1898 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

350 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF MINES. Off. Doc.powder smoke to a very great extent.only produce from eighty toInstead of having fans whichninety thousand cubic feet of air perminute, one with a capacity of two hundred thousand cubic feet of airper minute will be required to keep the mine in a healthful condition.Although the lawful quantity of air was being produced here at theinlets, yet I cannot say that these two mines were well ventilatedowing to the excessive amount of powder smoke that is allowed tobe in them at all hours of the day. I find (in order to have efficientventilation) there is too much open or broken work now at thesemines, making it extremely difficult to properly ventilate all portionsof them when such conditions exist. The company has donewell along the lines of keeping these mines in reasonably healthfulconditions in the past, but the older the mines get to be, the moredifficult will it be to ventilate them properly. I trust that tin- niiucofficials will ever keep in view the sanitary conditions of tlie uiiiicsas well as that of keejung up the output of coal. The drMiuagc ofthese two mines is very good.At Hamilton mine, since my last report, oiining m.-uhincs havebeen introduced to undercut the coal. Although tlic mine has uotbeen in operation very steadily during the year, it has been crowdedwith men, whereas about one-half of them could do all the work thatis to be done. A six foot Clark fan has been erected to produce ventilationand an attempfis being made to construct two air splits, butfor lack of material they were not comi)leted at the time of my lastvisit.This fan has not the capacity to produce sufficient ventilationfor such a large mine. In fact such a fan is not designed to domuch work. They may ventilate the workings of a small minewherein fewer than one hundred men are employed and the coal territoryof very limited area, but they are practically useless for extensiveoperations.Maplewood and Virginia mines are both new drift openings andare both operated by the Jell"erson-( Uearfield Coal and Iron Company,with John II. Bell as superintendent for both mines, .lohn Ward ismine foreman at the IMaplewood mine, while Peter Kob( rison acts ina similar capacity at the Virginia. The undercutting i.f the coal atboth places is done by Harrison iiiacliines. There is an air comjH-essorand two boileis at each iiiiiic The coal is hauled by th"tail rojie system at each opei-ilion and Ihe mines are ventilatedby ChirU tans aiiles. chutes and otheroutside sIriM Miles at holli phices aic all of a very substantial character.I tnniid tlic mines in good coinlitioii both in regaid to \eiitilation and drainage.The Henry and Sherwood mines wei e both ininvery good conditionregard to ventilation and drainage.Bloomington mine has been ojierated very unsteadily dniing the