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PRESIDENT LITTLEJOHN: Before we open the discussion on the Utah mining laws, I want to bring out what I consider a slight misunderstanding on some of the things that I said this forenoon relative to our comparison of accidents. I did not mean to infer that we, as mine officials, are satisfied we have done the best we can to eliminate the accidents, when I was talking about a four-to- one comparison. I do not want any- one to get the idea in their heads that I do not think we are doing all we can. There is not any of us who can state that, even if we better these figures. It is the general understanding that these figures are based upon ratios per thousand man shifts and not upon the tonnage basis that we use. If it were based upon a tonnage basis, I think the figures would be pretty nearly reversed, for we are producing from two to four tons more per man than they do in Great Britain. The discussion will now be continued as I said this morning. There is a gentleman in the audience here that is as guilty of making these laws as I was, and I am quite sure when speaking he will confine himself to the subject of Utah Mining Laws and the prospective results. Before Mr. Monay starts with his paper, I want it understood that this discussion must be finished by 2:30 for the reason that we have still quite a lot of business before us this afternoon.

Jan 1, 1925

By O. C. Irwin

For several years the C. F. & I. Co. men have been working on a fan signal and many different schemes have been tried. I will describe a few of them. A make-and-break attachment was placed on the fan shaft which caused a light to flicker. A hinged door was placed on air course and counter balanced so that it would have a slight travel when the air pressure was reduced an appreciable amount. This motion was used to open the power circuit, blow a whistle, or ring a bell. Series transformers were placed in motor leads of fan drive motor and the variation in amount of power to motor was used to control the fan signal through a magnet or relay. A governor was placed on the fan shaft which opened a signal circuit when speed of fan was reduced. We tried to produce a machine actuated by the volume of air, (that is on the principle of the anemometer) but had to discard this due to its being too delicate. None of the above schemes seemed to fill the conditions which the State and our Mine Inspector wanted covered. They gave us the following demands for a signal: 1. Must open mine circuit and sound alarm when air pressure was reduced below a certain amount. 2. Must be fool proof. 3. Must work on any kind of fan drive (steam or motor). 4. Must be safe to ' install- in any mine or fan house. 5. Must not depend upon mechanical device which could become inactive due to friction or other causes. 6. Must be as simple and easy to adjust as possible.

Jan 1, 1925

PRESIDENT LITTLEJOHN: The paper of Mr. Emrick will now be open for discussion for about twenty minutes. The meeting is now open for discussion. MR. EMRICK: There is some question that may have occurred to you at different times, that is how are you going to tell when the bits are properly made? A fairly good rule to go by is when the used bits come out of the mine, if half of them are bent and half of them are broken, the average is pretty good MR. GEO. B. PRYDE (Union Pacific Coal Company): I would like to ask Mr. Emrick if he has any figures as to the saving of Dower with the different styles of its. MR. EMRICK: I suppose you mean chisel point bits and pick point bits? MR. PRYDE: Yes. MR. EMRICK: So far as I have been able to learn, the only reason why chisel point bits are used is to prevent coring that might be done by the cutter chain. The pick point bit, of course, is the proper thing to use. It can be used when the position of the cutter links in the cutter chain is right. I do not know of any figures which give power consumption ratings on the use of pick point and chisel point bits, but there are tests and ratings, etc., which have been taken- which have been tested as against different bits, which have been given proper clearances against bits not having been given proper clearances, and they will run,-in their saving in power, they will run 20 to 25 per cent. MR. A. C. WATTS (Chief Engineer, Utah Fuel Company) : I would like to ask Mr. Emrick if he has any record showing the saving in power on using the alloy steel chisel bits. I know that several experiments have been made; I do not recall the figures now, but we had a very decided saving in power. MR. EMRICK: I haven't any of the records. Do you think that is because of the steel that has been used? MR. WATTS: Well, they were all sharpened by the same man and used in the same machine, and at the same shop. I do not know the composition. It is "Red Star" Vanadium that I had in mind. MR. EMRICK: I have not seen any records. Some companies are using the tool steel bits because they stand up a little bit better. MR. BENEDICT SHUBART (Secretary) : I was going to ask Mr. Emrick about that question. There is one company that does not recommend tempering the bits. They recommend using not exactly self-hardening steel, but one that is bard enough without quenching-they use 80-90-point car- bon but about a 70-point manganese, not exactly self-hardening steel, but they do not temper this at all. Will Mr. Emrick state if a steel of that kind could be worked in the bit sharpening machine that his company makes, as it

Jan 1, 1925

MR. SHUBART: Mr. Miller's paper mentioned the two processes that seemed to be a success, the Smith process and the Piron process. I suppose the main difference is this, that Smith's process is to furnish domestic fuel and the by-products while the Piron process that Ford is installing is for fuel for power plants. I would like to ask Mr. Miller something about the commercial cost of the process. With the briquette you must make it cheap enough to sell. What are the commercial possibilities of Smith's briquette? MR. MILLER: It is pretty hard to say what the cost would be at this time, owing to the fact that slack has advanced double, or even more at the time I was in New York with the plant, but at that time it was costing $1.10 for the operation. You can add to that, of course, the cost of the coke. One dollar and ten cents was the entire cost of plant operation. It takes about one and one-half tons of coal to make a ton of briquettes. One dollar and ten cents takes care of all the material, cost, labor, handling, etc. Labor was much cheaper then. I would say it would cost about $2.20 now. The cost of coal is what you can buy it for on the market. I don't think, however, that the carbocoal process will ever meet with any great favor for the simple reason that it is really a prepared fancy fuel. It is going to be nice for people in offices where they want a grate or for families where they want a nice clean fuel. It leaves no stain on the fingers, no odor to it. It seems in carbonizing coal we change the carbon molecule. For instance, we are all familiar with the diamond. It is carbon, yet it requires a tremendous heat to burn a common little diamond. But you can set a piece of charcoal afire, which is also carbon, with a match. The molecular form has been changed in carbonizing coal, i. e., it is larger. Carbocoal will fire very readily, it can be started with a piece' of paper. I think the Piron process will be the process, i. e., to simply take out the tars and light oils, then fire direct-have the distillate plants right on the job. CHAIR: Can Mr. Shubart tell us something of the mechanical part of the Piron process? MR. SHUBART: The Piron process is of interest because Mr. Ford is taking it up. He has made so few mechanical mistakes it makes us feel that it is a success. Piron is a chemist of high accomplishment and reputation. The thing about the proces is its simplicity. Mr. Smith's is a very elaborate process, but Piron has gotten around all that. Piron feeds the raw coal in at about one-half inch mesh or smaller. He feeds it into a retort about 55 feet long, 16 feet wide over all. He has a hearth about 6 feet wide and the length of the retort. The base of the hearth that carries the coal is a conveyor, a flat cast iron conveyor, a very massive affair, very accurately made, so that there is no loss of coal. Between the upper and lower strands of the ' conveyor is a bath of molten lead which gives an accurate control of temperature. For best results he must have temperature of not under 800 F., not over 1,300 degrees F., about 1,100 or 1,200 F. seems to be ideal for getting greatest yield of oils and the best tars and other by-products. This lead bath has a system of flues running through it that

Jan 1, 1923

Our next speaker this afternoon is a good friend of mine of some years. I must introduce him by way of a little story. Now Harris Sherman, many of you know because he was really in charge of everything to do with the mining industry in the State of Colorado for a good many years. Some of you may know that before he became part of Governor, Lamm's first cabinet as Director of Department of Natural Resources, he was an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund and that caused me considerable panic as I think it might have caused some of you. I have observed Hams from the time he stepped into that office until he retired from that office to go into private practice as the senior partner of Arnold & Porter's Denver office, one of the , nation's most prestigious law firms. Hams is a Colorado native. He's lived here all of his life. He's a graduate of Columbia Law School for his law degree and a graduate of Colorado College down at the Springs for his BA. He has served in state government, but I thought it might be appropriate, since he is no longer in state government, if we used Harris, today, to tell us from a former state official's perspective what the image is of the coal industry from the seat he held in Governor Lamm's cabinet for a good many years. He has been the recipient of a number of honors that I think you should know about including Phi Beta Kappa and

Jan 1, 1982

[Proceedings VOL. II. PART VI. CONTENTS PAGE A Few of the Adverse Conditions Encountered in Mining Coal in the Utah Fields, by J. B. Forrester ..185 Growth of the Electric Power System of the Union Pacific Coal Company at Rock Springs, Wyoming, by D. C. McKeehan ?.. 193 Screening and Preparing Coal at the Tipple, by Benedict Shubart ?.199 Coal Mine Accounting, by E. R. Gibson List of Members ?.211]

Jan 1, 1921

Jan 1, 1982

Dear Fred: Bobby Schultz sent me the attached copy of the 1926 Proceedings owe Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute which he borrowed from you after I had requested to get the volume containing a paper of mine on the hazards of electricity. I am returning it direct to you as requested by Bob. [ ] Thanks much to both of you. Very truly yours, [ ] D. HARRINGTON, Chief, Health and Safety Branch.

Jan 1, 1926

of our good friends and fellow members: James Dalrymple, Sr. R. M. Perry A. E. Oliver R. M. Harding C. L. Oliver Arthur S. White Arthur N. Fancher A. E. Lindrooth D. A. Stout Clayton Morrison Frank O'Ryan Charles Billington who left the world better for their having lived in it.

Jan 1, 1935

The final session on Wednesday morn¬ing was given over to a panel discussion of safety questions submitted by members of the institute. Mr. Murray presided, and Lyman Fearn, chief, Wyoming Dept. of Mines & Minerals, Rock Springs, Wyo., was moderator. Members of the panel were: John A. Garcia, chief mine inspector, New Mexico; Leonard Ford, mine foreman, Frederick- mine, CF&I, Valdez, Colo.; A. C. Moschetti, chief, coal mine inspection branch, USBM, Denver; Kirk V. Cammack, mining engineer, USGS, Denver; Joel N. Van Sant, chief engineer, St. Louis, Rocky Mountain & Pacific Coal Co., Raton, N. M.; Emery Olsen, safety engineer, coal mine and quarries, U. S. Steel Corp., Dragerton, Utah; F. J. Peternell, safety engineer, Union Pacific Coal Co., Rock Springs; and J. J. Reddy, mine inspector, Colorado Dept. of Mines, Grand Junction, Colo. On a question concerning the effect of roof-bolting on the maintenance of a breakline in pillar removal, Mr. Van Sant reported that some experience at his company's mines indicate that wood supports are not necessary to make the break although shooting is sometimes done to get it. Furthermore, bolting improves the roof in these pillar areas and extraction has increased about 20%. Mr. Fearn concurred in describing operations in parts of Wyoming.

Jan 1, 1953

Jan 1, 1994

By Thomas Collier

MR. PRESIDENT AND CO-WORKERS IN THE COAL INDUSTRY: I was requested by our president to prepare a paper on Longwall Coal Mining, to be read before this honorable organization. There are three general systems of Longwall, Longwall advancing and Longwall retreating, and the Nottingham system which is worked in England and South Wales. In Fremont county, where I am employed, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company are working their mines on the advancing system. The face is started generally from the bottom of the shaft or other mine opening, or, at the outside of the pillar left to support the shaft or slope-bottom and advances toward the boundary of coal area. As the roads in this system are maintained by pack walls, it is sometimes called gob-roads system, and by these means the mine is opened up rapidly and consequently early returns are secured from the capital invested. By this method, there is no expense for narrow work, and a minimum amount of timbering of the roads is required. Now what I call ideal Longwall work is where there is about eight inches of dirt mining-and four and one-half feet of coal, .and when the entries and rooms will gob themselves, so that there will be no rock or dirt to haul out to the surface. But this is not the case in the mine I am in charge of. The entries and rooms will not gob themselves, therefor we have to haul the rock and dirt to the surface, which runs up the cost of production. Now the ideal roof in Longwall is composed of tough elastic and pliable strata that yield gradually by bending when the coal is removed, and throwing a sufficient weight or roof pressure on the coal face to break the coal when the same has been mined or undercut. Timbering should be done systematically, the coal well spragged before the miner starts to undermine the coal. Cogs or cribs are alright in their place, but I am not a believer in crib in Longwall working because they are too strong for the roof and do not leave the roof to squeeze .down gradually and break the roof around the crib. Longwall work requires particular skill on the part of the miner, and a familiarity with the conditions affecting room and pillar work, and a good room and pillar mail may not be successful in. Longwall work. A good Longwall miner realizes more than any one else the importance of being regularly at his place every working day. A day lost causes his place to fall behind the others which makes his work harder, and his daily output is further reduced by the amount of small coal that is liable to result from the excessive pressure where the face falls behind. The bad results are also felt by the miner working on each side of such place, as the roof pressure is often insufficient and the coal does not break as well as when the face is kept in a uniform line.

Jan 1, 1921

By C. A. Allen

In presenting a summary of the uses of fine and pulverized coal the writer has borne in mind that we are not trying to determine what a combustion engineer should know but we are only trying to find out in what ways the consumption of slack can be stimulated. First discussing the use of powdered coal it can be stated that it has passed the first experimental stage but is still capable of much development and improvement. It has already found successful application in stationary and locomotive boilers, cement kilns, calcining furnaces, reverberatory smelting furnaces and many other types of furnaces, such as open hearth furnaces and annealing furnaces. For stationary boilers it seems to have been thoroughly demonstrated that powdered coal is more efficient than stoker installations. Over-all efficiences of boiler and furnace in stoker installations of the best type run from 70 to 76 per cent; whereas the efficiency of powdered coal installations averages slightly over 80 per cent. However, due to the increased cost of pulverized coal, the increased efficiency of these installations over stokers, from a money stand-point, will not be more than 1 or 2 per cent. The fusing of the ash in pulverized coal installations has given some trouble but apparently is easily overcome, on the other hand the fine ash, which is carried along with the draft, causes trouble both in the boiler and by settling on surrounding buildings or ground. Offsetting the disadvantages the great advantages of pulverized coal for stationary boilers seem to be: First-the ease with which a change in the load on the boiler can be taken care of. Second-when a boiler is cut out for a short period the "stand-by" losses are much less and, Third-a much poorer grade of fuel can be used. In many cases where pulverized coal has been used it has replaced slack coal which is of little advantage to the coal operator. However,, in other places it has replaced gas or oil and this is where the coal man is interested. Pulverized coal has the same advantages as the liquid or gas fuel but the question as to which is preferable depends on their relative cost at the point of use. In small stationary boilers where stokers are not used, very frequently the larger sizes of coal are, and it would be an advantage to the coal industry for them to be converted so as to burn pulverized coal, but so far there are only records of a few of such small installations having been a success and there is apparently room for a large amount of experimentation. In furnaces, such as smelting and assaying furnaces, annealing furnaces, etc., slack coal is not used and where pulverized coal has been installed it nearly always replaces fuel oil or gas. Just how much increased consumtion of coal can be made by pulverizing it for use in furnaces of this type can not be determined but it seems worthy of investigation. For locomotive boilers pulverized coal has found some application up to date but where it was being used in the United States it was stopped when we entered the war. In Brazil, however, the Central Railway has been using pulverized coal for locomotives with excellent results. If it could be possible to apply it to locomotive use where fuel oil is now used, or the larger sizes of coal, it would certainly make a big difference in the slack situation. Now as to the uses of slack coal without pulverizing. The writer's investigations lead him to believe that the greatest opportunities in this direction are in the line of increasing its use by apartment houses and small home owners. In fact in looking into the subject I found that a number of men in Salt Lake City are using run of mine coal in the usual type of house furnaces, some of them by separating the fines and wetting them down before feeding to the furnace claim they get no loss whatever through the grate. However, for best results with fine coal different types of furnaces must be installed and for apartment houses it would seem necessary to have either a small automatic stoker or else spray the fine coal in with an air blast from

Jan 1, 1922

Jan 1, 1926

TABLE ONE Accidents occurring in the Coal Mines of Utah by fiscal years: [Deaths ........................ Permanent total disability ...... Permanent partial disability. .... Temporary disability: .......... 28 days and over 14 to 28 days ............... 4 to 14 days ............... Under 4 days ]

Jan 1, 1922

The twenty-fifth regular meeting of the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute was called to order at 11 a. m. Monday, August 29, 1927, in the County Court House at Trinidad, Colorado, the Vice-President, F. L. Peart, presiding. After a few words from John F. Carmody, Editor of Goal Age, J. Q. McNatt, Division Engineer of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, read a paper on "Coal Geology." In the afternoon, Prof. C. B. Carpenter, of the Colorado School of Mines talked on the work in Fuel Engineering being developed at the Colorado School of Mines. W. C. Holman, of the Phelps Dodge Corporation, then read his paper on "Developing a Pit Car Design." L. M. Kuhns, Safety Engineer of the Gallup American Coal Company, read his paper on "Safety Methods at Gallup American No. 5 Mine." After discussion the meeting adjourned for the day.

Jan 1, 1927

Our presiding officer for this session is someone we are all proud to be associated with. One who is dedicated to Public Service and Safety in the State of Colorado, and known in the mining field and the Colorado Mining Association. We are very pleased to introduce Mr. Donald Haske, Chief Mine Inspector for the State of Colorado: Donald Haske: Officers, Members and guests. It is certainly my pleasure to be here today and an extra special pleasure to be presiding over this session. As some of you know, from natural up, heavy equipment is rapidly coming to the field of mining. This may seem a long way off at the present, but it certainly isn't. We are getting all the old annuals (Bi) together to be compiled for a guide and public attraction. However, we are unable to locate an (1894 panel). If any of you know of any of these please let us know.

Jan 1, 1967

PRESIDENT MOSES: I think this will conclude our program for this afternoon, unless you have some- thing else. Mr. Holman, will you tell us what you are doing in the way of your local chapter, around Dawson? W. C. HOLMAN: (Chief Engineer, Phelps-Dodge Corporation, Dawson, New Mexico.) We have organized a local chapter of the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute, and we invite all foremen, fire bosses, shot firers or anybody interested, either on the surface or in the mine. I think at the last meeting we had sixty to seventy men present. We hold meetings once a month; usually on a certain set Tuesday or second Friday of the month, or so on. We have a President, a Vice-President and a Secretary-Treasurer. There are no dues connected with it. We aim to take up the' papers that are presented at the various meetings of the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute, and also any other subject that would be of interest, connected with our own mining operation. We usually ask two or three men to pre- sent papers, rather than one man. We find it difficult in getting one man to work up any subject, but two or three men work up very interesting papers. While we have just recently organized, we aim to have luncheons in connection with it, and possibly once a year a banquet or .some similar activity that we think would interest the men. We feel it is going to be a great help in carrying on the work of the present organization in presenting the activities around the mines. PRESIDENT MOSES: I thank you, Mr. Holman. Has any one any- thing to bring up at this time? MR. LITTLEJOHN: I would like to ask Mr. Holman if the Institute or the Chapter there is confined to Dawson alone, or open to other camps in New Mexico? MR. HOLMAN: At the present, Mr. Littlejohn, it is just confined to our own camp, although we intend to invite the members and the officials of the other camps later on, perhaps. Especially, if we gave a banquet, no doubt we would invite the others. MR. LITTLEJOHN: Is there any other Chapter in New Mexico besides yours in Dawson, Mr. Holman? MR. HOLMAN: None that I know of, right now.

Jan 1, 1926

Jan 1, 1986

By Stanley C. Suboleski

Overview ? Ten minutes or ?the hook? ? Focus on Appalachia, productivity and production ? Message: ? Appalachian mining scene has fundamentally changed

Jan 1, 2007