Report of the Bureau of Mines of the Department of Internal Affairs of ...

No. 10. MINE INSPECTORS' REPORT. xliii
be in readiness by the time the whole of the chamber comes through
to the gangway above. But this is impossible unless the size of the
property will allow it.
The Question of Fire.
There has been an apprehension that culm, after being filled tight
in old chambers, would take fire either from natural combustion,
explosions or otherwise.
This is out of the question.
1. Culm with the present jireparatiou is lifeless on account of the
heavy percentage of slate and slate dust that is mixed with it.
2. This, when set by the water becomes close and hard—so much
so, that it is an impossibility for the fire to penetrate it on account of
its being dead and without crevices for air to feed the fire.
3. The nature of the material, thus set, is better to jnit fire out
in the mines than either water or steam. Water runs away unless
the mines are flooded above the fire level. Indeed, three times
we have had mines flooded hundreds of feet above the fire and
pumped out three times, and the fire is there still. If this could be
surrounded by so many flushed chambers its life would soon cease.
Steam has its disadvantages, for it is a matter of impossibility to
confine it thoroughly, and the heat ruins the mines by bringing down
the roof.
This then gets on fire—a fire that is more difficult to extinguish
than the one in the coal, for it is fiercer and ascends out of reach
and becomes our worst enemy.
Illustrations of the Culm Plant, and Suggested Improvements.
Cut No. 1.—This represents our Dodson plant, which was the first
ever built to help the breaker culm pipe flush the chambers in the
mine as they were finished. As can be seen on the cut, it is made up
of a pair of engines 12 by 12 inches; one pair of rolls; one set of elevators,
and two sets of scrapers, one at right angles with the other.
When this was built, we thought the pioneer plant to be faultless,
but now its faults are numerous.
1. It has only one pair of rolls, when it should have enough to pulverize
the culm.
2. The material, large and small, is all going through these rolls.
The small should be taken out by a screen to save the rolls.
?,. Men load the scrapers with shovels, which is too slow and expensive.
4. They are steel tooth rollers, when they should be made of cast
iron in sections so that they could be changed. The old-fashioned
cast iron rollers were throw n out on account of making too much culm
by breaking the coal. This is a very good reason for giving them this
work to do.
Cut No. 2.—This is
same as the one at Dodson and open to the same objections.
the Black Diamond plant, which is exactly the