Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite coal regions of ...

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INSPECTORS OF MINES. 161
Summit IIill Collieries.
These collieries arc in Carbon county, bounded on the east by Mauch
Chunk, and on the west by Tamaqua, and on the estate of the Leliigh Coal
and Navigation Company, and operated by the Lehigli and Wilkesbarre
Coal Company.
Slope No. 4.— Sunk on the north dip of the Mammoth or E vein, at an
angle of 69"^, and is 670 feet long to the bottom of the new lift. The top
of the slope is 1,302 feet above mid tide, and at the bottom 665 feet. The
east gangway has been driven 800 feet, and the west gangway 650 feet.
This mine yields a great quantity of carburetted hydrogen gas or fire-damp.
The mode of working is considered safe. There are large air-ways driven
parallel with the main gangway, about 30 feet area, and timbered equally
to any ordinary gangway. By opening breasts they drive a shute up the
pitch 30 feet long, where a battery is erected to prevent the coal from rushing
too rapidly into the shute, and also a means for the laborer to clean his
coal, that is, to separate the slate, &c., from the coal. Thence the miner
widens his breast to about 30 feet and commeJices to work up the pitch, as
he advances on the face of his breast he builds a man-way on the sides of
the pillars by placing props, 6 feet long, 8 in. diameter, about 4: feet apart,
against the pillar, those props are then planked, which affords the means of
safety and ventilation to the miner. Pillars 30 feet wide are reserved on
each side of the breast for the support of the superincumbent strata. The
cast gangway has been cut off by a slope sunk in the "crack" vein about
5,500 feet east of slope No. 4, and the coal of the old lift hereafter will be
taken via No, 7. They employ 1 boss, 57 miners, 40 laborers, 23 company
men, 20 drivers, 2 door boys, in the mines ; 1 boss, 8 mechanics, 13
head and plate men, 36 breaker men, 6 drivers and 70 slate pickers outside,
in all 277 men and boys. They have shipped 53,749 tons of coal during
the year, and used 480 kegs of powder.
Ventilation is produced by a 15 feet diameter fan, and will be superceded
by 2 fans, each of 16 feet in diameter. The ventilation is tolerable at present,
but not adequate to meet the requirements of the mines when they
become more extensively v^orked.
llachinery.—They have a steam brake attached to the hoisting drum, and
flanges thereon. They did have a speaking tube, but il did not work satisfactory.
They have a locomotive engine hauling the dirt from the slope to
the culm banks. They use 2 hoisting engines of 132-horse power, 1 breaker
engine of 28-horse power, 2 pumping engines, one of 540-liorse power and
the other of 200-horse power, total number of engines 6, aggregate horse
power 928. They have 17 steam boilers, which have been cleaned, examined
and reported in good condition.
Remarks.—They have furnished maps of all their mines, and reported
all serious accidents to persons and the measurements of air according to
law. The mines operated by the Lehigh and A^ilkesbarre Coal Company
are well managed and worthy of commendation.
Geo. Holvey, general inside foreman ; David Lawson, inside foreman ;
Samuel Nevins, outside foreman.
Tunnel, Xo. 5, and Slope, No. 7.
Situated on the south side of Panther Creek valley, on the estate of the
Lehigh coal and navigation company, and operated by the Lehigh and
Wilkesbarre coal company.
Tunnel, No. 5, is 420 feet long, cutting the Red Ash vein on the north
dip ; thence 320 feet, cutting the Mammoth on the same dip at an angle of