Co AL AGE Esłablished 191 I— Mcgraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc
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Co AL AGE Esłablished 191 I— McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc. DEVOTED TO THE OPERATING, TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS PROBLEMS OF THE COAL-MINING INDUSTRY SYDNEY A. HALE, Editor M ay 1938 ♦ Why Cincinnati? of this diminution in buying power far overbalances any smali saving the aver- E v e r y y e a r the Cincinnati convention age manufacturer may make in unit-pro- and exposition of the American Mining duction costs by changing over to some Congress serves as a post-graduate course other form of energy. Unfortunately, in mining methods and eąuipment. Every it is not always easy to impress this trutli year it offers an opportunity to get abreast upon the individual business man. Too with tlie progress of the industry. At Cin often he prides his own independence so cinnati the coal men can see not only the highly tliat he is indifferent to the inter- most recent innovations in machinery but dependence of all industry. As a result, he also the improvements which have been acknowledges the soundness of the argu made in standard types of eąuipment to ment but remains unconvinced. better performance, increase output per That unwillingness to recognize the im- man and lower production costs. With pact of seemingly remote causes upon indi- inter-fuel competition so pressing, 110 op vidual business prosperity, liowever, should erator touched with a progressive spirit not discourage those who are trying to dare .rest content with last year’s tech- dramatize inter-industry relationsliips. The niąue. The Cincinnati convention which country can hardly hope to achieve a more starts May 2 presents an ideał forum for stable national economy unless this lesson the discussion and study of what is newest is driven liome. But the process of educa- and best. Be tliere! tion would be swifter if raił rates and coal prices could be lowered to a point where Self-lnterest even an immediate trifling reduction in manufacturing costs with competitive fuels Isr campaigning to recapture tonnage lost to oil in New England markets, the could be wiped out. National Coal Association is on firm eco- nomic ground when it appeals to the self interest of the manufacturers who have Not Knowing How shifted to competitive fuels. The coal and D e s p i t e a common language and a long railroad industries rank unusually high in mining background, Britisli shotfirers are the percentages of tlieir revenue dollar said to be none too efficient. The Scottisli which promptly flow back into the generał divisional inspector recently gathered sev- buying stream as payments for wages and eral of tliem together in a safety-lamp mine supplies. Any substantial depletion in and, after warning them of his intentions, mining or railroad income is ąuickly re- asked each of them to demonstrate esactly flected in decreased purchasing power with the aid of full-sized replicas of a shot- which directly or indireetly affects all hole and dummy explosives just how he classes of manufacturers and merchants. would proceed to fire a shot in a coal face. Since this is so, it should not be difficult Although the men entered into the spirit to demonstrate that the over-all effects of the test, not one succeeded in scoring 65 per cent of the total marks and one fell the basis upon which prices shall be ini- below 32 per cent. “ Ali the firemen tiated and coordinated. That, in the ab- tested,” the inspector declares, “ were in- stract at least, is true. Yet even in this telligent and capable men.” statute-ridden land laws liave been modi- Such tests are worthy of imitation at fied when experience bas demonstrated our own coal mines. Witli tlie medley of that changes are essential to their success- languages in American mining communi- ful operation. Suspension of the price ties, the sometimes inadeąuate training of sehedules promulgated last winter makes supervisory forces and the fact tliat many any comment on what their ultimate revi- of the miners, botli natiye and foreign, sions might have been higlily speculative. were originally farmers, it is not unthink- If some of the ineąuities in those sehedules, able that the rating they would receive however, mirrored inescapable mandates miglit be even lower than at this Scottish of the law, then modification is in order. mine and the need for training even more For its own futurę salvation the industry mandatory. Why is nearly all our training must never lose sight of tlie disagreeable lavished on first-aid men, who, after all, fact that, while Uncle Sam can fis prices, only “ pick np the pieces” which others, for he cannot deliver customers or protect vol- lack of training, have scattered? Job ume. That lias been painfully established analysis and job training are as essential in the case of the railroads, wlio have to as first-aid training and more fundamental. appeal to the Interstate Commerce Com- mission for higher rates when it is gen- erally admitted that the root of their trou- Umbrella or Sword? bles is loss of traffic to other forms of transportation. The rate umbrella is raised, Federal regulation of bituminous but it is a poor shield against rivals who coal prices won widespread acceptance cut away raił Dusiness with the sword of from a harassed industry on the theory lower costs. Must coal regulation follow that such control would make mining a the same path and repeat the same mis- more profitable and stable enterprise. The takes ? theory is a wliolly commendable one. But now that the Coal Commission and the pro- ducers’ boards again are in the throes of attempting to work out an official mini- Prone-Pressure Violence mum-price structure, it miglit be well to G e n t l e i x d e e d are the natural pres- inąuire just how it is proposed to give sures on the human thorax which cause practical application to this theory. air to be drawn into and expelled from the Such an inąuiry inevitably raises sharp lungs. They never cause bones to be ąuestions of fundamental definitions and broken. In view of this fact, what occasion specific procedure. Is profit to be a purely is there for violence in operating them by per-ton figurę completely dissociated from the prone-pressure metliod? To use esces- volume? Is the protection afforded the sive force shocks the patient and may break mines with mean costs to deprive the con- his ribs. J. D. Hall, Atlantic City Electric sumer and the producer of the benefits of Co., believes that the pressure should not more efficient opera tions? Are mines in this exceed a ąuarter of the weight of the group to exact prices which jeopardize patient and that the inclination of the arms their chances of increasing the volume of which will impose such a weight can be coal sold? And are consumers close to determined by indications 011 a bathroom mines to be penalized so that those mines scalę. It is always necessary to remember may shrink their prices in more distant that the patient may be deficient in calcium markets? and tbat his bones may be unduly weak Of course, the facile answer to all these and brittle. Pressures should not be im- ąuestions is that the law itself prescribes posed with more zeal than knowledge. 44 COAL AGE — Yol.43, No.5 COOPERATION IN SAFETY + Reduces Monas General Injury Rate And Limits Fatalities to One in 7Vk Years O PERATI0N from June 27, and horse gathering only to finish against the gob. These stumps are 1930, to Dec. 27, 1937, with- out the old working territory. shot when a cut is completed, thus out a single fatality is one Each loading machinę is accom- allowing the roof to cave up against measure of the safety work carried panied by a Sullivan 7AU track cut- the end of the pillar. When the on at the Mona mine of the Ark- ter and a Jeffrey 56A track-mounted loading machinę cleans up a place, wright Coal Co., on the Monongahela drill. The drills have been modified, the timbers are extended and the River three miles from Morgantown, however, to operate with only a track is laid up. Holes then are drilled W. Va. In this period, the produc- single instead of the norrnal two and the place is top cut to maintain tion totaled 2,226,576 tons. That this spindles. Each loading machinę is the coal roof. Finally, the shotfirer record is not a freak is indicated by semced by a 6-ton Jeffrey cable-reel loads and shoots the holes. Cleaning the fact that in the past four years, locomotive, and these two locomotives up after the loader seldom is neees- lost-time injuries per year have in tum are served by a relay locomo- sary, and when reąuired is done by ranged in number from 17 to 22, tive, also of the cable-reel type. Nor the timber- or track-men.. with production running from 294,- ma 1 crews consist of fifteen men. Operation of the first loading ma 896 to 338,501 tons. Neither has this Ali places, whether rooms or head- chinę started Aug. 18, 1937, and, in record reąuired setting up an elab- ings, are driven 11 ft. wide. Normal addition to the installation of eąuip- orate safety organization, as up until room depth is 300 ft.; centers, 60 ft. ment new to the men at the mine, the adoption of mechanical loading Pillars are brought back on a line reąuired a materiał readjustment in last year the mine was operated by a of about 50 deg.