The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, December 2, 1885, Page 4

i MINE INSPECTOR’S REPORT —_——_ --+0e As Prepared by the Mine Inspee- tor of Bates County for the Year 1585. To the Hon. Commusstoner of La- lor Statistics of Missouri: The undersigned Mine Inspector of Bates County has the honor of submitting the following mining report as required by law: most important Coal is one ot | ! Several theo: of oll minerals ss tothe moi of iis ory keen put forth. “The one generally beheved in is that the rank vegetatic during the carboniferous age, grew tpon land but s! and decayed. slow raised above the sea, that by subsidence this thick layer of vege éabie matter sank below the water end become gradually covered with sand, mud ¢ other mineral sedi toents, form those vast coal beds on which the industrial pursuits of the present age so jargely depend. At this age of the Globe had tecome more extensive, yet was flat land and interspersed with great marshes, the atmosphere asoist and heavily charged with carbonic acid, suitable growth, to this immense vegetable known to any other age; the crust of thelearth was coutinuaily thicken- fig, violent convulsions were ge on, tearing asunder these layers of segetuble matter,sinking coal marsh- es lower, raising others higher. Currents of water would necessarily change, cutting away the deposits. The swamps in which the coal beds were formed were often very small, sOwe of the deposits occupicd only a tew acres in area. Conditions tavorable to the growth of coal vege éation existed in a large partot Bates county, some places light,others very avy. The Rich Hall ser ia have been a deposit upon the low t3 Seems. ns around the borders ot j beds snarshy p none of the meing very wide. We olten sce coat chmbing w hill at angles of to a retreating s the ees, With the vein growing tp 15 de sbinner as you advance unul a 7 foot vein in the valley wall thin out to 3 on the top of the hill, or disappear wna fault altogether. Many claim that the reason of the coal thinning that the out as it-climbs the bill is coal vegetation grew less rank on ibe sides of the bog. gradually get- ting less and less until it) ceasea to grow altogether. Oar coal seams are not conunu ous, 48 many suppose, nor do they the same in thickness. “In qual radical ty and position there is a aifference, they lie in troughs, basins, cashes, patches and splices thicken - «ng and thinning in different di- rections. Those who expect to find continuous beds will be disappornt- | ed; we can only know the extent and shape of a vein we see cropping out on a hillside, or that we sink a shaft | throught, by working out the subter- aneous strata or thorough prospect- sng with sx drill, Nothing equals the pick and drill ot the practical aniner. FAULTS IN THE COAL. fn working out the vein the miner s treqvently conung to ships, horse- vacks, was cut-offs and outs, faelts; they are all troublesome and | the | the) them. | nake additional yperator = and expense to labor to mer in ariving through Washouts vary in width, in places the seam appearing again in a few | | Water, driving through faults, uild- Rockfualts in the form of layers of | teet, at others hundreds of yards. _vand stone have been found in our | mines to cut.a s toot seam down to *S anches, bearing 15 degrees south ot west for nearly a half mile, the large vein appearing no more on the; stuth. Llorse backs are so called by their sssemblance to mdges er saddles. They appear both upon the floor and roof; most miners term slips rorse-backs. I feel assured the zause that made one never made the ether. Slips are evidently the resu!t | ot violent coavultions, essunder the ceal beds. A rack from the roof ts where a water channel run over the ancient coal saarsh in the early stages of us ce- cat away the vegetable horse- . Wwhiel saater. . rock | which rent?! MANNER OF MINING COAL. H As this report must come before | our Legislators of Missouri for con- | sideration, as a means of assisting them in framing laws bearing on the coal industry of our state, many of “pal whom were never inside «a coal mine, a brief shetch of how coal is | mined would not be out ot place in this report: The tools of a miner consist of a sledge. several steel wedges, tour or drill, campin tive picks, a scraper and needle; this necessitates | a ke keg of powder and a box ot squit two men work together in a room r entry to keep each other company in their dark abode. rey are called now buddies and share alike them watches the profits; one of while the other works in dangerous places, and if anything happens to one, such as roof falling, the other! raises the The Miami, Muiberry and Wainut coal}, workea as yet alarm. which is only on a undermined with the In unde: ale, smail sc pick and wedged down. mining, which is very laborious, the a few miner stands on bis teet until inches in depth is cut; he then sits his legs stretched wide down wi apartin front of hun and cuts in stil deeper; he then lies down to enable him to reach tarther under and finish- esup. More skill is required in i mining on this plan than where i i veins are shot on the solid } stiata underlying the coalis generally fire clay, and almost a> hard as sand The Rich Ell coal is out on the solid diilled in lasted stone. € i> the coal varying in distance according | to circumstances, with proper grip, j t g the powder the best advant from two to eight ge, powder being used ino each shot. Ssooting is allowed in some ct the mines twice a day. once. At twelve o’clock and five the men are ready with their shots teuped, the signal is given by the engineer with the steam whistic to | the cager below, who gives it to the } learest trapper who keeps watch at} nis ou turn raps the door, who in door, when it is caught up by the other trappers and passed over entire Each man hghts bis and retires to the top. The shakes above from these heavy charges aud a dense mass of smoke loads the mine. I have 250 bushels of coal set out in one singte shot. A railroad track is laid in all entries and rooms ;in the main entries the tracks are double. The coal 1s} drawn from the tace in cars by mules | from 15 1-2 to 16 hands high to the j bottom of the hoisting shaft; the cager runs the car on the cage and | sgnals the engineer to hoist away, when it is carmed twenty teet or more above the surtace, when two meu roll it to the tipple and dump it dis- mine. squily earth dis seen the | j onto the screens, where it 1s | tributed into three cars standing on tracks below—one receives the j lumps,one the nut coal and the other j the slack. A mine car from | one to two tons. It takes one man holds {in our Adrian, | i in others only ;¢t | the working face, but thisas not a j arti and white our mines. Black damp lurks around in some o oldest mines in the worked out parts, but the operators have Kept | them away from the suffic harm tron that no one had my lamp suddenly snuff by a column of making its way tt trom ihe ol duced by filet f workings pected Our mines are pillar n. The being sunk, two galleries are started in p es, pillar of coa four or five yards wide heing let betwee: s, wl he v ing met ry sixty or one undre tir When a new tole is ct rough the one iis closed up by wo t r der to f w 2 eat @ tieht ‘ © ~ ft sume driven single not so vood. Entnes are from eight to twelve f started s i rom off the run p plan i coming ‘ TS Bute rics are ut two ! 1 t « s r we v t t = t > thr tour feet wide. every sixty feet to let the current of air three up close to the tace when a new brake through 1s made the old one should be closed up in order to lthrow a stronger current of arr » t 1 i ways done becanse it cuts down the operators profits, and the men suffer often with banging powder smoke. left until When take The pillars of a mine are the rooms are ali worked out. the miners attack them, and | then) out. this is considered the most dangerous part of mining. Some ot the mines have a large furasce, others on exhaust tan to produce ficial ventilation. SMOKE IN MINES. Smoke is the combined gasses and carbon escaping from fire in a state of imperfect combustion, and is liable to ignite coming 1n contact with fire. In mines where the coal is shot on the solid, as most of ours, vast vol- umes of smoke fill the mines after firing, which im being drawn to the one turnace hecomes very dese in places. On Sept. rth, John Hen dersov, a miner, was badly burnt in mine No. 6. went to show that at the noon firein An inyestigation held as he was preparing to leave the mine a dense volume ot sinoke fil ed | stationed at the foot of the horsting ;Shatt to oil the ears. DEAD WORK, Dead work in consists of entry driving, ditch cutting, track wavs, proyiding } nauling, mines laying, cutting air props and railroad dumping, and loading coal; brattic- ing uptreak throughs and mouths | of rooms, grading down hills for) railroad track. shooting down top in! low coal on muleways, taking = | t i ties, | i ing doers on entries to turn the air and turnishing guards tor same. | Miners dig coal by the bushel, re- ceiving two cents per bushe! weighed as itcomes from his room, before When a; Passing over the screens. :car ot coal is run on the cage below | the cager raps once to the engineer, which tells bim coal ie coming ; three Taps tell him men are on, in which Cages men lowered if provided with safety | case more caution is used. on horsted which are are catches to lock the cage in the guides ould breai is Case the wire rope Or machinery get out of order. vr mines butene have a manway with steps to go in and out. Fire nue m the damp, greatest cneny contend with in other countries, has ueyer been found pnorthern siope cousequentis ithe wind bi Lis generally cool st has 3 Pout, the mine around him. xt which time an Italian miner put off 4 very light shet, which ignited the smoke and fied the entry with fire. Smoke is joften permitted to hang too long in parts ot our mines. some days, by the Pitt Bosses, for the health and com- fort ot the miners. VENTILATION. The veatilation ot mines is of great importance. Fans and furnaces are the causes. A brick on a level with the vein of coal under an upcast shatt, in which a fire is kept up. A fan is placed at the furnace is built of fire top of an up-cast shaft and is run by days in m2) power. There are some of our mines when a lamp can scatcely be kept burniag on seme ot the entries by reason of a strong cur rent of air sweeping through, while ou other days on the same entries ithe current ts Weak and The intake or down cust4t ws fromt . hence the a ted on lan : lamps on such occasions. The the entry are citen ft On a cain day, with onis « weobreeze frais the sonih ace and fan st jabs means used, assisted by natural | i labor vs. capital, j litical questions enterir | discourses, disc | ability fism. outside pressure they had when the wind was north. Again, cool air 1s heavier than warm air, when the at- ve laws of The e intake be pass ndred cubic feet be choking with eason of th ect doors ce up { rooms so as to carly idonec down cast in the > workings, thence around tuce to the ep cast. Air cater- i mine could it find zn opening take the nearest cut to tke cust These opent because it takes lumber g close them up. I have an iustrument to measure ina rs room. Your lamp, lungs Peyes must be your guide to judge | its quality and quan Here an’ | inspector meets his greatest | law regard- ltrouble in entercing ¢ jing ventilation, not that he cannot | tel! from the burn of his !amp and the air taken into his lungs that st i impure, but the boss says it is good, are mistaken in your judgment, re notin this mine day atter day emometor, and tound {had more than the standart? The law does 1 shall brattice up my ! doors | where you wantthem. The Inspec- | now resort to the Courts, | where a Justice who has likely never been mside a coat mine must decide | 1 [the case upon the testimony offered, | The very men whom the Inspector is seeking to benefit. now says, “1 that testify this air is bad losing my cannot without place; I have | compromise it, the wind will change to-morrow likely and our air will t Let the law the be conducted from the m- better.” av how air shall take to the tace ot the workings and around the workings, and what open- ings shall be closed. I wish to say in justice to Messrs. Sweeny, Supt. ot the Keith & Perry Coal Co. and J. T. Reavley, Supt. of Rich [Hill Coal Co.. that these gentlemen have always treated me most courteously when in discharge ot my official dutres and afforded me every facility tor entering and in- specting their mines at all times. And further, that these gentlemen have used all reesonable diligence in providing for the satety of the men under their charge MINERS’ CUSTOMS. ! | Coal diggers have a custom that L | {do not know of being in vogue famong any other laboing class. i noon meal, although their faces will be as black as midnight; but when the day’s work is they go | through an ablution of the entire | body. This custom 1s strictly ad- hered to, both in winter and summer. Many of them strip to the waist when in their underground room at work. INTELLIGENCE AMONG MINERS. A very respectable per cent of our | miners are intelligent—a reading and | thinking people. well posted on the | leading questions betore the Ament- done | | } can people—heen disputants of the | question that has baffled the wisdom | of our greatest statesmen, Labor and | Capital. During the duil seas« : the coal trade they iz ve considers asin { : j leisure time. Atthese intervals they } will frequently be found in squads} and groups discussing this great! ‘problemi ot naa Ht velbgious and po- s into their ing theeght that would astonish unfamiliar with their mc A large per cent ot at entertain as Inttle taith in a capitalist operating a coal mine and being tree trom a disposition to oppress them on every opportunity that presents eof lite i itselst, as 2 young protestant that has , been reared with Martyrs in the house has in Catholic. There are a few miners who! Fox’s Book ot Continued on oth page. myself, did you not measure it! the down cast where t! v said ould measured, with your; family and work is hard to get now, | They only wash their hands at the! Dumps ble; mouey, ; and | those j «leva d =“ EE! XK SEE diggers | “Whata man does is the thing, 107 BEDSTEADS, 29 STYLES, 49 iN WAREHOUSE. One Car Load 400 on the Road The best ever offered for the money; The Heaviest Rail you ever saw on a Cheap Bed. Opera House Furniture Store, ON LOW PRICES. New Goods, Low Prices, 100,000 BUSHELS ORN WANTED 2 Eas hn A. Lefker & Co’s. Eleva NEAR DEPOT. We desire to say to the tarming community that we are now prepared to recetve Corn in any quantity. We have recent- ty overhauled our Machinery, and now have ample facilities handlins Corn easily expeditiously. Our Are Convenie for and Grade very ex-y and perfectly safe. Tro those who nave in the past so libe rally favored us, we return our hearty thanks, aux! tespecttully ask s continuance of their patronage. To those who have not heretofore deait with us, we desire to say that we earnestly solicit a trial, believing that our mode of doing business will meet your approval, and, if so, shall en- deayor to merit a share of your patronage. We havea large quantsty of s! specially selected for sowing purposes, to loan tor the season of 1885, and we invite all parties who contemplate sowing Flax next year to come and see us betore making uieir at- rangements for seed, as we Know We Caz Do You Good: Come and sce us. JOHN A. LEFKER & CO. + not what be *-a3* ( racic er