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1930-1939 coal. Average daily mileage was around 85, and butane consumption was close to 20 gal. per hour. Between May 3, 1938, and January 8, 1939, the initial butane unit ran a total of 8,800 miles, during which time the engine was not touched." Underground Mining in the Late 1930s Mechanization of loading, as in past years, held the spotlight. Coal Age reported that 81 mobile loaders were purchased by some 35 companies nationwide that year. Not great, but certainly an improvement over years past. Mobile loaders were the most sought after items. "New high-tonnage machines pushed still higher the output per machine- shift. In one instance an average of 500 tons per machine per shift is reported." Though Indiana and Illinois maintained their equip- ment leadership that year, producers throughout Northern and Southern Appalachia began purchasing more fre- quently. In the August 1936 issue, Ivan Given pro- filed the Robinson Run No. 1 mine near Morgantown, W.Va., that, through mecha- nization, was able to average 15.6 tons per man-shaft. "Using mobile loaders for both solid work and pillar robbing, the Christopher Mining Co., formerly C.L.S. Coal Co., extracts 90 percent or more of the marketable portion of the seam. Incorporating the principle of pillar extrac- tion into its mining plan, the company has standardized on retreat working; i.e., devel- opment entries are driven to the boundary, after which rooms-and-pillars are mined back to the main entry serving the property. An even better than the 15.6 tons per man shaft is expected when additional equip- ment is installed." Extracting from an 8 to 9 foot seam, nor- mal operations at the mine consisted of three seven hour shifts per day. With direct current at 250 volts, "major equipment in use at the time this article was prepared con- sisted of one Joy 10-BU loader, one Joy 11-BU loader, one Sullivan 7-AU track- mounted cutting and shearing machine" and a variety of shortwall cutters and cable- reel locomotives, portable coal drills and drop bottom mine cars. In 1936, operators installed an estimated 345 mobile loaders and 590 conveyors, "all evidences of the strides made in mechaniza- tion" that year. Swept up in the spirit of progress that year in West Virginia, the ven- erable Gay Mines fully mechanized. "The Gay Coal & Coke Co., of Mt. Gay, mecha- nized both its mines 100 percent. All coal at the No. 1, with a seam thickness of 6 ft, was loaded by machines, and starting June 1, all August 2012 coal at the No. 2 Gay mine, where the thick- ness is 4 ft was produced mechanically using power drilling." The company reported "Mechanical loading enabled us to produce 48 percent more coal this year than in our previous best year." Another change in 1936 came in Illinois with the development of a new trackless- mining system by James Fletcher of Chicago. "The transportation unit is the connecting link between mobile loaders at the face and a belt system carrying the coal to the outside or to a mine-car loading station, depending on conditions. One such system was in oper- ation at the property of the Blue Bird Coal Co. in Carries Mills, Ill., throughout the last half of the year. The new unit consists of a battery-powered tractor with rubber tires to which is attached by means of a swivel cou- pling, a two-wheeled bottom-dumping trail- er. Front wheels on the tractor, which is steered like an automobile, are equipped with single tires; rear wheels on the tractor and the trailer wheels are equipped with dual tires. Tractor and trailer run on the mine floor." Several issues throughout the rest of the decade reported the progress of rubber-tired haulage. Calling it "the latest mechanization development," mines throughout the nation bought various differ- ent shuttle cars and loading machines as new models were developed. Conveyor machines also were more increasingly deployed, particularly in Central Appalachia. New in April 1939 was the system installed at the Cabin Creek No. 7 mine of the Carbon Fuel Co., located in the Cabin Creek district south of Charleston, W.Va., in Kanawha County. Mining the Powellton seam, the new mine was equipped with a fleet of brand new loading and haulage equipment. The new 2,000 ft conveyor sections were installed along the length of the main headings. Production started out high as "face crews have been loading 12 to 14 tons per man-shift." Carbon Fuel pioneered mechaniza- tion in the Kanawha field when in 1930 it invested over $500,000 in preparation equipment, mobile load- ers and auxiliary equipment to mech- anize at its No. 9 mine. Coal Preparation in the Late 1930s To stay competitive, mines nation- wide began installing new more mechanized equipment in their preparation plants as well as under- ground. Typical of these new plants and upgrades was the stoker coal plant at Consol's Millers Creek mine near Van Lear, Ky., profiled in the July 1937 issue. "Steel and concrete construction, surge and storage bins equipped with coal-lowering devices, horizontal double- deck screens which reduce height, adjustable gate openings to mixing feed- ers of the constant-speed belt type auto- matic stops to forestall improper mixtures and oil sprays at six points are features of the design." The mine plant, profiled in the October 1935 issue, was modernized in 1935 by a slope conveyor and a 600-ton per hour four-track concrete and steel tip- ple designed and built by the Fairmont Machinery Co., which also handled the stoker plant. In the July 1939 issue, Coal Age profiled Peabody Coal Co.'s Westville No. 24 plant. Fifth in a line of installations throughout its Illinois operations, the new mechanical preparation plant "features maximum flexibility, washing of all coal from 6-in. down, storage bins for washed carbon and a rescreening plant with bins and propor- tioning feeders for shipping stoker or screenings with definitely fixed percent- ages of the various size fractions. Rescreener sizes also may be returned to the main mixing conveyor for mixing with the larger washed and hand-picked sizes in making combinations or modifications with, if desired, specified percentages of rescreener grades." A "weak and treacher- ous soapstone" roof or "white rock" was the major impetus to adopt washing at the plant. Placed in service in January 1939, the rated capacity at the new No. 24 plant was 600 tons per hour. *Coal Age, February 1937 100th Anniversary Special Issue www.coalage.com 77