Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite and bituminous ...

No. 12.] Sixth Anthracite District. 219
cag-es of the undergTOUiid slope. Fires in mines are sometimes an unknown
quantity, so far as g-etting- their actual location and magnitude is
concerned, and even when located it is a difficult task to approach them
in order to successfully extinguish them ; fortunately, however, the fire
did not go down the slope, for had it done so it would have been a very
serious matter. I visited the scene of the fire on the 29th, and again on
the 30th, in company with Heber S. Thomson, Esq., engineer for the
Girard estate. It was evident from what could be seen on the 30th that
the fire was extinguished or nearly so. In fighting mine fires we have
to take the most favorable circumstances as they are thrown in our way.
In this case the fan-way is driven up and parellel with the opening
throug-h which the ropes went down to the slope. The fan was stopped,
the air-current continued its same course until reaching- a heading con-
necting the rope-way with the fan-way, this of course, swept away the
smoke from the fire and allowed the men to follow up with the hose line,
and we were successful in extinguishing the fire in two days. The colliery,
however, was idle two months. A party of men had been retimbering-
at the bottom of the rope-way, and it would be safe to presume that in
some way they ignited the dry timber with their lamps.
Improvements at Collieries.
At Ellangowan colliery a new jig house has been erected, having- a
frontage of fifty-three feet, depth forty-one feet, and height forty feet,
fitted up with nine Clark jigs, one pair of No. 6 rolls, two screens five
feet in diameter and thirteen feet long, with jackets six and one-lialf feet
in diameter and thirteen feet long-, one screen five feet in diameter and
thirteen feet long-, two screens four feet in diameter and six feet long,
for slate pickers, one set of elevators sixty feet long with buckets 24"x24",
one set of elevators forty feet long with buckets 12"xl2" and slate picking
and heating apparatus.
A tunnel was driven from Holme's No. 1 slope, first lift, east gangway
(at breast No. 36) to Primrose vein, a distance of ninety-one and two-
third yards, a pair of engines, direct acting, cylinders twenty-four inches
in diameter, stroke sixty inches, with drum and other connections complete,
have been erected to replace the old engine. Two bore-holes, each
seven and five-eighths inches in diameter and three hundred and eighteen
feet deep, were drilled from the surface and lined with five and five-
eig-hth inch casing enclosed with sand. These bore-holes connect with
a pump-room at the bottom of the shaft, and through which steam is
conveyed to supply the pumps. Two (9"x38") pumps of P. and R. type
have been erected.
At Kohinoor colliery a new slope (called No. 5) was driven through
the rock measures from the IVlammoth to the Seven-foot vein on an angle
of eighteen degrees south, and under and in a line with No. 1 slope, distance
from head of No. 1 slope to knuckle of No. 5 slope one hundred
and seventeen feet, distance from No. 5 slope to bottom slate of Mam-