1. Tail rope system.2. Endless chain system.3. Endless rope system on the ground.4. Endless rope system overhead.
1. Tail rope system.
2. Endless chain system.
3. Endless rope system on the ground.
4. Endless rope system overhead.
The three last may be considered as modifications of the same principle. In the first, which is that generally used in Northumberland and Durham, a single line of rails is used, the loaded tubs being drawn “out bye,”i.e.towards the shaft, and the empty ones returned “in bye,” or towards the working faces, by reversing the engine; while in the other systems, double lines, with the rope travelling continuously in the same direction, are the rule. On the tail rope plan the engine has two drums worked by spur gearing, which can be connected with, or cast loose from, the driving shaft at pleasure. The main rope, which draws out the loaded tubs, coils upon one drum, and passes near the floor over guide sheaves placed about 20 ft. apart. The tail rope, which is of lighter section than the main one, is coiled on the second drum, passes over similar guide sheaves placed near the roof or side of the gallery round a pulley at the bottom of the plane, and is fixed to the end of the train or set of tubs. When the load is being drawn out, the engine pulls directly on the main rope, coiling it on to its own drum, while the tail drum runs loose paying out its rope, a slight brake pressure being used to prevent its running out too fast. When the set arrives out bye, the main rope will be wound up, and the tail rope pass out from the drum to the end and back,i.e.twice the length of the way; the set is returned in bye, by reversing the engine, casting loose the main, and coupling up the tail drum, so that the tail rope is wound up and the main rope paid out. This method, which is the oldest, is best adapted for ways that are nearly level, or when many branches are intended to be worked from one engine, and can be carried round curves of small radius without deranging the trains; but as it is intermittent in action, considerable engine-power is required in order to get up the required speed, which is from 8 to 10 m. per hour. From 8 to 10 tubs are usually drawn in a set, the ways being often from 2000 to 3000 yds. long. In dip workings the tail rope is often made to work a pump connected with the bottom pulley, which forces the water back to the cistern of the main pumping engine in the pit.
For the endless chain system, which is much used in the Wigan district, a double line of way is necessary, one line for full and the other for empty tubs. The chain passes over a pulley driven by the engine, placed at such a height as to allow it to rest upon the tops of the tubs, and round a similar pulley at the far end of the plane. The forward edge of the tub carries a projecting pin or horn, with a notch into which the chain falls which drags the tub forward. The road at the outer end is made of a less slope than the chain, so that on arrival the tub is lowered, clears the pin, and so becomes detached from the chain. The tubs are placed on at intervals of about 20 yds., the chain moving continuously at a speed of from 2½ to 4 m. per hour. This system presents the greatest advantages in point of economy of driving power, especially where the gradients are variable, but is expensive in first cost, and is not well suited for curves, and branch roads cannot be worked continuously, as a fresh set of pulleys worked by bevel gearing is required for each branch.
The endless rope system may be used with either a single ordouble line of way, but the latter is more generally advantageous. The rope, which is guided upon sheaves between the rails, is taken twice round the head pulley. It is also customary to use a stretching pulley to keep the rope strained when the pull of the load diminishes. This is done by passing a loop at the upper end round a pulley mounted in a travelling frame, to which is attached a weight of about 15 cwt. hanging by a chain. This weight pulls directly against the rope; so if the latter slacks, the weight pulls out the pulley frame and tightens it up again. The tubs are usually formed into sets of from 2 to 12, the front one being coupled up by a short length of chain to a clamping hook formed of two jaws moulded to the curve of the rope which are attached by the “run rider,” as the driver accompanying the train is called. This system in many respects resembles the tail rope, but has the advantage of working with one-third less length of rope for the same length of way.
The endless rope system overhead is substantially similar to the endless chain. The wagons are attached at intervals by short lengths of chain lapped twice round the rope and hooked into one of the links, or in some cases the chains are hooked into hempen loops on the main rope. In mines that are worked from the outcrop by adits or day levels traction by locomotives driven by steam, compressed air or electricity is used to some extent. The most numerous applications are in America.
One of the most important branches of colliery work is the management of the ventilation, involving as it does the supply of fresh air to the men working in the pit, as well as the removal of inflammable gases that may be givenVentilation.off by the coal. This is effected by carrying through the workings a large volume of air which is kept continually moving in the same direction, descending from the surface by one or more pits known as intake or downcast pits, and leaving the mine by a return or upcast pit. Such a circulation of air can only be effected by mechanical means when the workings are of any extent, the methods actually adopted being—(1) The rarefaction of the air in the upcast pit by a furnace placed at the bottom; and (2) Exhaustion by machinery at the surface. The former plan, being the older, has been most largely used, but is becoming replaced by some form of machine.
The usual form of ventilating furnace is a plain fire grate placed under an arch, and communicating with the upcast shaft by an inclined drift. It is separated from the coal by a narrow passage walled and arched in brickwork on both-sides. The size of the grate varies with the requirements of the ventilation, but from 6 to 10 ft. broad and from 6 to 8 ft. long are usual dimensions. The fire should be kept as thin and bright as possible, to reduce the amount of smoke in the upcast. When the mine is free from gas, the furnace may be worked by the return air, but it is better to take fresh air directly from the downcast by a scale, or split, from the main current. The return air from fiery workings is never allowed to approach the furnace, but is carried into the upcast by a special channel, called a dumb drift, some distance above the furnace drift, so as not to come in contact with the products of combustion until they have been cooled below the igniting point of fire-damp. Where the upcast pit is used for drawing coal, it is usual to discharge the smoke and gases through a short lateral drift near the surface into a tall chimney, so as to keep the pit-top as clear as possible for working. Otherwise the chimney is built directly over the mouth of the pit.
Mechanical ventilation may be effected either by direct exhaustion or centrifugal displacement of the air to be removed. In the first method reciprocating bells, or piston machines, or rotary machines of varying capacity like gas-works exhausters, are employed. They were formerly used on a very large scale in Belgium and South Wales, but the great weight of the moving parts makes it impossible to drive them at the high speed called for by modern requirements, so that centrifugal fans are now generally adopted instead. An early and very successful machine of this class, the Guibal fan, is represented in fig. 12. The fan has eight arms, framed together of wrought iron bars, with diagonal struts, so as to obtain rigidity with comparative lightness, carrying flat close-boarded blades at their extremities. It revolves with the smallest possible clearance in a chamber of masonry, one of the side walls being perforated by a large round hole, through which the air from the mine is admitted to the centre of the fan. The lower quadrant of the casing is enlarged spirally, so as to leave a narrow rectangular opening at the bottom, through which the air is discharged into a chimney of gradually increasing section carried to a height of about 25 ft. The size of the discharge aperture can be varied by means of a flexible wooden shutter sliding in a groove in a cast iron plate, curved to the slope of the casing. By the use of the spiral guide casing and the chimney the velocity of the effluent air is gradually reduced up to the point of final discharge into the atmosphere, whereby a greater useful effect is realized than is the case when the air streams freely from the circumference with a velocity equal to that of the rotating fan. The power is applied by steam acting directly on a crank at one end of the axle, and the diameter of the fan may be 40 ft. or more.
The Waddle fan, represented in fig. 13, is an example of another class of centrifugal ventilator, in which a close casing is not used, the air exhausted being discharged from the circumference directly into the atmosphere. It consists of a hollow sheet iron drum formed by two conoidal tubes, united together by numerous guide blades, dividing it up into a series of rectangular tubes of diminishing section, attached to a horizontal axle by cast iron bosses and wrought iron arms. The tubes at their smallest part are connected to a cast iron ring, 10 ft. in diameter, but at their outer circumference they are only 2 ft. apart. The extreme diameter is 25 ft.
By the adoption of more refined methods of construction, especially in the shape of the intake and discharge passages for the air and the forms of the fan blades, the efficiency of the ventilating fan has been greatly increased so that the dimensions can be much reduced and a higher rate of speed adopted. Notable examples are found in the Rateau, Ser and Capell fans, and where an electric generating station is available electric motors can be advantageously used instead of steam.
The quantity of air required for a large colliery depends upon the number of men employed, as for actual respiration from100 to 200 cub. ft. per minute should be allowed. In fiery mines, however, a very much larger amount must be provided in order to dilute the gas to the point of safety.Distribution of air underground.Even with the best arrangements a dangerous increase in the amount of gas is not infrequent from the sudden release of stored-up masses in the coal, which, overpowering the ventilation, produce magazines of explosive material ready for ignition when brought in contact with the flame of a lamp or the blast of a shot. The management of such places, therefore, requires the most constant vigilance on the part of the workmen, especially in the examination of the working places that have been standing empty during the night, in which gas may have accumulated, to see that they are properly cleared before the new shift commences.
The actual conveyance or coursing of the air from the intake to the working faces is effected by splitting or dividing the current at different points in its course, so as to carry it as directly as possible to the places where it is required. In laying out the mine it is customary to drive the levels or roads in pairs, communication being made between them at intervals by cutting through the intermediate pillar; the air then passes along one and returns by the other. As the roads advance other pillars are driven through in the same manner, the passages first made being closed by stoppings of broken rock, or built up with brick and mortar walls, or both. When it is desired to preserve a way from one road or similar class of working to another, double doors placed at sufficient intervals apart to take in one or more trams between them when closed are used, forming a kind of lock or sluice. These are made to shut air-tight against their frames, so as to prevent the air from taking a short cut back to the upcast, while preserving free access between the different districts without following the whole round of the air-ways. The ventilation of ends is effected by means of brattices or temporary partitions of thin boards placed midway in the drift, and extending to within a few feet of the face. The air passes along one side of the brattice, courses round the free end, and returns on the other side. In many cases a light but air-proof cloth, specially made for the purpose, is used instead of wood for brattices, as being more handy and more easily removed. In large mines where the air-ways are numerous and complicated, it often happens that currents travelling in opposite directions are brought together at one point. In these cases it is necessary to cross them. The return air is usually made to pass over the intake by a curved drift carried some distance above in the solid measures, both ways being arched in brickwork, or even in some cases lined with sheet iron so as to ensure a separation not likely to be destroyed in case of an explosion (see figs. 5 and 8). The use of small auxiliary blowing ventilators underground, for carrying air into workings away from the main circuits, which was largely advocated at one time, has lost its popularity, but a useful substitute has been found in the induced draught produced by jets of compressed air or high-pressure water blowing into ejectors. With a jet of1⁄200in. area, a pipe discharging 12⁄3gallon of water per minute at 165 ℔ pressure per sq. in., a circulation of 850 cub. ft. of air per minute was produced at the end of a level, or about five times that obtained from an equalvolumeof air at 60 ℔ pressure. The increased resistance, due to the large extension of workings from single pairs of shafts, the ventilating currents having often to travel several miles to the upcast, has led to great increase in the size and power of ventilating fans, and engines from 250 to 500 H.P. are not uncommonly used for such purposes.
The lighting of underground workings in collieries is closely connected with the subject of ventilation. In many of the smaller pits in the Midland districts of England, and generally in South Staffordshire, the coals are sufficientlyLighting.free from gas, or rather the gases are not liable to become explosive when mixed with air, to allow the use of naked lights, candles being generally used. Oil lamps are employed in many of the Scotch collieries, and are almost universally used in Belgium and other European countries. The buildings near the pit bottom, such as the stables and lamp cabin, and even the main roads for some distance, are often in large collieries lighted with gas brought from the surface, or in some cases the gas given off by the coal is used for the same purpose. Where the gases are fiery, the use of protected lights or safety lamps (q.v.) becomes a necessity.
The nature of the gases evolved by coal when freshly exposed to the atmosphere has been investigated by several chemists, more particularly by Lyon Playfair and Ernst von Meyer. The latter observer found the gases given offComposition of gas evolved by coal.by coal from the district of Newcastle and Durham to contain carbonic acid, marsh gas or light carburetted hydrogen (the fire-damp of the miner), oxygen and nitrogen. A later investigation, by J. W. Thomas, of the gases dissolved or occluded in coals from South Wales basin shows them to vary considerably with the class of coal. The results given below, which are selected from a much larger series published in theJournal of the Chemical Society, were obtained by heating samples of the different coals in vacuo for several hours at the temperature of boiling water:—
In one instance about 1% of hydride of ethyl was found in the gas from a blower in a pit in the Rhondda district, which was collected in a tube and brought to the surface to be used in lighting the engine-room and pit-bank. The gases from the bituminous house coals of South Wales are comparatively free from marsh gas, as compared with those from the steam coal and anthracite pits. The latter class of coal contains the largest proportion of this dangerous gas, but holds it more tenaciously than do the steam coals, thus rendering the workings comparatively safer. It was found that, of the entire volume of occluded gas in an anthracite, only one-third could be expelled at the temperature of boiling water, and that the whole quantity, amounting to 650 cub. ft. per ton, was only to be driven out by a heat of 300° C. Steam coals being softer and more porous give off enormous volumes of gas from the working face in most of the deep pits, many of which have been the scene of disastrous explosions.
The gases evolved from the sudden outbursts or blowers in coal, which are often given off at a considerable tension, are the most dangerous enemy that the collier has to contend with. They consist almost entirely of marsh gas, with only a small quantity of carbonic acid, usually under 1%, and from 1 to 4% of nitrogen.
Fire-damp when mixed with from four to twelve times its volume of atmospheric air is explosive; but when the proportion is above or below these limits it burns quietly with a pale blue flame.
The danger arising from the presence of coal dust in the air of dry mines, with or without the addition of fire-damp, has, since it was first pointed out by Professor W. Galloway, been made the subject of special inquiries in theCoal dust.principal European countries interested in coal mining; and although certain points are still debatable, the fact is generally admitted as one calling for special precautions. The conclusions arrived at by the royal commission of 1891, which may be taken as generally representative of the views of British colliery engineers, are as follows:—
1. The danger of explosion when gas exists in very small quantities is greatly increased by the presence of coal dust.2. A gas explosion in a fiery mine may be intensified or indefinitely propagated by the dust raised by the explosion itself.3. Coal dust alone, without any gas, may cause a dangerousexplosion if ignited by a blown-out shot; but such cases are likely to be exceptional.4. The inflammability of coal dust varies with different coals, but none can be said to be entirely free from risk.5. There is no probability of a dangerous explosion being produced by the ignition of coal dust by a naked light or ordinary flame.
1. The danger of explosion when gas exists in very small quantities is greatly increased by the presence of coal dust.
2. A gas explosion in a fiery mine may be intensified or indefinitely propagated by the dust raised by the explosion itself.
3. Coal dust alone, without any gas, may cause a dangerousexplosion if ignited by a blown-out shot; but such cases are likely to be exceptional.
4. The inflammability of coal dust varies with different coals, but none can be said to be entirely free from risk.
5. There is no probability of a dangerous explosion being produced by the ignition of coal dust by a naked light or ordinary flame.
Danger arising from coal dust is best guarded against by systematically sprinkling or watering the main roads leading from the working faces to the shaft, where the dust falling from the trams in transit is liable to accumulate. This may be done by water-carts or hose and jet, but preferably by finely divided water and compressed air distributed from a network of pipes carried through the workings. This is now generally done, and in some countries is compulsory, when the rocks are deficient in natural moisture. In one instance the quantity of water required to keep down the dust in a mine raising 850 tons of coal in a single shift was 28.8 tons, apart from that required by the jets and motors. The distributing network extended to more than 30 m. of pipes, varying from 3½ in. to 1 in. in diameter.
In all British coal-mines, when gas in dangerous quantities has appeared within three months, and in all places that are dry and dusty, blasting is prohibited, except with “permitted” explosives, whose composition and properties have been examined at the testing station atSafety explosives.the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. A list of those sanctioned is published by the Home Office. They are mostly distinguished by special trade names, and are mainly of two classes—those containing ammonium nitrate and nitrobenzene or nitronaphthalene, and those containing nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose, which are essentially weak dynamites. The safety property attributed to them is due to the depression of the temperature of the flame or products of explosion to a point below that necessary to ignite fire-damp or coal dust in air from a blown-out shot. New explosives that are found to be satisfactory when tested are added to the list from time to time, the composition being stated in all cases.
Methods for enabling miners to penetrate into workings where the atmosphere is totally irrespirable have come into use for saving life after explosions and for repairing shafts and pit-work under water. The aerophore of A.Aerophores.Galibert was in its earlier form a bag of about 12 cub. ft. capacity containing air at a little above atmospheric pressure; it was carried on the back like a knapsack and supplied the means of respiration. The air was continually returned and circulated until it was too much contaminated with carbonic acid to be further used, a condition which limited the use of the apparatus to a very short period. A more extended application of the same principle was made in the apparatus of L. Denayrouze by which the air, contained in cylinders at a pressure of 300 to 350 ℔ per sq. in., was supplied for respiration through a reducing valve which brought it down nearly to atmospheric pressure. This apparatus was, however, very heavy and became unmanageable when more than an hour’s supply was required. The newer forms are based upon the principle, first enunciated by Professor Theodor Schwann in 1854, of carrying compressed oxygen instead of air, and returning the products of respiration through a regenerator containing absorptive media for carbonic acid and water, the purified current being returned to the mouth with an addition of fresh oxygen. The best-known apparatus of this class is that developed by G. A. Meyer at the Shamrock colliery in Westphalia, where a body of men are kept in systematic training for its use at a special rescue station. This corps rendered invaluable service at the exploring and rescue operations after the explosion at Courrières in March 1906, the most disastrous mining accident on record, when 1100 miners were killed. A somewhat similar apparatus called the “weg,” after the initials of the inventor, is due to W. E. Garforth of Wakefield. In another form of apparatus advantage is taken of the property possessed by sodium-potassium peroxide of giving off oxygen when damped; the residue of caustic soda and potash yielded by the reaction is used to absorb the carbonic acid of the expired air. Experiments have also been made with a device in which the air-supply is obtained by the evaporation of liquid air absorbed in asbestos.
Underground fires are not uncommon accidents in coal-mines. In the thick coal workings in South Staffordshire the slack left behind in the sides of work is especially liable to fire from so-called spontaneous combustion, due to the rapid oxidization that is set up when finely divided coal is brought in contact with air. The best remedy in such cases is to prevent the air from gaining access to the coal by building a wall round the burning portion, which can in this way be isolated from the remainder of the working, and the fire prevented from spreading, even if it cannot be extinguished. When the coal is fired by the blast of an explosion it is often necessary to isolate the mine completely by stopping up the mouths of the pits with earth, or in extreme cases it must be flooded with water or carbonic acid before the fire can be brought under. There have been several instances of this being done in the fiery pits in the Barnsley district, notably at the great explosion at the Oaks colliery in 1866, when 360 lives were lost.
The drawing or winding of the coal from the pit bottom to the surface is one of the most important operationsMethods of winding.in coal mining, and probably the department in which mechanical appliances have been brought to the highest state of development.
The different elements making up the drawing arrangements of a colliery are—(1) the cage, (2) the shaft or pit fittings, (3) the drawing-rope, (4) the engine and (5) the surface arrangements. The cage, as its name implies, consistsCage.of one or more platforms connected by an open framework of vertical bars of wrought iron or steel, with a top bar to which the drawing-rope is attached. It is customary to have a curved sheet iron roof or bonnet when the cage is used for raising or lowering the miners, to protect them from injury by falling materials. The number of platforms or decks varies considerably; in small mines only a single one may be used, but in the larger modern pits two-, three- or even four-decked cages are used. The use of several decks is necessary in old pits of small section, where only a single tram can be carried on each. In the large shafts of the Northern and Wigan districts the cages are made about 8 ft. long and 3½ ft. broad, being sufficient to carry two large trams on one deck. These are received upon a railway made of two strips of angle iron of the proper gauge for the wheels, and are locked fast by a latch falling over their ends. At Cadeby Main with four-decked cages the capacity is eight 10-cwt. tubs or 4 tons of coal.
The guides or conductors in the pit may be constructed of wood, in which case rectangular fir beams, about 3 by 4 in., are used, attached at intervals of a few feet to buntons or cross-beams built into the lining of the pit. Two guides are required for each cage; they may be placed opposite to each other, either on the long or short sides—the latter being preferable. The cage is guided by shoes of wrought iron, a few inches long and bell-mouthed at the ends, attached to the horizontal bars of the framing, which pass loosely over the guides on three sides, but in most new pits rail guides of heavy section are used. They are applied on one side of the cage only, forming a complete vertical railway, carried by iron cross sleepers, with proper seats for the rails instead of wooden buntons; the cage is guided by curved shoes of a proper section to cover the heads of the rails. Rigid guides connected with the walling of the pit are probably the best and safest, but they have the disadvantage of being liable to distortion, in case of the pit altering its form, owing to irregular movements of the ground, or other causes. Wooden guides being of considerable size, block up a certain portion of the area of the pit, and thus offer an impediment to the ventilation, especially in upcast shafts, where the high temperature, when furnace ventilation is used, is also against their use. In the Lancashire and the Midland districts wire-rope guides have been introduced to a very considerable extent, with a view of meeting the above objections. These are simply wire-ropes, from ¾ to 1½ in. in diameter, hanging from a cross-bar connected with the pit-head framing at the surface, and attached to a similarbar at the bottom, which are kept straight by a stretching weight of from 30 cwt. to 4 tons attached to the lower bar. In some cases four guides are used—two to each of the long sides of the cage; but a more general arrangement is to have three—two on one side, and the third in an intermediate position on the opposite side. Many colliery managers, however, prefer to have only two opposite guides, as being safer. The cage is connected by tubular clips, made in two pieces and bolted together, which slide over the ropes. In addition to this it is necessary to have an extra system of fixed guides at the surface and at the bottom, where it is necessary to keep the cage steady during the operations of loading and landing, there being a much greater amount of oscillation during the passage of the cage than with fixed guides. For the same reason it is necessary to give a considerable clearance between the two lines of guides, which are kept from 15 to 18 in. apart, to prevent the possibility of the two cages striking each other in passing. With proper precautions, however, wire guides are perfectly safe for use at the highest travelling speed.
The cage is connected with the drawing-rope by short lengths of chain from the corners, known as tackling chains, gathered into a central ring to which the rope is attached. Round steel wire-ropes, about 2 in. in diameter, areCage.now commonly used; but in very deep pits they are sometimes tapered in section to reduce the dead weight lifted. Flat ropes of steel or iron wire were and are still used to a great extent, but round ones are now generally preferred. In Belgium and the north of France flat ropes of aloe fibre (Manila hemp or plantain fibre) are in high repute, being considered preferable by many colliery managers to wire, in spite of their great weight. A rope of this class for a pit 1200 metres deep, tapered from 15.6 in. to 9 in. in breadth and from 2 in. to 11⁄8in. in thickness, weighed 14.3 tons, and another at Anzin, intended to lift a gross load of 15 tons from 750 metres, is 22½ in. broad and 3 in. thick at the drum end, and weighs 18 tons. Tapered round ropes, although mechanically preferable, are not advantageous in practice, as the wear being greater at the cage end than on the drum it is necessary to cut off portions of the former at intervals. Ultimately also the ropes should be reversed in position, and this can only be done with a rope of uniform section.
The engines used for winding or hoisting in collieries are usually direct-acting with a pair of horizontal cylinders coupled directly to the drum shaft. Steam at high pressure exhausting into the atmosphere is still commonly used,Winding engines.but the great power required for raising heavy loads from deep pits at high speeds has brought the question of fuel economy into prominence, and more economical types of the two-cylinder tandem compound class with high initial steam pressure, superheating and condensing, have come in to some extent where the amount of work to be done is sufficient to justify their high initial cost. One of the earliest examples was erected at Llanbradack in South Wales in 1894, and they have been somewhat extensively used in Westphalia and the north of France. In a later example at the Bargold pit of the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company a mixed arrangement is adopted with horizontal high-pressure and vertical low-pressure cylinders. This engine draws a net load of 55 tons of coal from a depth of 625 yds. in 45 seconds, the gross weight of the four trams, cage and chains, and rope, with the coal, being 20 tons 12 cwt. The work of the winding engine, being essentially of an intermittent character, can only be done with condensation when a central condenser keeping a constant vacuum is used, and even with this the rush of steam during winding may be a cause of disturbance. This difficulty may be overcome by using Rateau’s arrangement of a low-pressure turbine between the engine and the condenser. The accumulator, which is similar in principle to the thermal storage system of Druitt Halpin, is a closed vessel completely filled with water, which condenses the excess of steam during the winding period, and becoming superheated maintains the supply to the turbine when the main engine is standing. The power so developed is generally utilized in the production of electricity, for which there is an abundant use about large collieries.
The drum, when round ropes are used, is a plain broad cylinder, with flanged rims, and cased with soft wood packing, upon which the rope is coiled; the breadth is made sufficient to take the whole length of the rope at two laps. One drum is usually fixed to the shaft, while the other is loose, with a screw link or other means of coupling, in order to be able to adjust the two ropes to exactly the same length, so that one cage may be at the surface when the other is at the bottom, without having to pay out or take up any slack rope by the engine.
For flat ropes the drum or bobbin consists of a solid disk, of the width of the rope fixed upon the shaft, with numerous parallel pairs of arms or horns, arranged radially on both sides, the space between being just sufficient to allow the rope to enter and coil regularly upon the preceding lap. This method has the advantage of equalizing the work of the engine throughout the journey, for when the load is greatest, with the full cage at the bottom and the whole length of rope out, the duty required in the first revolution of the engine is measured by the length of the smallest circumference; while the assistance derived from gravitating action of the descending cage in the same period is equal to the weight of the falling mass through a height corresponding to the length of the largest lap, and so on, the speed being increased as the weight diminishes, and vice versa. The same thing can be effected in a more perfect manner by the use of spiral or scroll drums, in which the rope is made to coil in a spiral groove upon the surface of the drum, which is formed by the frusta of two obtuse cones placed with their smaller diameters outwards. This plan, though mechanically a very good one, has certain defects, especially in the possibility of danger resulting from the rope slipping sideways, if the grooves in the bed are not perfectly true. The great size and weight of such drums are also disadvantages, as giving rather unmanageable dimensions in a very deep pit. In some cases, therefore, a combined form is adopted, the body of the drum being cylindrical, and a width equal to three or four laps conical on either side.
Counterbalance chains for the winding engines are used in the collieries of the Midland districts of England. In this method a third drum is used to receive a heavy flat link chain, shorter than the main drawing-ropes, the end of which hangs down a special or balance pit. At starting, when the full load is to be lifted, the balance chain uncoils, and continues to do so until the desired equilibrium between the working loads is attained, when it is coiled up again in the reverse direction, to be again given out on the return trip.
In Koepe’s method the drum is replaced by a disk with a grooved rim for the rope, which passes from the top of one cage over the guide pulley, round the disk, and back over the second guide to the second cage, and a tail rope, passing round a pulley at the bottom of the shaft, connects the bottoms of the cages, so that the dead weight of cage, tubs and rope is completely counterbalanced at all positions of the cages, and the work of the engine is confined to the useful weight of coal raised. Motion is communicated to the rope by frictional contact with the drum, which is covered through about one-half of the circumference. This system has been used in Nottinghamshire, and at Sneyd, in North Staffordshire. In Belgium it was tried in a pit 940 metres deep, where it has been replaced by flat hempen ropes, and is now restricted to shallower workings. In Westphalia it is applied in about thirty different pits to a maximum depth of 761 metres.
A novelty in winding arrangements is the substitution of the electromotor for the steam engine, which has been effected in a few instances. In one of the best-known examples, the Zollern colliery in Westphalia, the Koepe system is used, the winding disk being driven by two motors of 1200 H.P. each on the same shaft. Motion is obtained from a continuous-current generator driven by an alternating motor with a very heavy fly-wheel, a combination known as the Ilgner transformer, which runs continuously with a constant draught on the generating station, the extremely variable demand of the winding engine during the acceleration period being met by the energy stored in the fly-wheel, which runs at a very high speed. Thisarrangement works admirably as regards smoothness and safety in running, but the heavy first cost and complication stand in the way of its general adoption. Nevertheless about 60 electric winding engines were at work or under construction in May 1906.
The surface arrangements of a modern deep colliery are of considerable extent and complexity, the central feature being the head gear or pit frame carrying the guide pulleys which lead the winding ropes from the axis of the pitSurface arrangements.to the drum. This is an upright frame, usually made in wrought iron or steel strutted by diagonal thrust beams against the engine-house wall or other solid abutments, the height to the bearings of the guide pulleys being from 80 to 100 ft. or more above the ground level. This great height is necessary to obtain head-room for the cages, the landing platforms being usually placed at some considerable height above the natural surface. The pulleys, which are made as large as possible up to 20 ft. in diameter to diminish the effect of bending strains in the rope by change in direction, have channelled cast iron rims with wrought iron arms, a form combining rigidity with strength, in order to keep down their weight.
To prevent accidents from the breaking of the rope while the cage is travelling in the shaft, or from over-winding when in consequence of the engine not being stopped in time the cage may be drawn up to the head-gear pulleys (both of which are unhappily not uncommon), various forms of safety catches and disconnecting hooks have been adopted. The former contrivances consist essentially of levers or cams with toothed surfaces or gripping shoes mounted upon transverse axes attached to the sides of the cage, whose function is to take hold of the guides and support the cage in the event of its becoming detached from the rope. The opposite axes are connected with springs which are kept in compression by tension of the rope in drawing but come into action when the pull is released, the side axes then biting into wooden guides or gripping those of steel bars or ropes. The use of these contrivances is more common in collieries on the continent of Europe, where in some countries they are obligatory, than in England, where they are not generally popular owing to their uncertainty in action and the constant drag on the guides when the rope slacks.
For the prevention of accidents from over-winding, detaching hooks are used. These consist essentially of links formed of a pair of parallel plates joined by a central bolt forming a scissors joint which is connected by chain links to the cage below and the winding-rope above. The outer sides of the link are shaped with projecting lugs above. When closed by the load the width is sufficient to allow it to enter a funnel-shaped guide on a cross-bar of the frame some distance above the bank level, but on reaching the narrower portion of the guide at the top the plates are forced apart which releases the ropes and brings the lugs into contact with the top of the cross-bar which secures the cage from falling.
Three principal patterns, those of King, Ormerod and Walker, are in use, and they are generally efficient supposing the speed of the cage at arrival is not excessive. To guard against this it is now customary to use some speed-checking appliance, independent of the engine-man, which reduces or entirely cuts off the steam supply when the cage arrives at a particular point near the surface, and applies the brake if the load is travelling too quickly. Maximum speed controllers in connexion with the winding indicator, which do not allow the engine to exceed a fixed rate of speed, are also used in some cases, with recording indicators.
When the cage arrives at the surface, or rather the platform forming the working top above the mouth of the pit, it is received upon the keeps, a pair of hinged gratings which are kept in an inclined position over the pit-top by counter-balanceStriking and screening.weights, so that they are pushed aside to allow the cage to pass upwards, but fall back and receive it when the engine is reversed. The tubs are then removed or struck by the landers, who pull them forward on to the platform, which is covered with cast iron plates; at the same time empty ones are pushed in from the opposite side. The cage is then lifted by the engine clear of the keeps, which are opened by a lever worked by hand, and the empty tubs start on the return trip. When the cage has several decks, it is necessary to repeat this operation for each, unless there is a special provision made for loading and discharging the tubs at different levels. An arrangement of this kind for shifting the load from a large cage at one operation was introduced by Fowler at Hucknall, in Leicestershire, where the trains are received into a framework with a number of platforms corresponding to those of the cage, carried on the head of a plunger movable by hydraulic pressure in a vertical cylinder. The empty tubs are carried by a corresponding arrangement on the opposite side. By this means the time of stoppage is reduced to a minimum, 8 seconds for a three-decked cage as against 28 seconds, as the operations of lowering the tubs to the level of the pit-top, discharging, and replacing them are performed during the time that the following load is being drawn up the pit.
In the United Kingdom the drawing of coal is generally confined to the day shift of eight hours, with an output of from 100 to 150 tons per hour, according to the depth, capacity of coal tubs, and facilities for landing and changing tubs. With Fowler’s hydraulic arrangement 2000 tons are raised 600 yds. in eight hours. In the deeper German pits, where great thicknesses of water-bearing strata have to be traversed, the first establishment expenses are so great that in order to increase output the shaft is sometimes provided with a complete double equipment of cages and engines. In such cases the engines may be placed in line on opposite sides of the pit, or at right angles to each other. It is said that the output of single shafts has been raised by this method to 3500 and 4500 tons in the double shift of sixteen hours. It is particularly well suited to mines where groups of seams at different depths are worked simultaneously. Some characteristic figures of the yield for British collieries in 1898 are given below:—
Albion Colliery, South Wales551,000 tons in a year for one shaft and one engine.Silksworth Colliery, Northumberland535,000 tons in a year for shaft 580 yds. deep, two engines.Bolsover Colliery, Derby598,798 tons in 279 days, shaft 365 yds. deep.Denaby Main Colliery, Yorkshire629,947 tons in 281 days, maximum per day 2673 tons.
At Cadeby Main colliery near Doncaster in 1906, 3360 tons were drawn in fourteen hours from one pit 763 yds. deep.
The tub when brought to the surface, after passing over a weigh-bridge where it is weighed and tallied by a weigher specially appointed for the purpose by the men and the owner jointly, is run into a “tippler,” a cage turning about a horizontal axis which discharges the load in the first half of the rotation and brings the tub back to the original position in the second. It is then run back to the pit-bank to be loaded into the cage at the return journey.
Coal as raised from the pit is now generally subjected to some final process of classification and cleaning before being despatched to the consumer. The nature and extent of these operations vary with the character of the coal, which if hard and free from shale partings may be finished by simple screening into large and nut sizes and smaller slack or duff, with a final hand-picking to remove shale and dust from the larger sizes. But when there is much small duff, with intermixed shale, more elaborate sizing and washing plant becomes necessary. Where hand-picking is done, the larger-sized coal, separated by 3-in. bar screens, is spread out on a travelling band, which may be 300 ft. long and from 3 to 5 wide, and carried past a line of pickers stationed along one side, who take out and remove the waste as it passes by, leaving the clean coal on the belt. The smaller duff is separated by vibrating or rotating screens into a great number of sizes, which are cleaned by washing in continuous current or pulsating jigging machines, where the lighter coal rises to the surface and is removed by a stream of water, while the heavier waste falls and is discharged at a lower level, or through a valve at the bottom of the machine. The larger or “nut” sizes, from ¼ in. upwards, are washed on plain sieve plates, but for finer-grained duff the sieve is covered with a bed of broken felspar lumps about 3 in.thick, forming a kind of filter, through which the fine dirt passes to the bottom of the hutch. The cleaned coal is carried by a stream of water to a bucket elevator and delivered to the storage bunkers, or both water and coal may be lifted by a centrifugal pump into a large cylindrical tank, where the water drains away, leaving the coal sufficiently dry for use. Modern screening and washing plants, especially when the small coal forms a considerable proportion of the output, are large and costly, requiring machinery of a capacity of 100 to 150 tons per hour, which absorbs 350 to 400 H.P. In this, as in many other cases, electric motors supplied from a central station are now preferred to separate steam-engines.
Anthracite coal in Pennsylvania is subjected to breaking between toothed rollers and an elaborate system of screening, before it is fit for sale. The largest or lump coal is that which remains upon a riddle having the bars 4 in. apart; the second, or steamboat coal, is above 3 in.; broken coal includes sizes above 2½ or 2¾ in.; egg coal, pieces above 2¼ in. sq.; large stove coal, 1¾ in.; small stove, 1 to 1½ or 11⁄3in.; chestnut coal,2⁄3to ¾ in.; pea coal, ½ in.; and buckwheat coal,1⁄3in. The most valuable of these are the egg and stove sizes, which are broken to the proper dimensions for household use, the larger lumps being unfit for burning in open fire-places. In South Wales a somewhat similar treatment is now adopted in the anthracite districts.
With the increased activity of working characteristic of modern coal mining, the depth of the mines has rapidly increased, and at the present time the level of 4000 ft., formerlyDepth of working.assumed as the possible limit for working, has been nearly attained. The following list gives the depths reached in the deepest collieries in Europe in 1900, from which it will be seen that the larger number, as well as the deepest, are in Belgium:—