1898 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

xxvi ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc.coke in the Connellsville region, and so extended lias this branchof the firm's business now become that the list of customers coversk11 parts of the country. The firm tas three lai'ge crushers, whichare kei)t busy supplying the demand at the rate of 50 cars daily.Crushed coke is used for light manufacturing purposes, for blacksmithing,forging, copper smelting and all kindred trades and manufactures.It has also grown rapidly in favor as a substitute foranthracite coal in domestic uses, or even soft coal, and the field inthis direction is unlimited. Wherever a new idea has been suggestedthe H. C. Frick Coke Company has been ijuick to investigate it,andany advantage to be derived from successful improvements hasalways been taken. In every decided improvement the firm has beenthe pioneer. Electricity and compressed air were employed by thisprogressive corporation promptly upon their introduction. At theLemont Works, near Uniontown, the company has installed a modelair compressor plant. Its purpose is to supply power necessary forthe operation of all the pumps and inside haulage engines in LemontNos. 1 and 2, which are adjacent mines, and which had been workedso extensively that boiler pressure was no longer effective. Throughihe introduction of this plant, a saving of at least 50 per cent, in theamount of coal consumed and in the operation of the mine pumpsis effected. The plant was erected at a cost of |25,000; it is oneof the most effective and in every detail most complete machines ofits kind in the country at the present time, and has been so describedin mining and trade journals. The firm was the first to provide ona large scale for an efficient and pure supply of water, which isof the necessary adjuncts to any coke plant for the production of aclean and valuable output. The company now has five water plants.VIZ.: The Youghiogheny Water Company's pumping plant at BroadFord; the Mt. Pleasant at Mt. Pleasant, which also includes thecostly pumping plant and immense reservoirs at Bridgeport, andthe Southwest Water Company's j)lant near Connellsville.oneThe latterplant, as well as that at Bi'oad Ford, draws its supply from therippling waters of the Youghiogheny. a pure mountain stream. Thegreatest and most important pumping i)lant is that of the TrotterWater Company at Bhoetruck, located above Connellsville, also onthe Youghiogheny, the capacity of which can be increased indefinitely.The aggregate capacity of the different pumping plants is 10.000.000g? lions daily. All of these plants were constructed at a great expenseand are so effective that during the long drouth of the summerand fall of 1S07 this companv had at all times an abundance of water.It can safely be predicted that the Frick company will never becompelled to cuitail its production or disappoint its customers onncf'ount of a scarcity of the crystal fluid.The coke industry grew up with the building of the railroads in