COAL - Clpdigital.org

SUGGESTIONS FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF
AN EX-PRIVATE MINE INSPECTOR—PRE­
PARATIONS, PUMPS, TIMBERING, AND
COAL MINING.
The private mine inspector for a large conipany
has a very important and responsible position.
He not only takes cognizance of all that a government
inspector does, but a myriad of other matters
not in the category of points for inspection mapped
out Dy the chief government inspector. He
is at once general superintendent, planner, systematize]',
detective and inspector. A superintendent
or foreman, for example, desires to put into
immediate practice a scheme which has suddenly
burst upon his mental vision. Without ninth
contemplation he presents it to the general manager,
wdio probably is too busy to probe its merits.
The matter casually glanced at appears feasible
and the right thing to do; he consents to its
adoption providing the inspector concurs after he
has had time to consider it. Perhaps the project
is to attack a piece of coal to the dip, because it
is near and handy. Were he allowed to do so.
in a few days the places would be under water
and a pump would then be necessary. "No." says
the inspector, "that coal would only prove to be
a bill of expense if mined to the dip, it is all to
the rise of the mine and can be mined cheaply,
no pumping, no up hi., with the loads." Many
conversations at the mine show to what extent the
inspector must be posted, says Mines and Minerals.
Three thousand feet of wire are needed for the
mine; the phone rings up the superintendent.
"You sent in a requisition for wire?" "Yes."
Have you taken down the wire in the entry wdiich
was out of service, or nearly so. at my last visit?"
"No, there are two rooms to finish yet." "Well.
how long will that be?" "A week or ten days."
"Very good. I will cancel this order, as you can
liberate your wire quicker than I can procure it.
besides on the entry you have several hundred
feet you can use; as the rooms are finished, couple
up through one of the breakthroughs." "That is
all right, didn't think of that."
Word comes to the main office saying that the
new pump you sent the mine is very unsatisfactory;
have had all apart and can't discover the
trouble. There is a pump at BlanK s mine that
will do this work easily; won't cost much to ship
it here; this one may be satisfactory to them.
Triplex, 8-inch suction, 6-inch diameter, lift only
11 feet. The inspector is sent to investigate, and
finds center plunger is out of action and rod is
broken. Pump is connected to 8-inch suction for
only 12 feet, from that point, two 4-inch lines take
its place. Superintendent says, two 4-inch lines
equal one 8-inch. Inspector replies, not so, at
one stroke you have reuuced the suction to onehalf,
also the pump's chances to perform its proper
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 47
duty to one-half; a couple of hundred feet further
and the -i-inch lines are replaced by two 2-inch.
Poor pump! Choked down to one-eighth of its
intake area and still expected to do what the
manufacturers guaranteed. The remedy was
manifestly easy to apply. The pump's character
for good work went up, that of the superintendent's
down, let us bone not in the same ratio.
An electric pump, placed at the source of boiler
supply at another mine, is causing much trouble
and expense; it will only operate a few minutes,
when, flash, goes the fuse wdre. The mine foreman
responded 1 1 times one night to the almost
frantic appeals of nis pumper. Strange thing
this, mutters the sorely afflicted man. a much
smaller pump used to do this work easily. This
large new one either can't or won't. Another
pump is demanded. The inspector is sent. Suction
5-inch, correct; strainer, clean; plungers,
valves and power all in good condition. Strange,
indeed; discharge 4-inch, at least for several hundred
feet. He struggles up a steep and wooded
mountain side closely scanning tne line. Ah!
what's this? nothing out of common, a reducer.
this silent, but effective, mischief maker brings
the 4-inch to a terminus and starts out a 2-inch.
A hundred feet from the tank, yet another change,
this time to It^-inch. The inspector delivers a
brief lecture on the nature of electricity, attempts
to show him how so many electrical units of
power are being transformed into an approximate
equivalent of mechanical power to be measured
chiefly by the amount of water delivered at the
tank, and how, if the electricity be balked in doing
this, it will produce heat and burn out the fuse,
or armature should the fuse fail to work. "Then
we have too much power," says the foreman.
"Yes, in one way, but in another you have not;
had you continued the 4-inch line to the tank,
your power would have been absorbed in producing
water. The cure, now that we have found
the trouble, is easily applied. You haven't a
smaller pump and neither is there sumcient 4-inch
pipe to complete the line. The remedy is all
ready to put into force," replies the inspector.
"and not many feet from the pump." They returned
and pointing to a branch used to replenish
a watering trough, he says: "Regulate the flow
of this until you have just sufficient entering the
tank; let the balance run to waste until you have
an unbroken 4-inch conduit for which the pump
was built. Doing this will stop further waste of
fuse."
The imagination has not been drawn upon for
the above cases; they are facts and can be multiplied
many times from actual experience only
varying some in detail.
A squeeze is overrunning the mine. The inspector
is called and instructed to investigate the