Coal Age : devoted to the operating, technical and business problems of the coal-mining industry, Vol. 25, No. 5

E . J . Me h r e n, Vice-President

Problems of the Coal-Mining Industry

Yolume 25 N EW YORK, JA N U A R Y 31, 1924 Number 5

Hom- Mr. Lew is Favors M achines

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With entire w illin gn ess to be fa ir w ith Mr. Lewis, it is still easy to say that w hat Mr. Lewis says is largely fluff. The union favors such m achinery but insists, he says, only upon receiving a fa ir share of the benefits in the form of wages. What is a fa ir share? Therein, of course, lies the nub of the situation. Judging by the recent Kansas cutting-m achine case, the union’s idea of a fa ir share is peculiar. The operators were willing to agree upon a machinę differential of eleven cents, but the m iners would not recede below five cents.

So there is no machinę scalę in that state and the field is deprived o f the economic advantage of machinę mining.

Somebody is responsible. Mr. Lewis would say the operators are at fau lt for th eir grasp ing efforts. Some- how we cannot see it th at way. P ayin g a machinę runner only five cents a ton less than the hand m ining scalę is not our idea o f a fa ir division of the benefits of machinę m ining. T his sort of “fa irn ess” on the part of organization is the direct means by which the union has delayed and handicapped labor-saving machines.

It would be encouraging if the union’s idea o f fairn ess were to change w ith regard to the introduction of loading machines. The tim e is upon us when a loader scalę m ust be fixed.

“ T he W o n ’ts”

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ness halfw ay, “w on’t ” recognize that perhaps som ething ought to be done at W ashington about coal, “w on’t ” th is and “w on’t ” that. In the present session of Congress th ey are interested only in blocking legisla- tion that is offered— i f th ey are interested at all. They are not tr y in g to propose an yth in g helpful. They do not purpose tellin g C ongress or the nation w hat the coal man really w ants. They are m erely going to tell w hat the coal man does not want.

Of course defense again st improper coal legislation is im portant. B ut it is unfortunate that, paralleling all the d efense now b eing marshaled, there is so little offense. There is so little of it, in fact, th at no ordi- nary Citizen could say what the coal m an’s program i s ; nor could the ordinary coal man define it. There isn ’t any program. “Let coal alone” is as near an approach to it as can easily be set up in words. B ut th at is a poor program to be frank ly adopted by coal men who, everywhere, have been ad m ittin g there are all sorts o f ills afflicting th eir industry. If there are all these ills, th ere m ust be ideas fo r cures.

W hat are th ese ideas? They ought to be laid before

the congressional representatives of every state in the Union, and laid there in sincerity. On the other side of the fence politicians and grandstanders, and honest but deluded gentlem en are saying and doing plenty about coal; but what constructive th in g is coal doing for itself? Altogether too little. It is cheerful to note even so smali an effort as is now startin g among a little group of M idwestern operators. That fe w intend to say som ething constructive to Congress about coal,.

even at the risk of not g ettin g much of a h earin g.

They are going to say what they think would do coal some good, whether the rest o f the industry agrees with them or not. They are at least constructives.

They are not stricken dumb by “the won’ts ,” and th at’s som ething in th eir favor.

Man to Man

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Only too little too often. A railroad president, Sir Henry Thornton, operating a 22,000-mile system , the Canadian N ational R ailw ays, speaking at the Bond Club in N ew York C ity a fe w days back detailed a way in which he proposed to keep in touch w ith the thousands of men under h is direction scattered over an area almost as large as the U nited States— only “almost as large,” for only part o f Canada is netted w ith railroads.

He said he intended to establish a “chain of broad- casting stations from the A tlantic to the Pacific at such intervals as w ill enable headąuarters to keep in constant touch w ith the whole o f th e property.” H e added:

“We propose to place at the disposal of our employees w ireless sets for a m oderate price. The sets can be bought either by paying for the en tire outfit at once or at the rate of $1 or $2 a month. The result w ill be th at in a com paratively short tim e m ost o f our men will have eąuipped them selves w ith w ireless sets, and we propose, as fa s t as circum stances may reąuire, to talk to our men in the evenin gs at th eir own homes.

I propose, m yself, as president o f th e company, to speak at least once a week to our m en.”

Think w hat m igh t be done in the coal in d u stry i f th is w ere tried by th e rig h t kind of man, one who looked upon him self as one of the gang by w hich th e job of m ining coal w as b eing done, a red-blooded man among red-blooded men helping to do a work th at w as w orth the doing, insp irin g other men to work w ith him in doing ju st th a t kind of work, th in k in g w ith them , o f them and for them.

' W hat would it not do for sa fe ty ! How strongly would the m essage of saving one’s life fo r th e sake o f the fam ily and for the good o f hum anity ring through the air! E very man liv es for accom plishm ent in the home and in the com m unity. How earnestly could the m essage of avoiding in ju ry be im pressed on

162 C O A L A G E Vol. 25, No. 5 those men in the virile words and convincing tone of a

man moved by am bitions like those of his hearers!

What would it do for coal preparation, for co- ordination between various units in the organization, for clearing up m isunderstandings. Out of it would come a new team work. The larger aggregations would re-align them selves into a body of men with one aim and purpose, inspired by a community of interest, actuated by a common ideał. It is no pipę dream.

Some m ight not be able to carry that m essage; they are the men who have none, who have no common purpose w ith th eir men, who are ill fitted to be leaders.

But to those who have the power of leadership the radio fu rn ishes a voice, the vox hum ana. No more powerful tool for good— or for evil— has ever been devised.

P u liin g th e “ E agle” o n Coal

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Had the m anufacturer made the automobile a wheezy, rattlin g and uncertain means of travel the autom otive industry would never have made the progress it has.

When, however, a product is com petitive, like coal, it pays even more for every producer to make a good article and to have a ready way of convincing the public that his is a reputable product. No better w ay can be found than to get the indorsem ent of the industry cor- porately expressed or, better yet, to get the approval o f the government.

When the goldsm ith craftsm en of Great B ritain found their product looked upon w ith suspicion because some of the dishonest workmen put excessive ąu antities of dross in th eir gold, they arranged to have th eir guild assay all gold and put a stamp upon it to show how much dross was mixed w ith it, dross being neces- sary in the metal because otherw ise it would not be hard enough for any use. More dross is advisable w here the metal is subject to much wear.

It would pay the coal operators to have th eir coal sim ilarly assayed, so that the buyer would know what he was gettin g. Some coal is inherently less efficient than other, some is necessarily higher in ash or sul- phur, some of it is not suited to boilers having high ratin g; but whatever the coal may be, the purchaser should know ju st w hat it is and the best of guarantees should be placed on it so that it could be bought w ith assurance.

To take an example from the publishing in d u stry, a bureau has been created to find and record th e size and character o f the circulation of periodicals for those interested in know ing these facts. Is it paid or unpaid?

Is it paid to date or does it con sist of persons who are being carried along long after th eir subscription has lapsed? W hat is the character of the readers among whom it circulates? The larger publishers nearly all subm it to th is inąuiry, fo r they have nothing to hide.

Sim ilarly the coal operator w ith a good product w ith nothing to disgu ise, who has taken the dirt out of his coal, prepared it and perhaps washed it, w ants the public to know th at he has a good article. He would welcome the approval of a guild or bureau or the United S ta tes Government.

Some tim e ago O. P. Hood, mechanical engineer of the U. S. Bureau of M ines, advocated that any company th at requested the Bureau so to act should have the product in several o f its cars in various parts of the

country sampled at random. The Bureau would not take samples in cars indicated by the operator but take its own pick of all th e cars shipped. It would then deter- mine by th is in vestigation the ratin g of the m ine from which the cars came, th at ratin g b eing above or below a correct x-ate of the coal in the face o f the mine according to the degree o f cleaning.

The mine would be perm itted to sell the coal as being o f a ąuality vouched for by the governm ent, but should it prove in analyses of samples taken freąu en tly there- after that the rating should be lower or higher, a new ratin g would be issued, and the m ine, w hether it wished or not, would be obliged so long as it ąuoted the govern- ment approval to announce its ra tin g so th at all the world would know if the coal from th at tim e w as 12, 14 or 18 carat, so to speak.

The mine that failed to g et governm ent approval would find the goin g hard. It would be as difficult to sell such coal as it would be to pass a gold dollar which did not have the governm ent’s stam p o f approval. The m ine owner w ith the uninspected coal m igh t soon have to leave the market, and dealers who fa iled to say that they sold only coal which w as under th e government cachet would autom atically be ruled out o f the market.

D e fin itio n s

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Now that the Labor P arty in England is second strongest and may become first there are some interest- ing questions arising.

Should the Labor Party take over the government they m ust carry out the policy o f nationalization of m ines and railroads, policies they have sponsored for years. B ut th ey have no elear conception o f what they mean by nationalization of th ese ind u stries. Their leaders are divided on definitions and schem es. Some, the more m oderate laborites, p rofess to believe that nationalization can be interpreted to mean sta te control for the benefit and support of the en tire community.

Others m aintain th at w hat they mean by nationalization is “control by the w orkers.” They lik ew ise are divided on the question as to w hether they intend to confiscate the property or com pensate th e owners.

Jo h n Le w i s i s s t a m p i n g o n o n e b e a n d o f r a d i c a l - i s m, if evidences displayed a t the Indianapolis conven- tion mean anything. W hereas tw o years ago th e radical v°te all but beat the U nited M ine W orkers’ adm inistra- tion, this year, on such im portant radical issu es as the reinstatem ent o f the Red and recalcitrant Livingston and McLachlan, o f Nova Scotia, the recognition of Soviet Russia, and the alliance o f the union w ith an all-labor political party, L ew is’ forces soundly defeated the advocates of th ese m easures. H owever, th is does not mean there is less bolshevism in union ranks. It means there is less d efection am ong b ig union leaders.

B rin gin g Frank F arrin gton , o f Illinois, into camp a year or so ago is th e real reason. The b olsh evist senti- ment is still in the union but it lacks a p ow erful enemy of L e w i s around whom to rally.

P Making ^ Coal-Loading Machines Work Successfully in Indiana

Ayrshire Coal Co. Cuts Loading C osts E ven on Room -and-Pillar System w ith M achines Averaging but 75 tons D a ily — W ith Snubbing M orę Lump Is O btained Than W ith H and Loading — Some Loader Speculations

By Da v id In g l e* E v a n s v i l l e , I n d .

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Later f o u r m o r e w e r e added. The six m achines

and

duced cheaper at th is m ine than it ever w as under the hand-loading system , th e proportion of lump coal is higher, and we are fa irly well satisfied w ith the results we are g ettin g in th is venture in m achinę loading, even

♦ P r e s i d e n t a n d t r e a s u r e r , A y r s h i r e C o a l C o m p a n y , O a k l a n d C ity , In d .

though we have a long way y et to go.

T his mine, A yrsh ire No.

6, w as opened in 1917 on a coal tract of 200 acres lying near the railroad, but inac- cessible from any of our other operations. D uring the war we worked th is m ine up to a production of about 800 tons per day. In January, 1921, the m ine w as closed down because w e didn’t need the tonnage from it, and because it w as the one w e could m aintain idle w ith the least expense.

W hen we decided to try m echanical loading th is idle m ine seem ed th e natural place to tr y the experim ent.

The coal there is 5 ft. thick, overlaid by a gray shale which is n ot reliable, standing fairly well in en tries but reąu irin g close tim b erin g in wide w orking places. The fireclay bottom in places is so ft and w et. The th ick ness o f the overlyin g strata runs from 35 to 70 ft., and th is accounts both fo r the uncertain roof and th e ąuantity o f w ater in th e m ine.

IT’S “FASCINATING”

It is fine that so many American coal operators have a pioneering spirit— a spirit that drives them to do by their own ingenuity the thing the other fellow thinks is impossible. There is a certain ad- venture into the unknown for Mr. Ingle, for instance, as he toils and cudgels his brain over the problems of fitting machinę loaders into his mines. He calls it a “fascinating experim ent.” But he and many other mine operators all over the land must toil and cudgel their brains and invest their money and lie awake nights over this revolutionary machinę, the underground loader. N othing else will ever make it m eet the conditions of this country. Inventors and manufacturers can do only a smali part of it. The operator and the practical mining man, meeting heartbreaking obstacles in the path of their great adventure in loading, are making the new machinę revolutionize coal mining. In the fascination of the ąuest lies the futurę of machinę mining.

164 C O A L A G E Vol. 25, No. 5

How Koom Necks Are Turned

M a k i n g t h e t u r n a t a n a n g l e o f 45 d e g . to t h e h a u l a g e w a y n o t o n ly m a i n - t a i n s t h e n a r r o w n e c k s n e c e s s a r y f o r t h e s u p p o r t o f b a d r o o f b u t e n a b le s t h e lo n g lo a d i n g m a c h i n e s to e n t e r

w i t h o u t h i t t i n g t h e r ib s .

The coal itself is of good ąuality, running only about 1.25 per cent sulphur and 6 per cent ash, w ith no part- ings o f any kind. The mine w as opened and worked by the usual room and pillar method, and the coal was all undercut by machines.

We started the tw o Joy machines working in rooms and entries that had been standing idle for nearly two years, and our first discovery w as that the little loaders,

operating on soft, w et and p a r 1 1 y heaved fireclay bot- tom, promptly tried to d ig them selves in. We provided some heavy plank- ing on which they could g et a start, and a fter th ey had loaded out tw o or three falls of coal and had advanced far enough into a working place on fresh ly uncovered bottom so th at the Caterpillar treads could g et a foothold we had no further trouble of this kind.

We have tried operating various w idths of working places and found that the best way, so far, to operate th is particular loader in our coal is by regular room- and-pillar methods, w ith the room necks turned off the entry at 45 deg., in order to give the long loader a chance to get into the corners o f the rooms. We are driving these rooms, where we can, about 24 ft. wide, leaving pillars between them from 6 to 8 ft. thick.

Owing to the bad roof, it has been necessary usually to tim ber pretty close and to reneck many rooms. This has interfered greatly, preventing the attainm ent of results that the loaders m ight have afforded had the layout originally been made for their accommodation.

The cars used at th is mine hołd about 1£ tons as loaded by the machines. The tops are m erely rounded up, as tłie loaders put the coal on the cars too quickly to perm it of building. The loading machines are kept supplied w ith cars by mules, one mule and a driver being provided for each loader. The empty car is brought by the mule to the turnout, which is placed ju st as close to the loader as can be arranged conveniently. The mule is then hooked to th e loaded car, and as soon as the load is pulled out, th e loader’s helper sh ifts the em pty car by hand to the loading position.

Two men are used on each loader, one to operate the machinę itse lf and the other, a helper, to lend a hand wherever needed, h is main job being to sh ift the empty car to the loader, to sh ift it as it is being loaded, and to keep in shape the loose rails on which it stands. These loose rails are fastened at one end only, usually by steel ties, which are readily clamped to, and loosened from, the raił.

O f course, all the coal is undercut and shot down before the loader tackles it. In th is mine one under- cu ttin g machinę can easily cut all the coal two loading machines w ill handle, and the operation is conducted on that basis— one undercutter for each tw o loaders. Five or six loading places are allotted to each loader, princi- pally in order th at the cu ttin g machinę may keep plenty of coal cut ahead. Two men are used on the undercut­

ter. One man drills, makes the cartridges, tam ps, and shoots for two loaders. T his m eans th at he drills, tam ps and shoots anyw here from 15 to 30 holes a day, for in wide places we drill three holes over th e coal.

Additional loaders have been installed from tim e to time, and at present, practically a year from our start, we are u sing six of them . Each o f th ese loaders is pro- ducing, at present, an average o f about 50 cars, or 75 tons, per day, m aking the day’s h o ist about 450 tons.

This is much better than w as done at first and is fairly satisfactory, but we hope to improve as w e learn more.

To operate th is mine, w ith its six loaders, th e follow- ing 53 men are employed at p resent:

1 M in e b o ss , 1 E le c t r i c i a n ,

1 M a c h i n e - r e p a i r m a n , 1 D u m p e r a t s h a f t b o tto m , 1 C o u p le r a t s h a f t b o tto m , 2 M o to r m e n a n d t r i p r i d e r s , 3 T r a c k l a y e r s ,

2 P u m p e r s ,

6 J e r r y a n d t i m b e r m e n , 6 D r iv e r s ,

3 S h o tf ir e r s , 2 S n u b b e r s , 6 L o a d e r o p e r a t o r s , 6 L o a d e r s ’ h e lp e r s ,

6 C u t t e r s a n d c u t t e r s ’ h e lp e r s , 1 T o p b o ss ,

1 B l a c k s m ith ,

3 R a i l r o a d - c a r t r i m m e r s a n d y a r d m e n , 1 S t a b l e b o ss.

The coal is dumped into a hopper a t the bottom of the shaft, and hoisted by a continuous bucket elevator, so no engineer or fireman enters into the calculations. The dumper also is the w eigh m aster.

We have found many in terestin g th in g s as the work has progressed ; in fact, it is quite a fa scin a tin g experi- ment. In this m ine conditions are fa r from ideał.

Reference already has been made to the bad roof. It is so bad that less than h a lf the w orking places are as much as 15 ft. wide. So much narrow work involves m oving the loader from place to place too often and dim inishes seriously the available tim e fo r the actual loading of coal. Roof conditions are a much more im- portant factor in m echanical loading than th ey are when the loading is done by hand w ith a shovel.

For quite a w hile one o f th e m ajor difficulties encoun- tered was that of g ettin g coal out o f the corners o f the working place w ith the loader. It seem ed th at in an average room-full of coal w ith, say, a 22- to 24-ft. face, having perhaps 30 tons o f coal in each fali, it would take longer to load out th e 5 tons or so in each corner o f the room than it did to load out the 20 ton s in the middle.

The coal in the corners would be w edged in tig h t and hard to get down.

Recently th is trouble has been alm ost en tirely over- come by the simple process of snubbing each cut of coal before it is shot. The snubbing allows the powder to roli the coal over as the latter fa lls and seem s to do away with the tig h t corners. A lso much less powder is reąuired to shoot a w ell-snubbed shot, and a much better percentage of lump coal is recovered.

Of course it costs som ethin g to do th is snubbing, and the cost and the results obtained m ay not be so marked in inverse proportion in other m ines and other coals, but it is very su ccessful w ith us. Perhaps eąually good results in th is respect m ay be obtained by shearing either one end or the center o f a room th a t has been undercut. We expect to try th is out also when we get around to it.

One rather gath ers the idea, from readin g o f th e per­

formance o f loading m achines, th a t th e great difficulty in mechanical loading would be to keep em pty cars sup­

plied to the loader. So far, th is has been one o f the

least of our troubles, even though our cars are smali as cars go nowadays. One driver w ith his mule could easily supply from 25 to 40 per cent more cars to our loaders than they have used so far, provided his track is in good shape and the train locomotive keeps cars on his parting for him. N ot th at the importance of trans- portation is to be m inim ized for a moment, but thus far it is the narrow work, close tim bering, and so ft bottom that have held us back and not transportation.

We believe that the loaders would work to much better advantage under good roof. A hard, smooth bottom greatly facilita tes the operation of any kind of loading device, and, o f course, one would expect proportionally greater results in a thick bed o f coal than in a thin one, because it would enable the loader to handle a larger tonnage w ith less moving.

In spite o f the adverse physical m ining conditions under which we are operating, we are loading coal with our m achines at som ewhat less expense in th is mine than it costs us to load by hand in our other mines, where sim ilar physical conditions prevail. T his reduc- tion is enough to lower the total cost of producing coal even though th e company does all drilling and shooting.

Many types o f mechanical loaders are now in process of development and many are in actual use. We have had actual experience only w ith th e Joy, but there are enough m achines operating under diverse conditions to show th a t th e mechanical loader is a thoroughly prac- tical device. We have found some weak places in it, but these details have been promptly remedied in every instance by the makers, the operating results continu- ally improving.

We are operating entirely w ith union labor, and the union has offered no objection to the introduction of these m achines. Our men seem to like to work with them. A fter all, it is much better to let electricity do the hard, heavy work than to get human energy to per- form it. Though it takes an able-bodied man to operate a Joy loader successfully, it certainly reąuires no more m uscular effort to handle it efficiently than it does to

operate any of the standard undercutters now so uni- versally used.

I f the loading machinę does away w ith the old back- breaking shovel, naturally the man who graduates to it from the hand shovel will like the change. I f the use of mechanical loaders w ill enable a m ine worker to realize ju st as much for h is day’s work, and come out o f the mine at the end of his sh ift less tired, he is bound to be for it, when he learns about it. And if its use enables the miner to earn ju st as much and enables the coal operator to reduce the finał cost o f coal to the consumer, it will then have become no longer an experim ent but will be a necessity.

Of course there are apparent disadvantages connected w ith the use of mechanical loaders. One of them is th at coal is loaded too rapidly to perm it the im purities to be removed while loading is actually going on. T his can and is being done more or less successfully in loading by hand. Mechanically loaded coal m ust be picked and cleaned outside of the m ine on loading booms and pick- in g tables and by crushing and mechanical separation of the im purities. A dirty seam of coal loaded by m a­

chines will not be successfully marketed unless an elab- orate cleaning eąuipm ent is provided in the tipple.

An objection th at has been urged is th at it w ill be necessary to shoot th e coal too hard, and g e t it all down in a pile before a loader can handle it successfully. We found th is true at first, but by snubbing and stu d yin g our methods of shooting w e have succeeded in turning out ju st as good or a larger percentage o f lump coal than before the loaders were used. And I am sure we will do still better in th at respect in the futurę.

Still another objection, and a form idable one ju st now when the industry is so demoralized by over- production and ruinous com petition, is the cost of the machines them selves and th e auxiliary eąuipm ent nec­

essary to th eir proper exploitation.

To completely eąuip one o f our modern 4,000-ton m ines w ith Joy loaders would increase th e invested capital in that m ine by from $250,000 to $300,000,

This Machinę Proves Economical Though It Averages But 75 Tons a Day

S ix li k e i t a r e o p e r a t i n g in r o o m a n d p i l l a r m i n i n g in A y r s h i r e N o . 6 a n d t h e i r t o n n a g e s a r e i n c r e a s i n g a s v a r i o u s c h a n g e s in m e t h o d ar© m a d ę t o b e n e f it th e m . T h e s c h e m e o f d e l i v e r i n g c a r s to t h e l o a d e r s is 40 p e r c e n t

a h e a d o f t h e r e s t o f t h e s y s t e m , s o t h e r e is n o h a n d i c a p t h e r e . R o o f f a l l s a n d to o f r e ą u e n t m a c h i n ę m o v e s d u e t o n a r r o w w o r k i n g p l a c e s a r e t h e m o s t s e v e r e c h e c k s o n t h e l o a d e r s .

166 C O A L A G E Vol. 25, No. 5 assum ing that the loaders would turn out 100 tons each

per day, which is more than we have been able to do to date.

It is fair to assume, however, that this initial expense will be offset to a large extent by a saving in develop- m ent owing to the greater concentration of work th at is possible by the use of loaders.

W orking on the room-and-pillar system , in vogue in Indiana and elsewhere, to produce 4,000 tons per day would involve perhaps 500 to 600 working places. Oper- ating, say, 40 loaders, the number of working places to produce the same tonnage m ight easily be held down to 200 to 250, or 40 per cent of the number now reąuired for hand loading.

Few er mine cars would be needed and less steel raił, although probably more mules or locomotives would have to be provided. The consumption of power in operation probably would be increased, but not so much as m ight be imagined. We do not notice as yet any marked increase in th is respect, but it is reasonable to anticipate that machines which must be operated almost continuously during the sh ift will increase power con­

sumption noticeably, and of course the loader m ust operate if it is to be efficient.

Most of the foregoing is w ritten w ith the idea that the work of the loader is done on a room-and-pillar sy s­

tem. That is the only plan we have tried effectively so

T he M iner’s T orch

Certificates o f Competence?

T

to ąu alify as physicians.

It would be pretty hard to think of a more despicable crime, and when one considers that at best the bribe money they receive could not have been considerable it seem s rather hard to believe that any state official could stoop so Iow. In fact I have heard people, in d iscussing the press comments, argue that they never could be made to believe that men w ith enough standing to have been appointed on such a board could possibly be led to stoop so Iow.

I only wish that my contact w ith public officials could have been of a naturę to make me feel that w ay about it, but w hile I was listen in g to such sentim ents being passed I recalled, unfortunately, th at once when I w as a young man I knew of my own knowledge th at a state m ine-forem an’s exam ining board allowed its ąuestions to g et out in advance so that a few favored ones could be sure of p assin g the exam ination. I f an incompetent m ine forem an is not capable of doing as much damage as an incom petent physician I m iss my guess.

Personally, sińce th at tim e I have never considered certificates of competency of any description of much value and I have always been glad that I came to that conclusion early in life because it has allowed me to explain to my own satisfaction many otherwise unex-

far. B ut it is doubtful indeed w hether the fu tu rę coal loader will work on th is system . It would seem th a t a continuous w orking face would be much more produc- tive o f tonnage.

I do not at th is tim e know enough about the possibil- ities of working a continuous, or longwall, face to hazard much o f a guess as to its m erits. B ut o f course the greatest advantage apparent in such a plan would be the ability to load an uninterrupted train o f cars, reducing the delay due to the sh iftin g of loads and em pties.

Lo a d e r No w Pa s t Ex p e r i m e n t a l St a g e

The development o f machinę loading is com ing rap- idly. I have no h esitation in say in g th at the machinę we are u sing is past the experim ental stage, and is an established dependable loading u n it; it is b eing made in ąuantity. The loss o f tim e from breakdowns is not much greater than in other heavy-duty m in in g machin- ery like undercutters and gath erin g locom otives.

The industry daily evinces greater in terest in th e sub- ject. Hardly a day passes th at w e do not have visitors at th is little mine. The boys have gotten so used to them that they do not even “play to the g alleries” any more. It is all part o f the day’s work. Operators, m iners and the public from all parts o f th e district come to look th e proposition over, and th ey are all welcome.

plainable errors of supposedly trained men w ith whom I have been thrown.

I recall, for example, several camp p hysician s em- ployed by some of the com panies for whom I have worked who, if they still are holding sim ilar positions, are undoubtedly fe elin g very uncom fortable as this Connecticut publicity spreads around, and th ey do not live in Connecticut either. I never questioned their certificates or th eir diplomas but I ąuestioned their abilities and I feel sure th ey have made little change for the better in the years th at have passed sińce I was in close contact w ith them.

Let me hasten to add th at I have no d esire to offer an argument ag ain st the advisab ility or n ecessity o f having state boards pass on the com petency o f physicians, mine foremen or other men h avin g equivalent respon sibilities to the public; but the okehs o f such boards should be taken only fo r w hat they are worth.

The mine forem an exam ining-board leak th a t I knew about “of my own know ledge,” as th e law yers would say, was not one th a t could be traced back to a money bribe, but it w as chargeable to a popular and influential m ining official’s puli w ith the board; he had tw o men due to come before the board and he was uneasy about their chances of p assin g on exam ination and y et was anxious to have them pass because th ey w ere men whose services he reąuired.

Just how he persuaded the board to do h is bidding I do not know but I saw the ąu estion s the day before the exam ination and they w ere in the hands o f one of the men who w ere to take the test. The man w ith the puli and the men who profited by h is efforts have all been dead ąuite a number o f years and, so fa r as I know, no harm ever came o f the adventure; oth erw ise I would not record it here. P ossib ly you are w ondering w hy the man who obtained the ąu estion s showed them to m e the day before the exam ination. Y ery ea sily explained—

the ąuestions w ere o f no value unless som eone worked up the answ ers, and he th ou ght th at I could help him.

H e a v y S h o t o f C o a l i n A n t h r a c i t e M in e

Classification o f Coal That Will Enable Buyer to Know What Kind o f Fuel He Is Getting

Suggested T hat Coals Be D ivided Into Ten Classes by Percentages o f Fixed Carbon w ith the Ash E ąuated to Seven per Cent— Seven N ew Classes Added to Recognized D ivisions— Graded Also forQ uality

By Ge o r g e S t a t e G e o lo g is t,

C

This paper deals w ith the last problem only. The first step toward m eeting th at problem m ust be an under- standing among coal men as to w hat con stitu tes su ­ perior, good, fa ir and poor grades of coal, and the formal designation and adoption of standards for grad- ing coal. Tied up w ith th is ąuestion of coal grades is the larger, though possibly no more important, problem o f the standardization, definition and nam ing of kinds and classes o f coals.

I have been stu d yin g th is problem for the last six years and have published several prelim inary d rafts of proposed schem es of coal classification and grading, which have been followed by a volum inous correspond- ence. S tudies and correspondence have shown th at while the classification first presented more than four

A n a r t i c l e e n t i t l e d “ A P r a c t i c a l C l a s s i f i c a t i o n f o r t h e W o r l d ’s C o a ls ,” p r e s e n t e d a t t h e D e c e m b e r ( 1 9 2 3 ) m e e t i n g o f t h e C o a l M in in g I n s t i t u t e o f A m e r i c a . A c o m m i t t e e c o n s i s t i n g o f A . C.

F i e l d n e r , W . E . F o h l, A . R . P o l l o c k , E . A . H o l b r o o k , P . B . L o c k - h a r t a n d J . J . R u t l e d g e w a s a p p o i n t e d b y t h e i n s t i t u t e t o c o n f e r w i t h M r. A s h le y a n d r e p o r t o n a c l a s s i f i c a t i o n t h a t c o u ld b e u s e d in t h e m a r k e t i n g o f t h e w o r l d ’s c o a l r e s o u r c e s .

H. As h l e y H a r r i s b u r g , P a .

years ago was technically correct it was too com plicated to be of the g rea test service. T his paper, prepared at the suggestion of th e E xecutive Board of th e Coal M in­

ing In stitu te of Am erica, presents the sam e schem e of classification reduced to its low est and sim plest term s.

Today one does not cali h is dealer and order “a ton of coal.” The class and size and perhaps th e grade are specified, for experience has shown th at certain kinds or types of coal are best suited to certain uses.

Furthermore, coals from different localities vary w idely in physical and chemical ch aracteristics and in adapta- b ility to various uses. The m ost easily recognized classes and types have been long recognized and named as cannel coal, coking coal, anthracite, brown coal or lignite, and so on; or local nam es have been used to designate coals, as Clearfield, Pocahontas, P ittsb u rgh , Y oughiogheny gas, Sea coal, B razil błock, and so on.

Many attem pts have been m ade to cla ssify coals both here and abroad. In Table I w ill be found exam ples o f classifications th a t have form erly served th e in d u stries.

D etailed classifications o f th e lig n ite s have been made by several German authors, and m any of the d istin c- tions made are commonly recognized in th e coal fields.

T hese classifications divide th e lig n ite s into fou r to

168 C O A L A G E Vol. 25, No. 5

TA B L E I— S E L E C T E D C L A SSIFIC A T IO N S O F COALS AS F O R M E R L Y U SED

Ure (Dictionary o f Arts, etc.), 1845

(1) C ubicalcoal— (a) Open burning (6) Caking (2) Slate or splint coal

(3) Cannel coal

(4) 'Glance coal (anthracite) Watls Dictionary of Chemistry.

(1) Lignite o r brown coal r , „ i nao

(2) Bitum inous or caking coals— (a) caking coal, (o) cherry coal;,!.

n o t fuse”), (c) splint, rough or h ard coal, (d) cannel coal (3) A nthracite, stone coal or culm

(4) Steam coal

H .D .R o g e rs, 1858. , ,

. , . / H a r d o r d r y ( v o l a t i l e m a t t e r b e lo w 6 p e r c e n t) A ntnracite ^ Semi or gaseous (yolatilfe m a tte r below 10 per cent)

( Sem i-bitum inous (volatile m a tte r between 12 an d 18 J C herry

Com m on | per cent) >

i bituminous ; C h e ^

j volatile m a tte r a b o u t 18 per cent) ^ S plint H ydrogeneous I C annel coal (m inim um y ie ld o fg a s 9,000 cu.ft. per ton)

or i S haly (Torbanehill)

gas coal ( A sphaltic (A lbert mine) Persifor Frater, Jr., 1877.

(Based on “ fuel ratio s,” or fixed carbon divided by yolatile hydrocarbons) Fuel R atio

F rom To

. 100 12

... ... 12 8 ... ... 8 5

... 5 0

H ard, dry an th ra c ite . S e m i-a n th ra c ite .. . . Sem i-bitum inous. . B itum inous...

(This classification has been widely used in N orth America, b u t obviously it does not distin?uish li?nites, cannels, splints or a score of coals recognized by tra d e nam es from one another. I t does not distinguish betw een th e high-volatue and Iow-volatile bitum inous coals nor between the low-moisture coals of the P ittsburgh region and the high-m oisture coals of the Illinois region which differ greatly in heating value. I t is followed in the classification here proposed as far as it applies.)

Regnault, eztended by UrUner, retised by Bone (dry, ashless fuel)

P er C e n t P er C ent Fixed C arbon Volatile M a tte r ( 4 ) Lignites (non-caking)... ... Below 55 Above 45

f I. non-caking, long-flam e... 55-60 45-40

J 2. caking,long-flam e... 60-68 40-32 (*»ZBituminous 3 hardHJoking... 68_74 32-26

I 4. hard-coking.short-flam e. 74-82 26-18

(B.C.) Sem i-bitum inous, non-caking, short-flam e. 80-85 20-15

„ / steam -raising... 85-92 15- 8 (O JA n th racites ^ dom estic... 92 or more Below 8

W eiding* (Dry, ashless fuel)

P er C ent of Volatiles

(1) Lean an thracite c ja ls ... ... 5 .0 to 10 .0 (2) Sintering coals (old) poor in g a s ... 10.0 to 15.5

(3) Caking coals (old) poor in g a s ... 15 5 to 33 .3 (4) Caking coals (recent) rich in g a s ... 33.3 to 40.0

(5) Sintering coals (recent) rich in gas. 40.0 to 44.4

(6) Sand coals (recent) rich in g a s ... 44 .4

* G rundri8s d er Eisen h u ttenkunde.

nine types, based largely on physical differences in plant composition and texture.

B esides practical classifications, of which examples have been given, m any attem pts have been made to classify coals by u sing the ratios of certain elem ents obtained by ultim ate analysis. None of th ese classifi­

cations has gained practical recognition here or abroad.

D uring the war coals were pooled for more efficient handling. A s no practical accepted classification existed covering the need, groups of m ines producing coal of sim ilar type and grade were grouped in numbered pools. Since then many analyses of the coals have been made, and average analyses o f th e coals in the several pools have been published by Dr. H. M. Payne. These reveal the differences th at practical coal men deemed w orthy of being d istinguished by pool numbers. They also reveal the coal m an’s interpretation of “low-vola- tile,” “medium -volatile,” and “high-volatile.”

The tim e seems ripe, therefore, to take advantage of all the work that experience has shown to be of real value to the coal producer and coal user, and from it prepare and adopt a classification of coals.

Coals differ, broadly speaking, in three w a y s :

(1 ) In type, as cannel, splint or caking coals, due to differences in origin, involving differences of plant m ateriał and conditions o f deposition.

(2 ) In grade, as low-ash coals; high-sulphur coals, due to differences in ąuantity and character of minerał

m atter contained in the plant m ateriał or w ashed in dur­

ing the deposition o f the vegetal m ateriał, or carried in later by circulating w aters.

(3 ) In class or rank, as anthracite, low -volatile b itu­

minous, high-volatile bitum inous, lig n ite. Differences in class or rank are caused by pressure, h eat and fold- ing of the original deposits, resu ltin g in progressive distillation of the yolatile co n stitu en ts o f the original materiał (including inherent w ater) and an increased ratio of uncombined or “fixed” carbon. A t the same tim e the original body o f vegetal m ateriał underwent physical changes in texture, structure, hardness, w eight, fracture and in other w ays.

Any adeąuate classification of the several kinds of coal m ust recognize the three fo rego in g fundam ental differences in type, grade and class; it m ust consist of three parts, one of which indicates the type, another the grade, another the class.

T yp es o f Coal— Three generał types based on origin are given in Table I I :

T A B L E I I — T H E T H R E E T Y P E S O F COA L (1) Com m on, “ f a t,” resinous or “ bitu m in o u s” coals.

(2) S plint or “d ry ” coals.

(3) C a n n el or caneloid coals.

Coals of the “common” type are derived from various kinds o f plant life that lived in the a ges o f coal. These coals were alm ost certainly derived from peat bogs where the plants grew and w here th e coal is found today. This type is commonly lam inated w ith irregular bright and duli streaks. The b righ t streaks, usually lenticular, consist o f woody m aterials altered to jet;

the duli streaks are a m ixtu re of woody and other plant fragm ents, spores and spore cases broken down into a nearly structureless m ass. The P ittsb u rg h bed in the Pittsburgh region is typical o f th is type of coal. It is a caking coal in the middle stag es of the change from peat to anthracite.

Cannel coal, in contrast, is believed to be a water- laid deposit composed m ainly o f plant spores and of plant detritus washed into open w ater w ith in the swamps. F ish rem ains are occasionally found with the plant m ateriał. Cannel coal is ea sily distinguished from the common type o f coal by its m assive, non-lami- nated structure, its velvety luster and conchoidal fracture as well as in m any other w ays. It is character- istically a non-coking, long-flame coal h igh in yolatile matter. True cannel coal has more yolatile m atter than fixed carbon.

Ev e n Sp l i n t Co a l s Va r y i n Ch a r a c t e r

Splint coals are of tw o ty p es; one is duli gray and massive, apparently con sistin g en tirely o f plant at- tritus identical to th at in the duli layers o f common coal. Cross-sectione of the other type reveal m any thin layers of b right and duli coal. S p littin g along the duli layers reyeals a surface o f “charcoal,” “m other-of-coal,”

or “coal rash.”

These charcoal-like layers con sist of alm ost pure car­

bon and are th ou ght to represent the dried su rface of the swamp. T his d rying of the su rface appears to have occurred w ith great regu larity in som e coals and su gg ests seasonal change. Both typ es o f sp lin t coal are distinguished by a sp lin tery fractu re like th a t of wood. Both kinds are non-caking. Cannel coals are characteristically Iow in m oistu re and sp lin t coals are high, probably because the spongy charcoal layers ab- sorb m oisture.

Classes o f Coal.— All three o f th ese coal typ es are

found in various stages of alteration from their origi- nal condition as a bog deposit to anthracite or graph- ite. There are canneloid lign ites and canneloid an- thracites as well as bitum inous cannels. For classifica- tion naturally they may form three parallel series. It should therefore be possible to plan one series showing the stages of the change of the common type and apply the same names to the other types. A ttention may be confined for the present to the common type of coal.

The first step in converting peat to coal is bacterial action which m ay partially or entirely obliterate the plant structure. Then follow s com pression by over- lying subseąuent deposits. Later, horizontal pressure may throw the originally horizontal deposit into folds, induce vertical join ts and fracturing, and drive off part of the “m oisture” and more or less of the volatile hydro- carbons of the original deposit.

If th is horizontal pressure becomes great enough the moisture is nearly all driven off and the volatile m atter reduced to 20 per cent or less. The coal may be sąueezed until it fractu res easily along innumerable vertical planes. T his is the stage o f the “low-volatile” or smokeless coals. S till greater pressure may reverse the fracturing tendency and cement the bed into a hard anthracite.

Locally, as in Rhode Island, the pressure has been so great that the coal bed flowed like putty. Practically all the volatile m atter and m oisture was lost and only the fixed carbon le ft in the form of graphite. Sim ilar changes may be brought about by the intrusion of hot igneous rock.

The ash of th e coal is m ainly an accidental ingredient varying in the same bed from point to point or even in the same m ine. It m ust be either disregarded in any acceptable classification or the coal reduced to a

“standard” proportion of ash.

As ashless coal does not ex ist in naturę, and as

“ash-free” analyses give sligh tly higher ratios of the other ingredients, a classification based on a selected

“standard” amount o f ash probably will be more useful, reąuire less explanation, and elim inate much mental calculation in in terp retin g ordinary analyses.

The average of a large number o f samples of “sea- board” coal su g g ests the use o f 7 per cent ash for this purpose. There rem ains, according to the ordinary proximate an alysis, th e m oisture, volatile com bustible matter and fixed carbon.

SOME VOLATILE MATTER NOT COMBUSTIBLE

The alteration process involves the gradual chemical elim ination o f the m oisture and volatile m atter, result- ing in an increased proportion of fixed carbon. Re- cent studies have show n th at: (1 ) A part of the so- called volatile m atter con sists of hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion of w ater and h avin g all the practical effect of w ater in burning— the so-called “inert volatile m atter.” (2 ) U nder defined conditions th e m oisture of a coal is ch aracteristic of the coal. It has been found th at a fter dried coal is subm itted to a m oist atm osphere at various tem peratures and vapor pres- sures a definite ąu an tity o f m oistu re w ill be re-absorbed and retained.

W here it is n ecessary to determ ine the amount of m oisture w ith extrem e accuracy, the su ggested “stan d ­ ard m oisture” of any coal should be its m oisture con- ten t at a tem perature o f 68 deg. F. and an aąueous- vapor pressure o f 15 mm. o f m ercury. The coal then may be considered to co n sist o f fixed carbon, volatiles

TA BLE I I I — N EW C L A SSIFIC A T IO N O F COAL A C C O R D IN G T O IT S CA RBO N C O N T E N T

03co ^coO)

T3V u a

jzo

B«3 6 <4- - Co e"w 0)1*<5tij t*oS 0 ^_ 0) O

0) -n oS

5 . 2 m D escriptive Names

COO fc, U O WU3 3C0

* JźbŁT3 bc c 3 0

C cj C 2 0 8

3 X

'o c6

O -o0i

y JSc n

0)3

m C aj

60 « S W V * a h Z

Ifl W s Ul

A nthracite or hard

a n th ra c ite ... A nthracite Coal 88 83 or 3 2 88 7 1 2 + A nthracite m ore

Freeburning, soft or

se m i-a n th ra c ite .. . Semi- Semi-

Semi -bituminous a n th racite Coal 82 80-82 3 7 83 7 12-8 a n th racite

“ A dm iralty” ... Loervol Coal 77 74-79 3 13 77 7 8-5 Loervolite Low-volatile sm oke­

less bu n k er... Lovol Coal 70 65-73 3 20 70 7 5-3 L ovolite M edium -volatile cok-

in g b y p ro d u ct M idvol Coal 63 60-66 3 27 63 7 3-2 M idvolite

H ig h -v o la tile g a s.. . . Hivol Coal 56 53-59 3 34 56 7 2 - H ivolite H igh-volatile... Hiervol Coal 49 46-52 6 38 49 7 2- H iervolite H igh-volatile sub-

bitum inous... M oistvol Coal 42 39-45 15 36 42 7 2- M oistvolite Sub-bitum inous... Himoist Coal 35 32-38 25 33 35 7 2- H im oistite L ignite... Lignite Coal 28 25-31 40 25 28 7 2 - Lignite

* Based on 7 per cent ash an d m oisture d eterm ination after. coal has been sub- jected to a tem p eratu re of 68 deg. F., an d 15 m m . of m ereury-vapor pressure.

(including m oisture) and 7 per cent ash, m aking to- gether 100 per cent o f th e coal. In the process of change from peat to anthracite the volatile decrease in ratio and the fixed carbon progressively increases.

Coal may be classified by either the decreasing ąuan­

tity of volatiles or by the increasing ąuantity of fixed carbon. The use o f volatiles may lead to confusion because, though in many early coal -analyses the m ois­

ture and the volatile hydrocarbons were not separated, for many years “volatile m atter” has been used to desig- nate the volatile m atter le ft a fter the d rying o f the coal at a tem perature of 110 deg. C. or 230 deg. F.

Less confusion will result i f classification depends on the percentage of fixed carbon.

I propose to cla ssify all coals of the common or “b itu ­ minous” variety on the b asis o f the percentage of fixed carbon in a “standard classification an alysis,” which may be defined as an analysis recalculated ( i f necessary) to 7 per cent ash, and one in which ( i f n ecessary) m oisture has been determ ined at a tem perature of 68 deg. F. and a pressure o f 15 mm. of m ercury vapor.

Ordinarily the recalculation or use o f “standard” con­

ditions for m oisture determ ination w ill not be neces­

sary, because th e rangę in percentage of fixed carbon is wide enough to allow some variation from standard ash or moisture. Recalculation is necessary only w here the fixed carbon of ordinary analysis is very close to the line between two classes.

In the above table are given, first, some o f the descriptive names now in u se; second, su ggested b rief names, m ainly new, which are presented and defined;

third, a list o f code names (in place o f pool num bers) ; fourth, the rangę of the percentage of fixed carbon for each class; fifth, an average analysis fo r each class;

sixth, the fu el ratios o f each class; seventh, su gg ested technical names term in atin g in ite to correspond w ith graphite, anthracite, lig n ite.

Cl a s s i f i c a t i o n b y p e r Ce n t o f Fi x e d Ca r b o n

The names and lim itin g factors have been reduced to the sim plest term s. The key to the schem e is th e number seven. The code nam es, except fo r anthracite, are m ultiples o f seven, as 77, 70, 63. Each o f th e num ­ bers is in th e middle of the rangę of fixed carbon fo r its class; thus, coal 70 covers coals h avin g betw een 67 and 73 per cent o f fixed carbon. In other words, the class o f a coal w ill be expressed by the m ultiple o f seven nearest to the fixed carbon o f a p roxim ate an-