Coal Age

AUG 2012

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1920-1929 from the conventional idea that a coal prepa- ration plant must be a dark and dingy estab- lishment. It was believed that the extra expense necessary to remove dust and obvi- ate spillage would be more than compensat- ed by the added efficiency of the operatives and the reduced cost of maintenance." After the plus 4-in coal was separated by the slate pickers and magnets swept the product looking for "tramp iron," all the coal was delivered and cleaned by "two pri- mary Rheolaveur launders operating in par- allel, each of which is equipped with two Rheo boxes. The first set of Rheo boxes over which the coal passes, after primary classifi- cation, removes practically all of the refuse, some of the middling products and some of the fine coal. These materials are dropped into the sealed boot of the No. 1 conveyor and after de-watering are delivered to the re-treating launder." Accompanying the article was a special color pull-out schemat- ic of the Champion No. 1 plant further describing the preparation process. Surface Mining in the 1920s: Kansas, Montana and Illinois are Leaders In 1898, at the Clemons Coal Co., Pittsburg, Kan., overburden was removed by horse and plow. Eventually 20 ft became the stripping limit. In an August 1923 article and photo essay, Coal Age illustrated the progress made since. In the photos "gigantic steam and electric shov- els as big as any used anywhere move 50 ft of overburden handling 4,000 to 6,000 cu yd a day with a 6-yd dippers working on an 80-ft boom. Today strip-pit loaders almost dispense with hand shovels and "elbow grease…[since] mechanism has eliminat- ed from stripping much of its hard, hot work." In a series of articles published in mid- 1924, Grant Holmes of Danville, Ill., an Largest shovel in the world set up near the tipple. *Coal Age, May, 1928 58 www.coalage.com early pioneer of surface mining, detailed how the "art" of stripping was born in northern Illinois as early as 1866 and would be perfected over the next 60 years. "Since 1875, Holmes, of Danville, has had his hand and mind on coal stripping. Half a century of it successfully as mechanic, boss, operator, advisor to and rescuer of failing strip companies, and finally as an investor and director in many stripping companies in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania have given him a background in stripping such as few men have. Probably no one is as well qualified as he to tell the story of coal stripping from its beginnings," stated the editors. Through two articles, Holmes traces the evolution from stripping from horse team and scrapers on the Illinois plains to the Kansas-Missouri border around 1877. The articles show how the Missionfield mine, near Danville, owned for many years by the Consolidated Coal Co. of St. Louis, was a proving ground for various types of surface mining technology. Starting with an Otis steam shovel in 1885, a crew of experienced dredgemen brought in a steam dredge built by the Marion Steam Shovel Co. In 1890, the Butler Bros. were hired to use a new dragline excavator on the property. Eventually three draglines, with bucket capacities ranging from ¾ to 1 cu yd were brought in. By the end of the 19th century, Consolidated was enjoying an output of more than 1,000 tons of coal a day. Holmes recounted how some of the first machines brought in were so powerful they ended up shaking themselves apart. Eventually, as the draglines got bigger and become more stabilized, they were able to produce more effectively. "Two years of per- suasion finally moved the Marion Steam Shovel Co. to begin the construction of a revolving shovel built according to the dimensions and ideas of Holmes. The 3½ yd dipper 40-ft handle, 65-ft boom and 150 ton weight made this machine the largest in the world at the at time. In the spring of 1911, the big shov- el, known as Model 250, began work in Missionfield." The shovel saw years of ser- vice and news of its success spread worldwide, leading to the construction of simi- lar revolving steam shovels by Bucyrus and other companies. 100th Anniversary Special Issue The ultra-modern new Colstrip mine in Montana was the subject of several 1925 articles. The nation's first completely elec- trified open-pit operation, "the coal bed, about 180 acres in extent and 25 ft deep, is owned by the Northwestern Improvement Co. and is being worked by Foley Bros., general contractors of St. Paul, Minn. The coal is subbituminous with a heat content of about 11,000 Btu. The output of the mine will be used for the locomotives of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana…complete electric equipment was purchased for stripping the overbur- den, mining the coal and hauling it. This equipment consists of an electric shovel with a 155-ft boom and 6-yd bucket, used as a dragline excavator for stripping, equipped with Ward-Leonard control; a coal loading shovel with direct-current drive, and two 60-ton electric storage-bat- tery locomotives, the largest units in the coal fields. The coal loading shovel is a Bucyrus Model No. 175-B weighing 220 tons with a 75-ft boom and a 7-yd dipper." Since Colstrip's product did not require cleaning and sizing, "the railroad spur is built into the pit so that coal is loaded directly into Northern Pacific cars. Trains of considerable length are handled in and out of the workings." Coal Age reported that "the opening of the tract with the big shov- els has also centered wide attention on the entire coal field in the Rosebud section of Montana…This operation is designed to produce eventually 5,000 tons of coal per day at a cost not to exceed 65c. per ton." In another piece in the November 12, 1925, issue, the magazine reported that the new mine was saving the Northern Pacific more than $700,000 a year in fuel costs. Calling the opening of the mine a "mile- stone in the economic progress of this industrial age," author V.A. Wolcott said, "the economical results obtained by the use of this coal have encouraged the Northern Pacific to increase as rapidly as possible the number of locomotives using it, and it may be using 1,200,000 tons annually in the near future." Just to the southeast of the Colstrip mine, in the November 1928 issue R. Dawson Hall reviewed the operations of the Homestake Mining Co.'s Wyodak Coal and Manufacturing Co. surface mine, located about 5 miles east of the town of Gillette. Beneath the 25 ft of cover that contained many bison and beaver teeth and other bones laid a 96 ft seam of subbituminous that Wyodak was able to hydraulically August 2012

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