Middleton, Thomas

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 The Knowledge Bank at The Ohio State University Ohio Mining Journal   Title:  The Working and Ventilation of the Monongah Coal Mines, Marion Co., W. VA. Creators:  Middleton, Thomas  Issue Date:  1894  Citation:  Ohio Mining Journal, no. 23 (1894), 55-59. URI:  http://hdl.handle.net/1811/32684  Appears in Collections: Ohio Mining Journal: Whole no. 23 (1894)   THE WORKING AND VENTILATION, ETC. 55THE WORKING AND VENTILATION OFTHE MONONGAH COAL MINES,MARION CO., W. VA.BY THOS. MIDDLETON, SUPERINTENDENT.The subject of this paper will be treated as briefly as pos-sible under the following heads :1. Description of the coal and coke plant.2. The system of working.3. Ventilation.The Monongah coal and coke plant is located in Marion Co.,W. Va., on the west fork of the Upper Monongahela River, andon the line of the Monongahela River Railroad, about six milesS. W. from Fairmont, and 25 miles N. E. from Clarksburg. TheMonongahela River is not navigatable at this point.The Monongah Coal and Coke Company's property com-prises 990 acres of land and 13,000 acres of coal, 200 miner's framehouses, and 6 six roomed houses for the different officials. Threecoal mines and 323 coke ovens. Four years ago where the villageof Monongah now stands, and the wheels of industry givesemployment to 600 persons, was nothing but a briar patch. Thevillage is regularly laid out in streets and alleys and is furnishedwith good water from hydrants and drive wells. The miners'houses are well built containing from three to five rooms each.There are three hotels, two school houses, three churches andfive stores in the village. The coke plant consists of 222 blockovens at mines number 1 and 2, and 101 bank ovens at minenumber 3, they are of the bee-hive type, are 12 feet in diameterby 7 feet high in the clear.The coke is made from the slack coal that falls through be-tween the screen bars, the slack passing through a crushingmachine is elevated to the coal washer where it meets a stream ofwater that carries it through a trough to the washing jigs, andby disintegration the refuse is deposited on the bottom of thejig sluice, the coal being carried by water into a vat and elevatedby perforated buckets into bins of a capacity of 400 tons each.The slack in the bins is partially filtered, the water flowing off56 THE OHIO MINING JOURNAL.through the sides and floor of the bin. The refuse or wastefrom the washing jigs is carried by water through troughs to therefuse heap.I will remark here that the miner is paid by the ton for Runof mine coal. All the ovens are charged from "larries" contain-ing one charge each, which runs on tracks upon the top of theovens extending the full length of the lines of ovens. The coalis dumped through an opening in the crown of the oven. Thelarries receive the coal from the bins by a system of doors andlevers. The ovens are charged with 6 tons of coal for 72 hourcoke which produces 3£ tons of coke, and 4 | tons of coal for 48hour coke which produces 2|- tons of coke. The coke is of sil-very lustre, cellular, with a metallic ring, tenacious, comparativelyfree from impurities and is capable of bearing a heavy burden inthe furnace.The water system of the plant consists of two duplex com-pound pumps, each having a capacity of 750 gallons per minute.The water is pumped from the Monongahela River into tworeservoirs each having a capacity of 510,000 gallons, from whichthe water runs by gravity through an eight inch pipe to theovens, boilers, coal washer and other various places.Steam is furnished for the plant from 16 tubular boilers 66inches in diameter and 16 feet long, containing 57 four inchtubes each.The three hoisting engines, one at each mine, geared 6 to 1,cylinders 14 by 24 inches, and fitted with all the modern improve-ments, were built by the Nelsonville Machine Company, Nelson-ville, Ohio.Three electric dynamos and engines furnish power to runeight Jeffrey electric mining machines and three pumps. Thegenerator or dynamo is driven by an R. M. Beck engine 11£inches diameter by 15 inches stroke, running with a piston speedof 700 feet per minute. The armature makes about 840 revolu-tions per minute at 260 volts.The mines are called number one, two and three. The coalis the Pittsburgh seam or number 8, of the Ohio geological sur-vey. The average thickness is 8 feet, of clean coal, exceptingtwo small bands of "bone coal" intermingled with slate, whichnever exceeds an inch in thickness, the first comes in four feet,six inches, from the floor, the second seven inches above the first.The coal is brought down by powder after being undermined.The roof is a hard black shale and sand-stone. The coal haslong bright facings, is of a remarkable good and uniform charac-ter, its slight dip, great thickness and easy mining makes it com-THE WORKING AND VENTILATION, ETC. 57pete favorably with the best class coals, as a commercial coal aswell as a coking and gas coal.Mines 1 and 2, are slope openings and number 3, a driftopening, located S. 48° W. 3780 feet, from number 2. It will bebut a short time until a connection will be made between number2 and 3, when the entire products of both mines, or part of either,if required can be deviated to either tipple. At this point thecoal lies about 800 feet above tide water, the dip of the coal isN. 6° W. and dips about 1 foot in 100. The coals from number1 and 2 are hoisted to the same tipple house and dumped by twoMitchel tipples. The mine cars are each two and one half tonscapacity. The distance from the tipple house including thelength of inclined plane 175 feet, to the foot of slope number 1,is 414 feet, on a pitch of 18 degrees, the trip is composed of fourcars. Number 2 inclined plane is 1,500 feet long, the slope 150feet, total length 1,650 feet from the tipple house to foot of slope,trips are composed of seven cars.The inclined plane at number 3, is 1550 feet long, trips arecomposed of 14 cars.The system of working is the double entry and room andpillar plan. Entries and rooms are driven by the point of thecompass. The main entry in number 1, is driven on a courseN. 30° E., butt entries S. 75° E. The main entries in numbers2 and 3, are driven on a course S. 15° W. Butt entries S. 75°E., and N. 75° W. The entries are driven 9 feet wide, the pil-lars between parallel entries is 40 feet, breakthroughs are madeevery 30 yards.The rooms in number 1, are only worked to the rise and areworked up to within 30 feet of the next air-course above.Working the coal to the dip in numbers 2 and 3, is not amatter of great disadvantage as the dip is so slight and roomscomparatively dry that it does not materially increase the haul-ing expenses. A pillar 100 feet thick is left between the mainentry and the first room turned off the butt entries. A barrierpillar 80 yards long by 33 wide, is left between every tenth andeleventh room along the entry, by providing barriers of coal insuch situations even if a squeeze should take place it cannot ex-tend beyond the barrier. Thus all general squeezes may be pro-vided against.Rooms are turned off the butt entry every 54 feet apart,they are driven in for the first 24 feet, 9 feet wide, they are thenwidened out on one side to a width of 24 feet, leaving a pillar 30feet thick. The track is laid straight up the side of the roomfrom the opening of the entry. Breakthroughs are made every30 yards into the next room. The rooms are driven up 80 yards.58 THE OHIO MINING JOURNAL.When a room is driven up to its boundary, th^ miners attack thepillar and draws it back as rapidly as possible to the point atwhich the room was widened out. Having a very strong roofoverlying the coal and a soft yielding floor, it has been provenby practical demonstrations that a 24 foot pillar is the least sizethat will hold the roof and prevent the bottom from heaving, byadopting the 30 foot pillar, the weight of the overlying strata ismuch easier resisted, and the coal is not crushed to such an ex-tent, therefore produces a larger percentage of good merchant-able coal.The coal is mined by both pick-men the Jeffrey electricmining machine. I need not describe the construction of themachine in length. The coal cutter consists of a 15 horse powermotor, which transmits power from the armature to a centershaft by means of cog-gearing to the cutter bar. The transmis-sion of electricity to the coal cutter requires two wires, one toand from the point where the power is applied. The wires aresuspended by brackets or props along the side of the entry. Inshort, the coal cutter is the old Lechner-Jeffrey machine run byelectricity instead of compressed air, the power transmittedthrough a copper wire 7-16 of an inch in diameter instead of apipe 6 inches in diameter.Improvements have been made of late years in the systemof working and ventilation of mines. We are now able by ex-perience to divide by means of a regulator and overcast the cur-rents of air in such a manner as to give one district or pair ofentries a greater quantity of air and another a less quantity asthe circumstances of the case may require. This is a great ad-vantage over the old system of coursing the air in one unbrokencurrent through a mine. The division of the air is accomplishedby what is commonly termed an air-crossing, which carries onecurrent of air over or underneath another current which is pass-ing in a different direction, one current fresh air and the otherimpure air. I think the invention of the air-crossing belongs tothe late Mr. Buddies an eminent coal viewer in the North ofEngland.Mine number one generates fire-damp, no miner is allowedto enter his working place until it has been examined by the fireboss. The mine boss or his assistant travels at least once a weekin the return air-courses of the mine, sees that the air-coursesare in good order and attends to the precaution of good ventila-tion. The mine is ventilated by a fan of the Guibal type 20 feetdiameter by 6 feet face, located at the top of the air shaft 300feet from the bottom of the slope and can be readily changedfrom an exhaust to a pressure blower. The air is split into sixTHE WORKING AND VENTILATION, ETC. 5 9different currents by the use of regulators and overcasts. Whenthe air has traveled through the different working places in apair of entries it returns and goes direct to the upcast shaft. Inorder for each pair of entries to get their proper share of air aregulator is put in the return air-course near the main entry.No fire-damp has been discovered in mines one and two, eachmine is ventilated by a 12 foot exhaust fan. The system of ven-tilation is duplicate of number one, overcasts are used wheneverthey can be to advantage. Against this plan of ventilation itmay be said to be too expensive. The expense of an overcastmade of two inch plank is not much more than a trap-door, thesaving of trappers will soon offset the difference. The advan-tages derived of splitting the air, are, it takes less power to ven-tilate, shortens the passage of air, gives a greater area and con-sequently a lower velocity. Each pair of entries receives itsown quota of fresh air direct from the inlet, and workmen arenot compelled to breathe noxious gasses totally unfit to breathe.Besides it is an economical advantage, which may be mentionedthat both men and boys and beasts can perform more work in agiven time by having good air to work in.In closing I would beg to remark that an adequate ventila-ting power will not insure safety in a mine nor give the workmenthe required quantity of air unless a close attention of conductingthe air without waste in the proper channels, should be observedby a constant inspection and effective discipline. It is not toomuch to say that the daily work of a mine should be conductedon the supposition that danger is always to be looked for andalways to be provided against.THE CHAIR: Gentlemen, you have heard this paper readby the secretary. It is now open for discussion. We have anumber of papers and our time is limited.PROF. ORTON: Since our attention has been directed toventilation, I will ask if cross-course could not be provided here,whether we are up to the state standard.THE CHAIR: The next paper is by Mr. Morrison. Thepaper will be read later by the secretary.The next paper on the list is on the subject "The Techni-cal Education of Clay workers" by Edward Orton, jr. I takepleasure in introducing Mr. Orton.

The Working and Ventilation of the Monongah Coal Mines, Marion Co., W. VA.

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The Working and Ventilation of the Monongah Coal Mines, Marion Co., W. VA.

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