COAL - Clpdigital.org

Another meritorious feature of these pumps, as
well as in all types of Cameron pumps, is found
in the design and construction of their operating
mechanism, which has but few working parts, and
no outside valve gear or rods to become broken or
to get out of alignment.
Floating timbers and debris, which are often
times the cause of damage to submerged pumps,
can do no harm to Cameron pumps, as the working
parts are not exposed. Often a Cameron pump
has been submerged under water for weeks and
has kept right on pumping to the limit of its
capacity until it has cleared the shaft or mine.
New Coal Field in Nova Scotia.
The recent discovery of coal about 20 miles south
of Springhill is the most important mining event
in many years in Nova Scotia. It is the direct
result of deduction from painstaking investigations
of the geological conditions at Springhill.
Dawson, who stood in the front rank of Canadian
geologists and whose conclusions were generally
accepted without reserve, judged that the conglomerate
rock that appears at Springhill and extends
south was deposited before the coal measures;
hence, where the conglomerate appears at
the surface the conclusion was that no coal existed.
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 4!)
under the conglomerate. It was on this theory
Coal prospectors have, since his day, generally
accepted the conglomerate district, as not productive.
Mr. Fletcher, of the geological survey of
Canada, undertook a long and laborious examination
of the surface indications, and arrived at conclusions
directly at variance with Dawson's,
namely, that the conglomerate was of a later age
than the coal, and that there was no apparent reason
why there were not coal seams at Springhill
Fig. 3. Outside Construction of Pumps.
that a number of coal men formed an association
to bore at a spot indicated by Mr. Fletcher. The
work has resulted in the discovery of a fine coal
field which, if not entirely new, is at least an extension
of the Springhill field, embracing an area
of 200 square miles or more. Mr. Fletcher assumed
that coal would be reached at a depth of
from 2,000 to 3,000 feet, and operations were commenced
with that idea. The drill first pierced
some 810 feet of reddish sandstone, etc., belonging
to the upper Permian formation; then about
1,500 feet of conglomerate was met; then some 19
feet of sandstone, when the coal was struck. The
drill went through some 12 feet of coal, but it
made no core, and as the pitch of the seam is unknown
its exact thickness cannot be determined
as yet.