i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

A MODERN PLANT.
One of the most modern and best equipped coal
mines in the Pittsburgh district is the Clyde mine
of the Clyde Coal Co. It is located in tne Fifth
pool of the Monongahela river in Washington
county. Pa., and was opened in 1900. In the short
period in which it has been in operation it'has
developed into a power among river mines. The
company has its own steamers and coal boats and
finds a ready market for its coal, which is a fine
specimen of the Pittsburgh seam. The tipple is
a steel structure, built on concrete piers, and extends
25 feet from the bank into the river. It is
equipped with two automatic cross-over tipples.
When the cars are emptied they return by reverse
switch to automatic hoist and then proceed on a
17 per cent, grade 500 feet to mine mouth. The
loaded cars enter the tipple on a 1% per cent.
grade in favor of loads, thereby keeping full cars
pressing continually forward to the dump. The
mine cars are of the 2% ton size with cap on, and
2,000 of these can be handled over the tipple in
one day. The coal is hauled from the mine by
one 13-ton motor of the General Electric Co.'s
make, and is gathered to main sidings by one
gathering motor and horses. Nine Jeffrey electricmining
machines do the cutting and 300 men are
employed in the mine when in full capacity. Two
electric pumps keep the mine free from water.
The seam is comparatively flat and averages 6%
feet in thickness, and is opened and developed on
the three-entry system. It is slightly gaseous but
well ventilated, by a 7 by 16-inch Capell exhaust
fan, producing 150,000 cubic feet of air per minute
at the inlet. The fan is run by an engine with
20-inch cylinders and 18-inch stroke. Power is
furnished for inside and outside of mine by a
300-horsepower Russell engine and one 175-kilowatt
Westinghouse generator. The power house,
generator room, mine office, machine blacksmith
shops, stable and fan house are built of sandstone
and concrete, all buildings having slate
roofs, thus being as near fireproof as mine buildings
can be made. The mine was planned by J. H.
Sanford, now general manager. The superintendent
is W. C. Gartley.
PUMPING PLANT AT COMSTOCK LODE.
The Ward Shaft association, composed of the
Gould & Curry, Savage, Chollar, Potosi, Alpha
Consolidated, Exchequer, and Julia Consolidated
Mining Cos., owning and operating nearly a mile
of the middle Comstock lode, has awarded a contract
to the International Steam Pump Co. for a
pumping plant designed to free the lower levels of
the lode from water and permit the extension of
mining operations to a large degree. The Northern
half of the lode has been explored to a depth
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 43
of 3.000 feet, with very good returns from the
deepest parts, and there are known to be large
mineralized bodies below the 2,500 foot level in the
middle and Southern parts, where the inrush of
water about 20 years ago flooded all the middle
mines up to the 1,600 foot Sutro tunnel level. All
these levels have been idle and it is Chief Examiner
Hall's belief that it is possible to unwater,
ventilate and successfully and safely work the
levels as deep as 3,000 feet.
No known mining district in the world has encountered
greater difficulties than the Comstock
has met, or will meet in handling successfully the
various problems. Various types of pumps have
been used with considerable success and the working
levels have been steadily lowered. None of
the pumps heretofore installed, however, has
shown the permanent capacity now desired, and
the attempt to get at the deeper ore has several
times been given up. It was at a time when all
hope of reaching the valuable deposits below the
2,500-foot level had been abandoned that Mr. Hall
took the matter up and it is confidently believed
that the new plant will solve the difficulties. The
contract calls for two first-motion electricallydriven
pumps, each of the units to have capacity
for lifting 1,600 gallons of water per minute
against a pressure equivalent to a height of 1,500
feet or from the 3,000-foot level up to the level
of the South lateral branch of the Sutro tunnel.
Each pump is to be driven by an 800 horse
power slow-speed induction motor. The contract
includes column pipe, traveling crane for the
pumping station, automatic oil system, a small
air compressor for filling the air chambers, a
small vacuum pump operated by compressed air
for discharging air from the suction chamber, all
the piping, valves of every description for completing
the installation, and a complete set of
duplicate parts of the pump.
Lehigh Coal C& Navigation.
The annual report of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation
Co. shows that a balance of net earnings,
amounting to $361,547, has been placed to the
credit of profit and loss account. This balance
would have been upward of $160,000 greater if it
had not been for the extraordinary expenses incurred
in rebuilding a large portion of the company's
canal system, which was destroyed by
freshets in previous years. The revenue from coal
operations was satisfactory, although somewhat
less than the amount realized in 1903, in which
year higher prices were obtained, owing to the
scarcity of coal caused by the long strike in 1902.
The coal produced from the company's land
amounted to 2,245,044 tons, as compared witd
2,194,119 tons in 1903. an increase of 50,925.