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Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT
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M» ET R MÆm'f \* a* C and K [f r « «SS How tne Problem» of Pumping •Verit» aciori and * L Dust Lai^md I are met in tn* Ê^Bukte Himes K V->v \< ■ - , r £ I < ■ 2 *y*y' /S>/ C' ttf£, PtsfrtL.fr rn/c Pffsr P'Pt rffPfftES */# pone* Tf/tOTHE# WTC* TO Iffy DCS ST TT 4äß r hlP'j LV '*,11 SSS ; n' u ÆSwf >?/*- COC~D> E'sSDC'G*' T0 ro*M SC/t-'LlD 'TOO rr yvoE-JZSGDi/fsO T *'* v U> THE vicissitude« of the üijneral Industry may vtalt feutte In never-end ing procession, but through them all there Is one set of workmen who sre sure of their Jobs—-the men who man the mine pumps on the Butte hill. Am long as there is an appreciable quantity of recoverable ore in the Butte mine* the pumps must be kepi In operation. During each minute of the 1.440 that go 'to make a 24-hour day 8,700 gallons of water pour from the pomp discharge, thuklng a stream eight feet wide and five Inches deep, flowing two miles ait hour. The total discharge Is about two billion gallons a year, or enough to Irrigate 8,000 A acres of laud. As the pulsing of the powerful elec trie pumps sends'this huge Volume of water surging onward tt> mingle with the flow of the Columbia, on Itafway tu thé sen. another torrent ta pouring down the mine shafts—a torrent, nut • of water, but of air. driven down sta tion. level and atope to the rythmic hum of the whirling fan». A> each lulnuti tees 3,700 gattm.s of water lifted out of the mines, so, too, It sees 3,200,000 cubic feet of air driven into the mines, a quantity, by the way, which is three times in excess of the legal of requirements mine ventilation as «et forth In the statutes of The great coal mining state of Pennsyl vania. where It is ordained that each miner must get 200 cubic feet of air per minute. Butte pro minute. pro vides 600 cubic feet minute per man, and tht* without «oy legaL provision-governing. electrical current Is consumed In drUIng the ventilating funs of the Butte hlU than in lighting all the cities, towns and homes In per In fact, more Montana. Putting In the air Is a tusk to which Butte has devoted Itself with remarkable success —a success which Is attested by the fact that when New York was drivlitg Its vehicular tunnel under the Hudson It was to Butte, that the ventilation engineers appealed for Information. It was to a treatise on ventilation prepared hy a Butte man, A. 8. Richardson, ventilation engineer of the A. C. M. company, that the metropeHtan ventilation engineer* turned tor Information ns to the "frlc ttoaal eo-efflclent" of resistance to air currents in various types of air ducts. «hoveling «ad tramming hard roçk, Practically all of, the company's WW drills, of widish 1.600 are "«topers." 4#»' equipped * htV$\ hollow drill shanks. Th rougi» fbose flows a constant stream of w«ter. secured from the city's «ap ply «« the surface, so that at every Impact the ruWlHng dust is immediate ly tranaformed to harm!«** mud and the worker i* spaced from Inhaling the fine particles of rock, to addition, chutes, muck pUea. runway« and other dn*t-cre«ttag pieces are regularly and J&aXAlly «pr»y«d from hose provided parpotW: m«mK mil working in hard, dry m,0$4 Aaaconda properties U a Getting Rid of the Oust Bqaatly adequate and thorough la twn A®ar<?u nn eliminating dust caused by drilling 's provision for ülfe û In the Front Rank at . By GEORGE 8. RICE, Chief Mining Engineer, United States Bureau of Mine«, In Bulletin No. 204, Department of the Interior, 1923. "Tho mlnee In the Butte district, with their hot rook, nu me roue veins, deep workings and Intens« and concentrated activities, present to their operators many Intricate problème requiring the utmost en gineering skill. Although the difficulties encountered are great, the mining companies have grappled with them and ere making wonderful progrès« In ventilation betterments. "Tha duet situation has been largely eliminated by the adoption of wet drills for practloally'eH drilling, by.ihe Introduction of water lines for sprinkling to practically all working facoa in many mines and by Increasing the flew of air to working-placea to remove dust aa it Is formed. Butte mining companies are In the front rank of those metal mining companies of the Unlteq State« that are trying to reduce the duet hasard. They believe that In case their ore bodies reach t* a depth of 6,000 feet or over they wilt be able to obtain for such Ccop workings an atmosphere which will allow of safe, comfortable and efficient work." T "wet atoper." The only exception la In the case of (hose drille which are operating on soft, damp or clayey ground where the character of the earth eliminates the necessity for water. And there are only 24 of these. The company has I« operation at the present time 50 miles of water lines Id the underground workings which are exclusfvely used for wet sloping and for sprinkling. Yet the element of human "contra riety" cpn no more be banished here than In other lines of Industry. Cases are frequently encountered where miners refuse to turn on the w-ater In their drills, apparently preferring to breathe rock dust than to Incur the discomfort of an occassional spatter of mud. But so far as the company la concerned, the fact that It has spent several hundred thousand dollars In providing wet stopers and other duat Inytng devices, nnd the fact that men found operating wet stopers without water are discharged. Is sufficient evidence that it maintains a 100 per cent Interest In, (he comfort and Jo some part of the workings of the Butte hill, ©very day In the year, alf these testa are going on. Every mine «haft on the blU 1# equipped with blower fans, which are constantly pouting a stream of air down the abaft Whenever {required on the tow health of the underground worker. The metal mine ventilation engi neer niust Blsd keep down fhe heöf. But the ventilation engineer of the Anaconda company can proudly point to the fact, so well are air currents and tetnpemtures controlled, that icicle* are froaen on »Im* drift timbers In places a« far down, as the 1.700-foot level and at a distance of 1,000 feet from the shaft. - ' Constant vigilance and an Intimate knowledge of air currents and air ac tion are required to Insure pure nlr and proper temperature« for the Butte miner Where the temperature r«n not always he lowered, agitation of the air is resorted to because It ha* been found that a higher temperature In moving sir is more endurable than u lowpe temperature In still air There 1« an Instrument known as the VHahleu gauge, for measuring air IpreMttftt.C Then* is a little device not unlike a watchman's clock which Is used to measure-the speed of the air. an su «mometer It is called There Is * sling pgycbnnneter and a kata-thermometer, all designed to assist tint work of ven pme. • There la also a compifcuted Instru ment which determines the purity of the air hy Indicating the presence sod amount of any and alt kinds of gase«. Air Tested Every Day àéè er levels, there are "booster" fans to draw the air from the shaft and drive It Into drifts and slopes, Scattered throughout the mines are large can vas air pipes discharging air from some 200 blowers Into dead ends. The life of this canvas ventilating tubing Is about six months, which means that the company has to install about 20 miles of new tubing every 12 months. Every fun on the Butte hill today Is reversible, which means that, by re versing the fans, the shaft can be con verted Into an uptake Inattud of a down take and the smoke and fumes of a possible shaft fire can be driven out of the mine Instead of being driven downward. A surprising thing about air is the large increase of power required to Increase the air volume. To double the quantity of air forced down the shaft means Increasing the power eight times. But the air flow has been marvelously Increased by n method of concrete slab installation on which A. S. Richardson of Butte holds a patent. The Increase was effected by provid cornered hoX that wonW ftt Into the corner of the shaft was devised and the air volume was in creased 100 per cent or doubled. An Interesting Incidental In the control of nlr movement Is the use of some hundreds of doors and air stoppings, especially con strut-led and operated for this purpose. Taking Out tha Water So much for the air problems of the Butte mines. Control of the water flow also called for a high degree ot technical skill. Every large mine of the Anaconda company I« connected on the 2,800-foot level. There are also other connections, particularly on the 2.400 and the 1,200. but the 2,800 Is the general connecting level. As a result the waters of the main group of mlnee are h and l ed f r o m - Just two mumping' stations, one at the High Ore and one at the Leonard. The Leonard handles 1,800 gallons a minute. The High Ore handles 1,800 a minute. Either station could handle a large« flow If necessary. The water handled comes from a territory coveting about 2,000 scree. Immens« underground tanks have been constructed so that, should the power O per a t ing the pomps be sudden ly cut off, these tanka great horse shoe-shaped lakes, located near the« shaft», end bolding more than 500,000 gallon*, could alone take care of the water for «(..least a few hours, accord ing to F. C. Jaccard, assistant chief mechanical engineer of the \. C. M. company. Taking oat the water, laying the_ dost and putting in the air is a big task, efficiently handled, on the Butte blU. * Ing a smooth pas sage for the air This smooth pas sage was achieved by placing concrete slabs between the wall plates of the shafts, holding them In position with pegs and cement ing the cracks. This furnished a free un broken air duct, ex cept for the water course. The watei box blocked the free passage of air Again Buttes In ventlve genius came Into play and a concrete three — OUR COMIC SECTION .* S' «n 0[ Our Pet Peeve « ? 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