begin to revolve heavily1 crunching the big lumps of coal as they turn1 the deafening noise breaks forth1 and then the black1 shallow streams of broken coal start on their journey down the iron-sheathed shutes1 to be screened and cleaned1 and picked and loaded4 ,at first glance it would not seem to be a difficult task to pick slate1 but there are several things to be taken into consideration before a judgment can properly be made up in the matter4 ,to begin with1 the work is confining and monotonous4 ,the boy must sit on his bench all day1 bending over constantly to look down at the coal that is passing beneath him4 ,his tender hands must become toughened by long and harsh contact with sharp pieces of slate and coal1 and after many cuts and bruises have left marks and scars on them for a lifetime4 ,he must breathe an atmosphere thick with the dust of coal1 so thick that one can barely see across the screen room when the boys are sitting at their tasks4 ,it is no wonder that a person long subjected to the irritating presence of this dust in his bronchial tubes and on his lungs is liable to suffer from the disease known as 8miner's consumption40 ,in the hot days of summer the screen-room is a stifling place4 ,the sun pours its rays upon the broad1 sloping roof of the breaker1 just overhead2 the dust-laden atmosphere is never cleared or freshened by so much as a breath of pure sweet air1 and the very thought of green fields and blossoming flowers and the swaying branches of trees renders the task here to be performed more burdensome4 ,yet even this is not so bad as it is to work here in the cold days of winter4 ,it is almost impossible to heat satisfactorily by any ordinary method so rambling a structure as a breaker necessarily is1 and it is quite impossible to divide the portion devoted to screening and picking into closed rooms4 ,the screen-rooms are1 therefore1 always cold4 ,stoves are often set up in them1 but they radiate heat through only a limited space1 and cannot be said to make the room warm4 ,notwithstanding the presence of stoves1 the boys on the benches shiver at their tasks1 and pick slate with numb fingers1 and suffer from the extreme cold through many a winter day4 ,but science and the progress of ideas are coming to their aid4 ,in some breakers1 recently erected1 steam-heating pipes have been introduced into the screen-rooms with great success2 the warmth and comfort given by them to the little workers is beyond measurement4 ,fans have been put into the breakers1 also1 to collect and carry away the dust and keep the air of the picking-room clean and fresh1 and electric lamps have been swung from the beams to be lighted in the early mornings and late afternoons1 that the young toilers may see to do their work4 ,indeed1 such improvements as these pass beyond the domain of science and progress into that of humanitarianism4 ,illustration3 ,,slate ,,pickers ,,at ,,work4 ,when night comes no laborer is more rejoiced at leaving his task than is the breaker boy4 ,one can see his eyes shine and his white teeth gleam as he starts out into the open air1 while all else1 hands1 face1 clothing1 are thickly covered with coal dust1 are black and unrecognizable4 ,but he is happy because his day's work is done and he is free1 for a few hours at least1 from the tyranny of the 8cracker boss40 ,for1 in the estimation of the picker boys1 the cracker boss is indeed the most tyrannical of masters4 ,how else could they regard a man whose sole duty it is to be constantly in their midst1 to keep them at their tasks1 to urge them to greater zeal and care1 to repress all boyish freaks1 to rule over them almost literally with a rod of iron8 ,but1 alas6 the best commentary on the severity of his government is that it is necessary4 ,as has already been said1 the day is evidently not far distant when the work which the breaker boy now does will be performed almost wholly by machinery4 ,and this will be not alone because the machine does its work better1 more surely1 more economically1 than the breaker boy has done his1 but it will be also because the requisite number of boys for breaker work will not be obtainable4 ,even now it is more than difficult to keep the ranks of the slate pickers full4 ,parents in the coal regions of to-day have too much regard for the health1 the comfort1 the future welfare of their children1 to send them generally to such grinding tasks as these4 ,this is one of the signs of that advancing civilization which has already lifted girls and women from this1 for them1 exhausting and degrading labor at the collieries2 which is lessening1 one by one1 the hardships of the boys who still toil there2 which1 it is fondly hoped1 will in the course of time give to all children the quiet of the school-room1 the freedom of the play-ground1 and the task that love sets1 in place of that irksome toil that stunts the body and dwarfs the soul4 ,it is now mainly from the homes of the very poor that the child-workers at the collieries are recruited1 and the scant wages that they earn may serve to keep bread in the mouths of the younger children of their households and clothing on their own backs4 ,accidents to boys employed at the mines are of frequent occurrence4 ,scarcely a day passes but the tender flesh of some poor little fellow is cut or bruised1 or his bones1 twisted and broken4 ,it is only the more serious of these accidents that reach the notice of the mine inspector and are returned in his annual report4 ,yet1 to the humanitarian and the lover of children1 these annual returns tell a sad story4 ,the mine inspector's reports for #ahhg show that in the anthracite region alone during that year eighteen boys fifteen years of age and under were killed while fulfilling the duties of their employment in and about the coal mines1 and that seventy-three others were seriously injured1 many of them doubtless maimed for life4 ,these figures tell their own story of sorrow and of suffering4 ,yet with all their hardships it cannot be said that the boys who work in the collieries are wholly unhappy4 ,it is difficult1 indeed1 to so limit1 confine1 and gird down a boy that he will not snatch some enjoyment from his life2 and these boys seek to get much4 ,one who has been long accustomed to them can generally tell the nature of their several occupations by the way in which they try to amuse themselves4 ,the driver boys are inclined to be rude and boisterous in their fun1 free and impertinent in their manner1 and chafe greatly under restraint4 ,the slate pickers1 confined all day at their tasks1 with no opportunity for sport of any kind1 are inclined to bubble over when night and freedom come1 but1 as a rule1 they are too tired to display more than a passing effort at jocularity4 ,door boys are quiet and contemplative4 ,sitting so long alone in the darkness they become thoughtful1 sober1 sometimes melancholy4 ,they go silently to their homes when they leave the mine2 they do not stop to play tricks or to joke with their fellows2 they do not run1 nor sing1 nor whistle4 ,darkness and silence are always depressing1 and so much of it in these young lives cannot help but sadden without sweetening them4 ,we shall never see1 in ,america1 those horrors of child slavery that drew so passionate a protest from the great-hearted ,mrs4 ,browning1 but certainly1 looking at the progress already made1 it is not too much to hope for that the day will come when no child's hand shall ever again be soiled by the labor of the mine4 ,it will be a fitting close to this chapter1 and will be an act of justice to the memory of a brave and heroic boy1 to relate the story of ,martin ,crahan's sacrifice at the time of the disaster at the ,west ,pittston shaft4 ,martin was a driver boy1 of humble parentage1 poor and unlearned4 ,he was in the mine when the fire in the breaker broke out1 and he ran1 with others1 to the foot of the shaft4 ,but just as he was about to step on the carriage that would have taken him in safety to the surface he bethought him of the men on the other side of the shaft1 who might not have heard of the fire1 and his brave heart prompted him to go to them with the alarm4 ,he asked another boy to go with him1 but that boy refused4 ,he did not stop to parley2 he started at once alone4 ,but while he ran through the dark passage on his errand of mercy1 the carriage went speeding1 for the last time1 up the burning shaft4 ,he gave the alarm and returned1 in breathless haste1 with those whom he had sought2 but it was too late1 the cage had already fallen4 ,when the party was driven away from the foot of the shaft by the smoke and the gas1 he1 in some unexplained way1 became separated from the rest1 and wandered off alone4 ,the next day a rescuing party found him in the mine-stable1 dead4 ,he lay there beside the body of his mule4 ,deprived of the presence of human beings in the hours of that dreadful night1 he had sought the company of the beast that had long been his companion in daily laborand they died together4 ,but he had thought of those who were dear to him1 for on a rough board near by he had written with chalk the name of his father and of his mother1 and of a little cousin who had been named for him4 ,he was only twelve years old when he died1 but the title of hero was never more fairly earned than it was by him4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 ,,miners ,,and ,,their ,,wages4 ,a good miner may be called a 8skilled workman10 and1 as such1 he is entitled to greater compensation for his labor than an ordinary workman4 ,he expects it and gets it4 ,there are two principal systems by which payments are made to miners4 ,the first is according to the number of cubic yards of coal cut1 and the second is according to the number of tons of coal mined and sent out4 ,the first1 which is prevalent in the regions of steep-pitching seams1 is followed because the coal may remain in the chamber for an indefinite time after being cut4 ,the second1 which in the ,wyoming region is almost universal1 is somewhat more complicated4 ,a chamber is taken by two miners1 but the account on the books of the coal company is usually kept in the name of only one of them1 who is held to be the responsible member of the firm4 ,for instance1 8,patrick ,collins ,co40 work a chamber in ,law ,shaft1 and the firm is so designated4 ,the first thing they do is to adopt some distinctive mark which may be chalked on the sides of their loaded cars to distinguish them from the loaded cars from other chambers4 ,the letters of the alphabet are frequently used by miners1 but1 in default of these1 some simple design that cannot readily be mistaken for any other is put into service4 ,the triangle is a very common symbol with them1 so is the long1 horizontal line1 crossed by short vertical ones1 thus3 4 ,the miners call this a candle4 ,when a car has been loaded the symbol is chalked on the side of it1 together with a number which tells how many cars have been sent from the chamber during the day4 ,for instance1 when a mine car appears at the surface marked 8 #e0 it means that the car is from a certain chamber designated by that symbol1 and that this is the fifth car which has been sent from that chamber during the day4 ,on its way from the head of the breaker to the dumping cradle1 the loaded car passes over the platform of the weighing scales and registers its weight on the scale beam4 ,this weight is quickly read by the weigh-master1 is transferred to his book1 and goes to make up the daily report4 ,in some districts a system in which tickets are used instead of chalk marks is in vogue1 and in other districts duplicate checks are employed1 but everywhere the general features remain the same4 ,in order to get a chamber from any of the large mining corporations1 a miner must apply in person to the mining superintendent4 ,he must come well recommended1 or he must be known as a skillful1 industrious1 and temperate workman4 ,the responsibility of driving a chamber properly is not a small one1 and mining companies choose to take as little risk as possible in the selection of their men4 ,having accepted an applicant for a chamber1 the company makes a contract with him1 usually a verbal one1 to pay him at a certain rate per ton or yard for the coal mined by him4 ,the rate1 though not wholly uniform1 on account of the greater or less difficulty of cutting coal at the different collieries1 is practically the same throughout an entire district4 ,a miner working at full time and in a good seam will send out enough coal each month to amount1 at the contract price1 to #aej4 ,but his expenses for laborers' wages1 powder1 oil1 fuse1 etc41 will amount to #ge per month1 leaving him a net income of #ge per month4 ,the laborer is also paid according to the number of tons of coal sent out1 and his wages will probably average #b per day4 ,it is not often in these days of thin seams that these rates of income are exceeded4 ,and when the mines are in operation only a portion of the time1 as is now often the case1 these figures are seriously reduced4 ,the subject of wages frequently has been under discussion between miners and operators1 and the differences of opinion on it have been prolific of many strikes4 ,by some corporations and at some collieries a sliding scale has been adopted4 ,that is1 the miner has been paid1 not at a fixed rate1 but at a rate which constantly adjusts itself to the market price of coal4 ,the objection to this method is said to be that the great companies who practically control the anthracite coal business form syndicates1 fix the market price of their coal for a certain period of time1 and then limit the output of each member of the syndicate to a certain number of tons during that period4 ,it is certain that no scheme of payment has yet been devised which is perfectly satisfactory to the great body of workers in the mines4 ,but it is true also that employer and employee are working together more harmoniously now than they have worked at any time in the past1 and that long and stubborn strikes of miners are growing1 year by year1 less frequent4 ,it is to be hoped that the time will come when even the strike will not be considered necessary as a weapon of defense for the workman4 ,as a rule strikes result in loss1 and in loss only1 to both capital and labor2 and1 as a rule also1 labor suffers from them more than does capital1 and this is the saddest feature of the case4 ,hon4 ,carroll ,d4 ,wright1 the ,national ,commissioner of ,labor1 has compiled the statistics of miners' strikes in ,pennsylvania for the years #ahha to #ahhf inclusive4 ,his tables show that of #hhj such strikes1 which was the total number that occurred during the period named1 #ahf succeeded1 #eb partly succeeded1 and #fdb failed4 ,the loss to employers resulting from these strikes was #a1edi1bai2 the loss to employees was #e1hej1chb2 and the assistance given to the strikers during the periods of suspension amounted to #aja1jec4 ,these figures form the best commentary to be had on the subject of strikes2 they are eloquent with tales of hardship1 of suffering1 and of despair4 ,in those regions which have had long immunity from strikes1 and in which work at full time has been the rule1 the mine-workers are not only comfortable1 but frequently are prosperous4 ,they rarely occupy rooms in the cheap tenement houses of the towns1 even if such occupancy would be to their convenience4 ,they prefer to live in the outlying districts1 where they can have homes of their own and gardens that they may cultivate4 ,in the colliery villages the lots are usually laid out and sold or rented by the mining company to its workmen4 ,rent is not high1 and1 in case of sale1 a long term contract is given1 so that payments are in easy installments4 ,the miner prefers to own his house and lot4 ,such ownership has a tendency to impress any man with the importance and responsibility of his duty as a citizen1 and the miner is no exception to the rule4 ,he is apt to waste neither his time nor his money when he has property and a family to care for4 ,he tries1 too1 to lay by something for a rainy day2 he knows that the probabilities are that either he or his family will eventually need it4 ,as his hours of labor are comparatively short he has considerable leisure which he may spend profitably or foolishly as he will4 ,many of the men spend this leisure working in their gardens or about their premises4 ,it is seldom that any of them go so far as to have regular extra employment to occupy their time while out of the mines4 ,indeed the prevailing tendency among miners is to do as little work as possible outside of the mines4 ,the opinion seems to be prevalent among them that when a miner has cut his coal he has done his full duty for the day1 and is entitled then to rest and recreation4 ,he does not take kindly to other kinds of work4 ,he rarely deserts his occupation of mining to take up any other calling1 and it may be said that after he has passed middle age he never does4 ,there is a fascination to the old miner about the dark chambers1 the black walls1 the tap of the drill1 the crash of falling coal1 the smell of powder smoke in the air1 a fascination that is irresistible4 ,he would almost rather die in the familiar gloom of the mine than live and toil in the sunlight on the surface4 ,years of walking under the low mine roofs have bent his back1 have thrown his head and shoulders forward1 have given him that long swinging stride characteristic of old miners4 ,his face is always pale2 this is due1 no doubt1 to the absence of sunlight in his working place2 but1 as a rule1 his general health is good2 except when he has worked for a long time in dry and dusty mines4 ,in that case he is apt to find himself1 sooner or later1 a victim to the disease known as 8miner's consumption40 ,the miner's appearance1 as he passes along the street or road on his way home from his work1 is1 to eyes unaccustomed to the sight1 anything but favorable4 ,he wears heavy1 hobnailed shoes or boots1 flannel shirt1 coarse jacket and pantaloons1 all of them black with coal dirt and saturated with oil4 ,he has a habit1 when he comes from his work1 of throwing his coat loosely about his shoulders1 and wearing it so as he goes to his home4 ,he usually wears a cap on his head1 sometimes a slouch hat1 rarely the helmet or fireman's hat with which artists are accustomed to picture him4 ,this latter is too heavy and clumsy for common use2 he only puts it on when working in places where water comes down freely on his head4 ,hooked to the front of his cap is the little tin lamp already described4 ,when he goes to or comes from his work in the dark he allows it to burn and light him on his way4 ,his face and hands are also black with coal dirt and powder smoke1 and his features are hardly recognizable4 ,the predominating race among the mine workers is the ,irish1 next in point of numbers comes the ,welsh1 then follow the ,scotch and ,english1 and1 finally1 the ,german4 ,of late years1 however1 ,hungarian1 ,italian1 and ,russian laborers have come to the mines in large numbers1 especially in the southern districts4 ,these people can hardly be compared with the ,english or ,german speaking races2 they do not become citizens of the country1 have in the main no family life1 and are1 in a certain sense1 slaves whose masters are their own countrymen4 ,in speaking of the characteristics of the mine workers as a class1 it may be well1 and it certainly is just1 to correct a misapprehension concerning them which has become prevalent4 ,from reading the descriptions given by newspaper correspondents and by certain writers of fiction1 many people have come to think that all miners are little less than outlaws1 that they are rude1 ignorant1 brutal in their instincts1 and blind in their passions and animosities4 ,this is very far indeed from the truth4 ,mine workers1 as a class1 are peaceful1 law-abiding1 intelligent citizens4 ,that they are economical and industrious is well attested by the comfortable appearance of their homes1 and the modest deposits that are made1 in large numbers1 in the numerous miner's savings banks of the different districts4 ,there are1 indeed1 among them those who are intemperate1 those who are coarse and violent1 a disgrace to themselves and a menace to society4 ,these are always the ones who come to the surface at a time when strained relations exist between employers and employees1 and by their harsh language and unlawful conduct in the name of oppressed labor call down just retribution on themselves1 but unjust condemnation on the true mine workers1 who compose ninety-nine one hundredths of the class1 but who do not go about drinking1 ranting1 destroying property1 and inciting to crime4 ,the proportion of 8good-for-naughts0 among the miners1 however1 is no greater than it is among any other class of workmen having the same numbers1 and the same advantages and disadvantages4 ,with the exception of the ,hungarians1 ,russians1 ,italians1 and ,poles1 of whom mention has already been made1 the miners and their families compare favorably with any class of workers in the same grade of labor in ,america4 ,many of them indeed attain to prominent and responsible positions in business and society4 ,not a few of the clerks1 merchants1 contractors1 mining engineers1 bankers1 lawyers1 preachers1 of the coal regions of to-day have stepped into those positions from the chambers of the mines1 and have filled them admirably4 ,the miner is fond of his family2 his children are dear to him1 and1 whenever the grim necessities of life permit1 he sends them to the schools instead of to the mines or breakers4 ,he wishes to prepare them for a larger enjoyment of life than he himself has had1 even though that life should be spent in the occupation which he himself has followed4 ,and1 indeed1 there are few other occupations in which the possibilities of advancement are so great and so favorable4 ,there must be mine bosses1 mine inspectors1 mine superintendents1 and many of them1 and they are1 as a rule1 promoted from the ranks4 ,young men of character1 skill1 and judgment are almost sure to step into the higher places4 ,if it were not for two evils that constantly menace and hamper him1 the coal miner of to-day would be the most favored of workmen4 ,these twin evils are strikes and lockouts4 ,abolish them and there would be no more comfortable1 happy1 and generally prosperous class of people in ,america than the workers in the coal mines4 ,,glossary ,,of ,,mining ,,terms4 ,after damp4 ,the mixture of gases resulting from the burning of fire damp4 ,air shaft4 ,a vertical opening into a mine for the passage of air4 ,airway4 ,any passage in the mine along which an air current passes2 but the term is commonly applied to that passage which is driven1 for ventilating purposes1 parallel to and simultaneously with the gangway4 ,anticlinal4 ,a fold of strata in which the inclination of the sides of the fold is from the axis downward4 ,barrier pillars4 ,large pillars of coal left at a boundary line1 or on the outskirts of a squeeze4 ,basin4 ,the hollow formed by a fold of the seam2 any large area of included coal4 ,battery4 ,in steep-pitching seams1 a wooden structure built across the shute to hold the mined coal back4 ,bearing in4 ,cutting a horizontal groove at the bottom or side of the face of a breast4 ,bed4 ,any separate stratum of rock or coal4 ,bench4 ,a horizontal section of the coal seam1 included between partings of slate or shale4 ,black damp4 ,carbonic acid gas2 known also as choke damp4 ,blossom4 ,decomposed coal1 indicating the presence of an outcrop4 ,blower4 ,a forcible and copious discharge of gas from a cavity in the coal seam4 ,bony coal4 ,coal containing in its composition slaty or argillaceous material4 ,bore-hole4 ,a hole of small diameter drilled or bored1 either vertically or horizontally1 through the measures or in the coal2 usually1 a hole drilled vertically for prospecting purposes4 ,brattice4 ,a partition made of boards or of brattice cloth1 and put up to force the air current to the face of the workings4 ,breaker4 ,a building1 with its appliances1 used in the preparation of anthracite coal for the market4 ,break-through4 ,a cross-heading or entrance1 used in the bituminous mines4 ,breast4 ,the principal excavation in the mine from which coal is taken2 known also as chamber4 ,broken coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of prepared anthracite4 ,buckwheat coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of prepared anthracite4 ,buggy4 ,a small car or wagon used for transporting coal from the working face to the gangway4 ,buntons4 ,the timbers placed crosswise of a shaft down its entire depth1 dividing it into vertical compartments4 ,butt4 ,in bituminous coal seams1 the vertical planes of cleavage at right angles to the face cleavage4 ,butty4 ,a comrade2 a fellow-worker in the same chamber4 ,cage4 ,see ,carriage4 ,carriage4 ,the apparatus on which coal is hoisted in a shaft4 ,cartridge pin4 ,a round stick of wood on which the paper tube for the cartridge is formed4 ,cave-hole4 ,a depression at the surface1 caused by a fall of roof in the mine4 ,chain pillars4 ,heavy pillars of coal1 lining one or both sides of the gangway1 and left for the protection of that passage4 ,chamber4 ,see ,breast4 ,chestnut coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of prepared anthracite4 ,choice damp4 ,see ,after-damp4 ,cleavage4 ,the property of splitting on a certain plane4 ,collar4 ,the upper horizontal crosspiece uniting the legs in the timbering of a drift1 tunnel1 slope1 or gangway4 ,colliery4 ,all the workings of one mine1 both underground and at the surface4 ,conglomerate4 ,the rock strata lying next beneath the coal measures4 ,counter-gangway4 ,a gangway which is tributary to the main gangway1 and from which a new section of coal is worked4 ,cracker boss4 ,the officer in charge of the screen room in a breaker4 ,creep4 ,a crush in which the pillars are forced down into the floor or up into the roof of the mine4 ,cribbing4 ,the timber lining of a shaft1 extending usually from the surface to bed-rock4 ,crop-fall4 ,a caving in of the surface at the outcrop4 ,cross-heading4 ,a narrow opening for ventilation1 driven through a wall of coal separating two passages or breasts4 ,crush4 ,a settling downward of the strata overlying a portion of an excavated coal seam4 ,culm4 ,all coal refuse finer than buckwheat size4 ,dip4 ,the angle which any inclined stratum makes with a horizontal line4 ,door boy4 ,a boy who opens and shuts the door placed across any passageway in the mines to control the direction of the ventilating current4 ,double entry4 ,one of the systems by which openings into the bituminous coal mines are made4 ,downcast4 ,the passage or way through which air is drawn into a mine4 ,drift4 ,a water-level entrance to a mine1 driven in from the surface on the coal4 ,drill4 ,any tool used for boring holes in the rock or coal4 ,driving4 ,excavating any horizontal passage in or into the mines4 ,drum4 ,a revolving cylinder1 at the head of any hoisting-way1 on which the winding rope is coiled4 ,egg coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of prepared anthracite4 ,entrance4 ,see ,cross-heading4 ,entry4 ,the main entrance and traveling road in bituminous mines4 ,face4 ,the end wall at the inner or working extremity of any excavation in or into the mines4 ,in bituminous mines the vertical plane of cleavage at right angles to the butt cleavage4 ,fan4 ,a machine used to force a ventilating current of air through a mine4 ,fault4 ,a displacement of strata in which the measures on one side of a fissure are pushed up above the corresponding measures on the other side4 ,fire-board4 ,a blackboard1 fixed near the main entrance of a mine1 on which the fire boss indicates each morning the amount and location of dangerous gases4 ,fire boss4 ,an official whose duty it is to examine the workings for accumulations of dangerous gases4 ,fire clay4 ,the geological formation which is usually found immediately underlying a coal bed4 ,fire damp4 ,light carbureted hydrogen4 ,fissure4 ,a separation of rock or coal across the measures4 ,floor4 ,the upper surface of the stratum immediately underlying a coal seam4 ,gangway4 ,an excavation or passageway1 driven in the coal1 at a slight grade1 forming the base from which the other workings of the mine are begun4 ,gas4 ,fire damp4 ,gob4 ,the refuse separated from the coal and left in the mine4 ,guides4 ,narrow vertical strips of timber at each side of the carriage way in shafts1 to steady and guide the carriage in its upward or downward movement4 ,gunboat4 ,a car used for hoisting coal on steep slopes4 ,head-frame4 ,the frame erected at the head of a shaft to support the sheaves and hold the carriage4 ,heading4 ,synonymous with gangway4 ,any separate continuous passage used as a traveling way or as an airway4 ,hopper4 ,a feeding shute or pocket in a breaker4 ,horseback4 ,a small ridge in the roof or floor of a coal seam4 ,inside slope4 ,an inclined plane in a mine1 on which coal is hoisted from a lower to a higher level4 ,jacket4 ,one of the sections or frames of wire mesh of which a revolving screen is made up4 ,keeps4 ,projections of wood or iron on which the carriage rests while it is in place at the head of the shaft4 ,lagging4 ,small timbers or planks driven in behind the legs and over the collars to give additional support to the sides and roof of the passage4 ,legs4 ,the inclined sticks on which the collar rests in gangway1 tunnel1 drift1 and slope timbering4 ,lift4 ,all the workings driven from one level in a steep-pitching seam4 ,loading place4 ,the lowest extremity of the breaker1 where prepared coal is loaded into railway cars4 ,lump coal4 ,the largest size of prepared anthracite4 ,manway4 ,a passageway in or into the mine1 used as a footway for workmen4 ,mouth4 ,the opening1 at the surface1 of any way into the mines4 ,needle4 ,an instrument used in blasting coal1 with which a channel is formed through the tamping for the entrance of the squib4 ,nut coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of bituminous coal4 ,opening4 ,any excavation in or into a mine4 ,operator4 ,the person1 firm1 or corporation working a colliery4 ,outcrop4 ,that portion of any geological stratum which appears at the surface4 ,output4 ,the amount of coal produced from any mine1 or from any area of country4 ,parting4 ,the layer of slate or bony coal which separates two benches of a coal seam4 ,pea coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of prepared anthracite4 ,picking shute4 ,a shute in the breaker from which the pieces of slate are picked out by a boy as they pass down with the coal4 ,pillar4 ,a column or body of coal left unmined to support the roof4 ,pillar and breast4 ,the name of a common mining method4 ,pinch4 ,see ,crush4 ,pitch4 ,see ,dip4 ,plane4 ,any incline on which a track is laid for the purpose of lowering or hoisting coal4 ,pockets4 ,receptacles at the lower ends of shutes1 in breakers1 from which coal is loaded into railway cars4 ,post4 ,a wooden prop to support the roof in bituminous mines4 ,prop4 ,a timber set at right angles to the seam1 in anthracite mines1 to support the roof4 ,prospecting4 ,searching for indications of coal on the surface1 and testing coal seams from the surface4 ,pump way4 ,that compartment of a shaft or slope down which the pump rods and pipes are extended4 ,rib4 ,the side of an excavation as distinguished from the end or face4 ,rob4 ,to mine coal from the pillars after the breasts are worked out4 ,rock tunnel4 ,a tunnel driven through rock strata4 ,rolls4 ,in breakers1 heavy iron or steel cylinders set with teeth1 used for breaking coal4 ,roof4 ,the stratum immediately overlying a coal seam4 ,the rock or coal overhead in any excavation4 ,room4 ,synonymous with breast or chamber2 used in bituminous mines4 ,safety lamp4 ,a lamp that can be carried into inflammable gases without igniting them4 ,scraper4 ,a tool used for cleaning out bore holes in blasting4 ,screen4 ,any apparatus used for separating coal into different sizes2 usually1 the revolving cylinder of wire mesh in a breaker4 ,seam4 ,a stratum of coal4 ,separator4 ,a machine for picking slate4 ,shaft4 ,a vertical entrance into a mine4 ,sheave4 ,the wheel in the head-frame that supports the winding rope4 ,shift4 ,the time during which a miner or laborer works continuously1 alternating with some other similar period4 ,shute4 ,a narrow passageway through which coal descends by gravity from the foot of the breast to the gangway2 an inclined trough1 in a breaker1 down which coal slides by gravity4 ,single entry4 ,one of the systems by which bituminous mines are entered4 ,slack4 ,the dirt from bituminous coal4 ,slate picker4 ,a boy who picks slate from coal4 ,a machine used for the same purpose4 ,slope4 ,an entrance to a mine driven down through an inclined coal seam4 ,inside slope3 a passage in the mine driven down through the seam1 by which to bring coal up from a lower level4 ,slope carriage4 ,a platform on wheels on which cars are raised and lowered in steep slopes4 ,smut4 ,see ,blossom4 ,split4 ,a branch of a ventilating air current4 ,spread4 ,the bottom width of a slope1 drift1 tunnel1 or gangway between the legs of the timbering4 ,squeeze4 ,see ,crush4 ,squib4 ,a powder cracker used for igniting the cartridge in blasting4 ,steamboat coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of prepared anthracite4 ,stopping4 ,a wall built across an entrance or any passage to control the ventilating current4 ,stove coal4 ,one of the regular sizes of prepared anthracite4 ,strike4 ,the direction of a line drawn horizontally along any stratum4 ,stripping4 ,mining coal by first removing the surface down to the coal bed2 open working4 ,sump4 ,a basin in mines entered by a slope or shaft1 in which the water of the mine is collected to be pumped out4 ,swamp4 ,a depression in the seam4 ,synclinal4 ,a fold of strata in which the inclination of the sides is from the axis upward4 ,tipple4 ,in the bituminous regions1 a building in which coal is dumped1 screened1 and loaded into boats or cars4 ,trapper4 ,see ,door boy4 ,traveling way4 ,a passageway for men and mules in or into the mines4 ,trip4 ,the number of cars less than enough to constitute a train drawn at one time by any motive power4 ,tunnel4 ,an opening into a mine driven horizontally across the measures4 ,under-clay4 ,see ,fire clay4 ,underholing4 ,see ,bearing in4 ,upcast4 ,an opening from a mine through which air is taken out4 ,vein4 ,used 7improperly7 synonymously with seam1 bed1 or stratum4 ,wagon4 ,a mine car4 ,waste4 ,gob2 coal dirt4 ,water level4 ,an entrance into or passage in a mine1 driven with just sufficient grade to carry off water4 ,white damp4 ,carbonic oxide4 ,wings4 ,see ,keeps4 ,work4 ,to mine4 ,working face4 ,a face at which mining is being done4 ,workings4 ,the excavations of a mine1 taken as a whole2 or1 more particularly1 that portion of the mine in which mining is being done4 ,,index4 ,accidents resulting from falls1 #abf2 to boys1 #bah4 ,act of #ahhe1 #hh4 ,after damp1 composition of1 etc41 #afg4 ,air currents in mines1 #adh1 #adi4 ,air1 deterioration of1 in mines1 #adg1 #aeb4 ,airways1 beginning of1 #ie4 ,allen1 ,nicholas1 #di1 #fb4 ,ancients1 use of coal by1 #ce4 ,animal life of ,carboniferous era1 #ah4 ,anthracite coal1 analysis of1 #f2 commercial sizes of1 #aha2 description of1 #h2 ignition of1 #ei2 of bituminous origin1 #be2 skill in mining1 #aib4 ,anticlinals1 #be4 ,appalachian ,range1 #c4 ,archean time1 #c4 ,areas of coal measures1 #ca2 of ,pennsylvania coal fields1 #cc1 #cd4 ,avondale ,mine1 disaster at1 #agc4 ,baltimore vein1 #ge4 ,basin in a coal seam1 #bi4 ,battery in steep chambers1 #ajh4 ,bearing in1 in bituminous mines1 #aig4 ,benches in coal seams1 #bc-aae4 ,bituminous coal1 analysis of1 #g2 description of1 #h2 process of mining1 #aid4 ,black damp1 composition1 etc41 #afi4 ,blasting in mines1 #aai1 #abj1 #abe1 #aca4 ,blossom of coal1 #gg4 ,blower of gas1 #afj4 ,boys1 accidents to1 #bah2 amusements of1 #bai2 at tipple work1 #bjb2 characteristics of1 #bag2 duties of1 at breaker1 #bae2 in ,british coal mines1 #bje4 ,boy door-tenders1 duties of1 #bad4 ,boy drivers1 duties of1 #baj4 ,braddock's road1 #dj4 ,brattice at face of chamber1 #ajc4 ,breaker1 description of1 #agi2 location of1 #agh1 #ahc2 passage of coal through1 #ahe2 picking shutes in1 #ahf2 structure and appearance of1 #ahd4 ,break through1 in bituminous mines1 #aie4 ,breast4 ,see ,chamber4 ,bryden1 ,alexander1 #adc4 ,bryden1 ,andrew1 #adj1 #afh4 ,buildings at mouth of shaft1 #agf4 ,buntons in shaft1 #hi4 ,butler1 ,col4 ,lord1 #ef4 ,butt cleavage in bituminous mines1 #aid4 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,conglomerate1 #gf4 ,conifers1 #ag4 ,corve1 in ,british coal mines1 #bje4 ,cost of different methods of entry1 #ib4 ,counter-gangway1 #aje4 ,crahan1 ,martin1 story of1 #bbj4 ,creeping pillars1 #acf4 ,creuzot ,mine1 accident at1 #agj4 ,crop falls1 #aci4 ,cross-headings1 #ie4 ,crowbar1 miner's tool1 #aba4 ,crust of earth1 subsidence of1 etc41 #bd4 8,cry of the ,children10 ,mrs4 ,browning's1 #bjg4 ,culm1 its disposition and use1 #aij4 ,curr1 ,john1 #ij4 ,davy1 ,sir ,humphrey1 experiments of1 #afb4 ,decapitation of coal seams1 #bi4 ,delaware and ,hudson gravity railroad1 #ff2 canal1 #ff4 ,diamond drill1 #gi4 ,dip of strata1 #bi4 ,door boy1 duties of1 etc41 #adi1 #bad4 ,doors in mines1 #adi4 ,drainage in mines1 #aed4 ,drift1 as a mode of entry1 #hj4 ,drilling1 by diamond drill1 #gi2 by hand1 #gh2 by rope method1 #gh2 by spring pole method1 #gh4 ,drill1 machine hand1 #aaf2 miner's1 #aaf4 ,driver boss1 his duties1 etc41 #aac4 ,driver boy1 duties of1 etc41 #aac1 #baj1 #bac4 ,dump shute bars in breaker1 #ahe4 ,eagle ,shaft1 disaster at1 #afh4 ,early mining methods1 #id4 ,eastern middle coal field1 #cc4 ,electricity in breakers1 #bag2 in mines1 #aje1 #abb1 #abg1 #bac4 ,enaliosaurs1 #bj4 ,entrances in mines1 #aja4 ,entries in bituminous mines1 #aie1 #aif4 ,evans1 ,oliver1 #eb4 ,experiments with anthracite1 #eb1 #ec4 ,face cleavage in bituminous mines1 #aid4 ,face of chamber1 #aja4 ,falls of roof and coal1 #abe1 #ace4 ,fan for ventilation1 #aea4 ,fault in strata1 #bf4 ,felling ,colliery1 disaster at1 #afb4 ,fell1 ,judge ,jesse1 #ec4 ,females in ,british coal mines1 #bjf4 ,ferns of coal era1 #af4 ,fire boss1 duties of1 etc41 #aab1 #aff4 ,fire damp1 characteristics of1 #afj2 explosions of1 #afa2 in abandoned workings1 #aff4 ,fishes1 age of1 #c2 of ,carboniferous age1 #ai4 ,fissures in strata1 #bf4 ,flanigan1 ,john1 #id4 ,flowers in ,carboniferous age1 #ba4 ,gangways1 beginning of1 #ie2 description of1 #ig2 direction of1 #ih2 driving1 #aac2 length of1 #ajd2 walking in1 #abi4 ,gases not confined to coal measures1 #aei4 ,germany1 mining of coal in1 #cg4 ,ginther1 ,philip1 #dg4 ,girls in ,british coal mines1 #bje4 ,gore1 ,obadiah1 experiments of1 #de4 ,graff1 ,frederick1 #eb4 ,great ,summit ,mine1 #eg4 ,guibal1 inventor of fan1 #aeb4 ,guides in shaft1 #ij4 ,hammer1 miner's1 #aba4 ,head-frame at mouth of shaft1 #agg4 ,health of mine workers1 #aec4 ,hennepin1 ,father1 explorer1 #ch4 ,hillegas1 ,michael1 #dh4 ,hoisting apparatus at shaft1 #agg4 ,hollenback1 ,colonel ,george ,m41 #ef4 ,horsebacks in coal seams1 #bh4 ,hosie1 ,john1 adventure of1 #ade4 ,hurrier in ,british mines1 #bje4 ,inclined planes in mines1 #aje4 ,indians1 coal known to1 #cg1 #dc1 #dd4 ,inside slopes1 #ajf4 ,invertebrates1 age of1 #c4 ,investments in coal lands1 #fh4 ,jenkins1 ,henry1 #ahj4 ,laborers1 duties of1 etc41 #aad1 #abb4 ,lackawanna region1 early coal trade in1 #fe4 ,lagging1 its use1 etc41 #hb4 ,lamp1 miner's1 #aba4 ,laplace1 astronomer1 #a4 ,lehigh coal1 early trade in1 #eg1 #eh1 #fb4 ,lepidodendrids1 #ag4 ,leschot1 inventor1 #gi4 ,lift mining1 #he1 #ajg4 ,light carbureted hydrogen1 #aei4 ,lignite1 #f1 #aa4 ,loading place in breaker1 #ahi4 ,localities in which coal is found1 #ca1 #cb4 ,locomotives in mines1 #aii4 ,london1 burning of coal in1 #cf4 ,long wall mining system1 #aaj4 ,loyalsock coal field1 #ca4 ,lump coal1 bituminous1 #bjb4 ,machine for mining soft coal1 #aig4 ,mammals1 age of1 #d1 #ab4 ,man1 age of1 #d4 ,marsh gas1 composition of1 etc41 #afj4 ,mellen and ,bishop1 experimenters1 #fd4 ,mesozoic time1 #d4 ,mine1 anthracite1 number of employees in1 #aab4 ,mine boss1 duties1 etc41 #aab4 ,mine car1 #abc4 ,mine1 darkness in a1 #acc2 in an abandoned1 #acd2 silence in a deserted1 #acb4 ,mine law of #ahgj and #ahhe1 #bjh4 ,miner1 ,charles1 #eh4 ,miner1 appearance of1 #bbg2 character and ambition of1 #bcj2 clothing of1 #bbh2 duties of1 etc41 #aad1 #abb1 #abd2 home and outside occupation of1 #bbf2 nativity of1 #bbh4 ,mines1 flooding of1 #aef4 ,miocene period1 #ab4 ,mules in mines1 #bab4 ,nanticoke1 accident at1 #aeg4 ,nebular ,hypothesis1 #a4 ,needle1 miner's1 #aag4 ,newcastle1 carrying coals to1 #cg4 ,nobles1 ,david1 hunter1 #fe4 ,northern coal field1 #cc4 ,nut coal1 bituminous1 #bjb4 ,open quarry mining1 #hj4 ,outcrop of strata1 #bi1 #ge4 ,paleozoic time1 #c4 ,pannier women in ,british mines1 #bje4 ,paris1 burning of coal in1 #cg4 ,partings in coal seams1 #bc4 ,peat1 #f1 #aa4 ,pennsylvania1 coal fields of1 #cb1 #cc1 #cd4 ,picking machine in breaker1 #ahg4 ,picking shute in breaker1 #ahf4 ,pick1 miner's1 #aba4 ,pillar and breast mining system1 #ii4 ,pillars at foot of shaft1 #ie2 creeping1 #acf2 robbing of1 #acc2 slipping1 #acf4 ,pinch in a coal mine1 #bh4 ,pittsburgh1 coal beds near1 #aic2 coal trade of1 #db2 discovery of coal near1 #da4 ,pittsburg1 ,kansas1 disaster at1 #agb4 ,pockets in breaker1 #ahi4 ,props1 use and setting of1 #aad4 ,prospecting for coal1 #ge4 ,pump mining1 #aee4 ,pumpway in shaft1 #aee4 ,putter1 in ,british mines1 #bje4 ,rats in mines1 #bab4 ,reptiles1 age of1 #d1 #ab4 ,rhode ,island1 coal in1 #cb1 #dj4 ,rib of coal1 #aja4 ,richmond coal field1 #ch4 ,robbing pillars1 #acc4 ,robinson1 ,john ,w41 #eh4 ,rocky ,mountains1 #bj4 ,rolls in breaker1 #agi4 ,rolls in coal seams1 #bh4 ,rooms in bituminous mines1 #aie4 ,run of mine1 bituminous coal1 #bjb4 ,safety carriage1 #ia4 ,safety lamps1 how to use1 #afe2 invention of1 #afc4 ,schuylkill region1 early coal trade in1 #fb1 #fd4 ,scotland1 mining of coal in1 #cg4 ,scraper1 in bituminous mines1 #aih4 ,scraper1 use of1 #aag4 ,screen1 revolving1 in breaker1 #ahj4 ,semi-anthracite coal1 #h4 ,shaft1 compartments of1 #hi2 descending a1 #abh2 foot of1 #abh2 in bituminous mines1 #aii2 in steep-pitching seams1 #aji2 location and depth of1 #hf2 sinking of1 #hg2 water in1 while sinking1 #aed4 ,sheaves in head-frame1 #agg4 ,shoemaker1 ,colonel ,george1 #fb4 ,shovel1 miner's1 #aba4 ,sigillari1 #ag4 ,slack1 bituminous waste1 #bjb4 ,slate picker's duties1 etc41 #ahf4 ,sledge1 miner's1 #aba4 ,slipping pillars1 #acf4 ,slope1 dimensions of1 #he2 entrance by1 #hd2 in steep-pitching seams1 #he4 ,smith1 ,abijah1 #ef4 ,smith1 ,john1 #ef4 ,smut of coal1 #gg4 ,southern coal field1 #cb4 ,sphagnum1 #aa4 ,splits of the air current1 #adh4 ,squeeze in a mine1 #bh1 #acf4 ,squib1 use of1 #aah4 ,stair shaft in bituminous mines1 #bjj4 ,states in which coal is found1 #ca1 #cb4 ,steep-pitching seams1 raining in1 #ajg4 ,stigmaria1 #ah4 ,stockton ,mines1 accident at1 #aci4 ,strike of strata1 #bi4 ,strikes among miners1 #bbe4 ,summit ,hill ,mine1 #hj4 ,sump in mine1 #if4 ,surface1 disturbance of1 by falls1 #ach4 ,susquehanna ,river1 coal trade1 #da4 ,swamp in mines1 #bi4 ,symbols marked on cars1 #bbc4 ,synclinals1 #be4 ,tamping1 process of1 #aah4 ,temperature in mines1 #baj4 ,terrace in coal outcrop1 #gg4 ,theophrastus1 #ce4 ,tipple1 at the bituminous mines1 #bja1 #bjc4 ,tunnel1 entrance by1 #hb4 ,tunnels in mine interiors1 #hd1 #ajf4 ,turnbull1 ,william1 #eh4 ,ventilation by fan1 #aea2 by open furnace1 #aej2 in bituminous mines1 #aii2 principle of1 in mines1 #ig1 #adh4 ,von ,storch1 ,h4 ,c4 ,l41 #fe4 ,wages of miners1 #bbd2 computing and payment of1 #bbb2 of boys1 #bac-bae2 sliding scale for computing1 #bbd4 ,waste in coal mining1 #acd2 of the coal measures1 #bh4 ,water1 driving workings toward1 #aee2 in mine1 #if2 tonnage of1 hoisted1 #aee4 ,weighing coal1 #bbc4 ,weiss1 ,colonel ,jacob1 #dh4 ,western middle coal field1 #cc4 ,west ,pittston1 disaster at1 #age4 ,white ,hazard1 coal trade of1 #fb2 experiments of1 #fj4 ,wilcox1 ,crandal1 #ef4 ,wings in shaft1 #ia4 ,woodward breaker1 #aba4 ,working pillars1 #acf4 ,wright1 ,joseph1 #ef4 ,wurts1 ,william and ,maurice1 #fe4 ,wyoming coal field1 #cc4 ,wyoming valley1 discovery of coal in1 #de2 early coal trade of1 #ef4 ,ziegler1 ,charles ,w41 #ahh4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,text in italics is enclosed by underscores 7italics74 ,superscripted characters follow a caret 7,fredk1 #aath7 ,obvious printer's1 punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected4 ,archaic and variable spelling has been preserved4 ,variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved4