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

No. 10. MINE INSPECTORS' REPORT. xlix
We will endeavor to treat the subject under these heads:
First.
Economizing Ground Space,
In a number of cases this object is accomplished, and where breiikers
aie located near towns, and surface rights are limited, the end attained
is invaluable. The actual saving made is dependent on locality
and surroundings.
Second. The Expense of Handling ('ulm from the Breaker.
By this is meant the outside expenditure, such as dump cars, mules,
cost of loading, unloading, drivers, tracks, and in numerous cases,
claims for damages for polluting streams and flooding adjacent propert}',
Supposing the colliery already equipped for bank dumpage. We
have made a calculation based on 150,000 tons per annum. Three years
would equal a breaker output of 45(),0()0 tons. The culm sent underground
from that tonnage covered about eighteen and one-half acres
in the mines, averaging seven feet high, requiring 5,670,000 cubic feet
of culm to fill this space. The contents named would equal 101,250
tons, or 33,750 tons per annum, or 2,850 tons per month. To handle
this quantity from the breaker would cost about |6.00 per day, or at
twenty days per month, would equal $120.00 per month, or, in round
numbers, |1,500 per year, or one cent per ton cost on the output of the
The claims in many cases paid by individual operators, the
breaker.
Lehigh ^'alley Coal Company, and the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal
Company, for polluting streams and despoiling property adjacent to
streams, are enormous. Now, as jigs and other similar means of
washing coal are more generally used, by reason of the exhaustion
of (he big veins and working of the faulty small veins, strippings, etc.,
the culm going to the bank wet increases the drainage to the water
ways, and thereby augments the liability for damage. The running
of culm back into the mines eliminates this annoyanct^ and exi>ense.
Again, the handling of this culm wet from the breaker, in winter
months, owing to the freezing in pockets or tanks, would at least
double the expense, compared with handling dry culm, but this is all
obviated by sending it back into the mines.
Third.
The Inside Expense Necessary to Take Care of this Culm.
A bore hole is inquired, or is preferable, especially if the ciilni is to
run any distance, or up an incline to reach the head or face of the
chamber or breasts to be filled, as the vertical height adds impetus
to the material. The height of the bore hole depends, necessarily,
on the surface covering of the veins. A six-inch hole is used, and
costs .f2.50 per foot. Where a shaft is operated, the culm pipes can
be hung in it, which obviates the bore hole. There is generally
D—10—07