WESTPORT COAL COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2159, 11 July 1895, Page 36

WESTPORT COAL COMPANY.

(Fj&om Oub West Coast Correspondent.)

TheWestport Coal Company — the mainstay of Westport, which has produced from its mine duriDg the last 10 years over 1,500.000 tons of coal, unsurpassed for qnality ; kept in lucrative employment from 300 to 400 men (a majority of whom are married men with families) ; and paid to the Government up to 1894 haulage £183,170, and royalties £45 530— still continues to poor from its inexhaustible mine enormous wealth in black diamonds, topping the annual output last year with a total of 223.000 tons. ' As most of your readers are aware, this company was formed in 1881, with a capital in 80.000 shares at £5 each, and the right, 'title, and interest in the two leases held from ttie Crown for a period of 91 years, comprising a total area of of 5430 acres, divided into the Coalbrookdale lease (situate between the heads of the Wareatea and Waimangaroa creeks, containing 2480 acres) and the lease lying to the north known as the Granity creek section (haviDg an area of 2950 acres) ; and it is of the former I would now say a few yrotdß. Last Saturday Mr A. B. Lindop (mine manager in chaTge of this section of the property) showed me through a large portion of the valuable plant and extensive working*, and if the reader will come with me in the spirit I shall endeavour to present to bis mind's eye what I saw in reality. Leaving the well-appointed quarters of this very hospitable company, where I had been comfortably lodged, we climb a lorjg flight of stairs and gain the top floor immediately over the company's bins, where we become Instantly surrounded by hurrying action, men and boys ; running tracks constantly tumbling their loads of coal into the many, feeders below; endless steel wire ropes rolling smoothly aronn das they do their work; powerful engines snortirjg, groaning, and creaking, as they keep everything moving in their tireless strength. This is the entrepot, so to speak, of all the company's wealth, which lis fitted up with every convenience and has 'all the latest devices regardless of cost. Let us see how it works. Here comes a 12cwt tub of magnifioent Coal across the flat Bbeets, it having juat been unhooked by that active lad from the endless hauling wire rope which /has towed it on the steel-belted tramway Ifrom the workings for over a mile. Surely [there is going to be a horrid collision, 'for tbe track is flying unchecked straight ,at a strange-looking iron structure, into jwhich it eventually dashes. Hey, presto I Structure receives it in its widespread iron arms and holds it fast, slowly revolves, ,ahcots the coal on to a shallow shelving 'bottom, and then returns the empty tab to its nataraL position on the sheeted floor, over ■whiob it is once more wheeled to the returning rope, to which' it is rebuckled, and •eff it goes- back to tlve mine for a fresh load. Bat what became of the load! As soon as it left the inverted tab, and ere tbe tumbler had regained its normal condition, the coal had slid unbroken on the shelving bottom plates to tbe first section of the company's SCREENING PROCESS. And here I must pause in order to do fall justice to what is perhaps the moat important and invaluable device introduced by this company. It is used exclusively, of coarse, for household coal. It divides tbe small and large coal, and consists of three different sections. The upper is an iron box (ft wide and Bft long, with inclined bars at tbe bottom running parallel with the length thereof, the highest end of tbe shelving bottom being immediately under the tumbler before mentioned! bo that no damage results to the coal when leaving the tab. As the coal slides down, the small falls through to a receiving bin below, Reaving the larger ooal to travel on to the second section, which is what is called a rocker. It is of similar dimensions to that of the grating box described, but 'is not stationary — as indeed Its name might signify. The bottom is composed of strongly netted steel wire ropes interlaced after the manner of a riddle, which it really is on a large scale. The motions are caused by a Tang.ye engine having weighted eccentrics, the latter being needed to steady the cradle, which would otherwise have uneven, jerky movements. Our ooal is [now pn the rooker, and is still moving downwards, bat before it leaves the riddled bottom has relieved all the lamps of every particle of coal dust, so that it is shining, clean, pure, and ceitaiply woitb looking after. We don't want to see these refined diamond blocks chipped nor broken, and so we have an endless belt of broad sheet iron plates moving .ever downwards. These carefully take the now screened coals when the rocker is fairly done with them and carry them on to the point where they turn over a roller, finally depositing them gently on to the Government railway waggons waiting to receive their successive loads. Mark you, there has. been no smashing nor grinding of our mineral daring the whole screening process.tor our lumps, only wiped clean of the coal dnsfc, now lie inside the railway waggons as intact as when they were first tumbled from the mine tab above. The time occupied, too, in screening and loading a sixton waggon — that being the average holding capacity of the Government tender — is only a few minutes. Of course all this cost? money, but the company, ever ready to come forward where necessity arises, spent £4000 in the purchase, erection, and introduction of what is now freely admitted to be a most pronounced and envied success. I have shown that tbe company hew it out all rfght and deliver it in first- class condition on to the Government railway waggons at their bins, but it does more. Our loaded waggon Is still at the top of Denniston Hill, a bold, mountain rising up 1800 ft above the eea at its baseband distant from the town of Westporfc some 1Q or a dozen miles in a north-easterly direction, and although we are nob obliged to take it all the way, yet we have a most expensive journey, to make for a part of the way — we^ve got to get down on the -flat at Conn's creek, distant from onr coal bins or ■ starting point some mile and a half, and thence another mile and a half to Waimangaroa railway station— 00 as we are in a

hurry let as get on, as Mr Lindop has got to send down over 130 waggons besides oars. Our- loaded waggon is therefore moved along on its railroad for a chain or so, till it comes to the head of THE DENNISTON HILL INCLINE, which i 3 simply and purely nothing more nor less than the steepest railway line in the world, and at the same time perhaps the most gigantic- undertaking of that sort ever made by public or private enterprise. It has a maximum grade of 1 in 1-34, a ruling grade of 1 in 2.25, and a total length of 85 chains between the top at the bins frequently mentioned and its terminating point— Conn's creek. We see that these inclines are in two lengths (the upper being-35 chains) and have total falls of 823 ft, to what is known as the middle brake, with a maximum grade of 1 in 1 34, whilst the lower, 50 . chains, descending at an average grade of lin 2 25, completes the incline at Conn's creek. The doable lines are for the self-acting purposes of lowering the fall waggons and of palling up the empty ones, and this is how matters are balanced : the full descending waggons, which weigh each about 11 tons, and are fastened to that direct steel wire 4in rope, also serve to draw up the empty attached to another part at the bottom of the hill and now lying between the rails of our parallel line. Bat there is nearly aix tons' too much weight on oar loaded line, and if it be not checked it will runuaway down to eternal smash, so therefore we want a good strong fellow to ease off. This is also provided, and takes the shape of a hydraulic ergine away back in our bin house. Ifcrexembles a pair of high- pressure steam engines coupled ; the cylinders are lft diameter, baring oapacity for a 4ft stroke ; the connecting rods are attached to cranks on a 7£tn steel shaft, on which is a 9ft drum, and around which moves our steel wire rope. Bolted to each cylinder is a large pass pipe tested to a pressure of 6001b to the square inch. Both pipes and cylinders being filled with water, oar loaded waggon may now be beoked on to the wire rope, but ere moving off another oheck rope is also attached go as to ease off the loaded car, which would otherwise plunge over the brow of the incline at the start and cause an undesirable jar on the winding gear. Thus doubly secured, and a signal being given, our car begins to move slowly down, bat is momentarily checked until the check rope is removed, the main winding rope being now taut as a bar and holding the total weight of waggon and load (11 tons). The brakesman now eases off the hydraulic brake, when the weight of the loaded truck on the incline sets the machinery in motion, and as the pistons of our resistive hydraulic engine move forwards and backwards in the cylinders the whole of the water therein is forced through the pass pipes already mentioned from end to end of the cylinders, until the loaded weight nears the foot of the incline, on which a huge tap in the pass pipes regulates the speed of the water, and consequently that of the descending waggons, when the whole of the ponderous machinery slows up and is brought to a standstill with more judgment than many bumana bringing up at the end of a race. Oar 11-ton waggon has now safely negotiated under one minute and a-half the Bteep mile of our incline, and the* empty car has landed and rests on the tableland at the top thereof simultaneously with the arrival at the foot of the fall one. Like all other attachments necessary for the profitable working of the Wcstport Coal Company's mine, this gigantic undertaking does its duty smoothy, satisfactorily, and well. Apart from the facts of the hydranlic brakes being well worthy of a study, the ease and facility with which the speed is regulated, the heavy weight which they lower, and the absolute superiority of their marvellous action, they are proving a source of great profit, as they can deliver easily in a day of eight hoars 300 tons of coal from the mountain-top to the fiat. Yet, much as that is, this portion of the mine with its present staff can produce in three days of eight hours and deliver at the bins 900 tons of coal. But now I must say something else about THE BINS AND OF THE MAN NEB QV LOADING THE STEAM COAL. On the floor of the bins, which is the level on which our string of 400 coal-ladan tubs come, are many tumblers, and into which, steam and gas coal go, each tub being first weighed and noted by the weigh clerk (Mr J. Prentice) before being relieved of their loads. As soon as these tumblers do their work the coal falls direct into the bins, where it waits in feeders for railway waggons to take it away, which latter, as soon as they do come, are speedily loaded. The method adopted for loading the steam coal out of these storage bins is as follows: — A hydraulic press is placed at the end of a line of doors along the bin bottom, and when a waggon is run under a bar of iron is slid through a slit in the door; a lever is next moved by hand which opens an aperture and lets the coal down into the six-ton waggon immediately beneath, which becomes filled under 20 seconds as it moves slowly along on its railroad nnder the bins. The hydraulic press epens and closes the door at will with certainty and precision, and is a most perfect piece of machinery. Then when filled oar steam coal-laden waggon is lowered down the Denniston Hill incline in a similar matter to that of oar household coal. But all tbis cost money, brains, and much anxiety, and bad it not been for the indomitable pluck and perseverance of the company this gigantic success, which I call a national one, would never have been achieved. HOW THE COAL IS BROUGHT FROM THE MINE TO THE BINS. Rsascending to the upper floor of the bins and setting oar faces towards the main tunnel leading to the iron bridge section, and to the coal workings beyond that, we find a lot of interesting things worthy of mention. Like on our incline, we have here doable lines of rails, only the gauge is much narrower, so as to suit the coal tubs. The distance from our point of vantage to the iron bridge is over 80 chains, and all alorjg the tramway -lines are 20 score of tabs, half of which are coming full of coal towards us from the mine, the other 200 empties going from as. This chain of tabs is carried along by an endless 3£-inch steel wire rope going round and over the whole of the .way described, each tab being very ingeniously fastened to the rope by a short chain and ting by locks. The whole affair is almost self-acting, as the loaded tabs

descending the incline also succeed in hauling ap the empties. At each pulley around which this wire rope travels a remarkable contrivance is placed, called a tension trolly, which yields play to the same, otherwise the rope might frequently break and cause endless trouble and loss of time. Bat let as on. Mr Ltadop gets a couple of oil lamps, and we enter the long tunnel leading to the iron bridge and into the mine. Stoop low if you don't want to break your head against the low rock roof. The steel wire rope stops, and we pass between the double rows of fall and empty tubs standing all along the tunnel. What prime loads of freshly-hewn coal ! Why it does not appear as if it needed screening at all, so olean and shining and large is it. Take care that you don't happen against any of the tracks ; they are much harder than your shins, and may unfeelingly argue the passage with you. On we go without any other interruption than a small scalp wound, which only adds to future carefulness. The floor is fairly dry, the roof is not wet, the tunnel's sides are well made, and the air being capital and the lights burning brightly we make speedy progress, so that we soon came out on to the IBON BRIDGE. This is a strongly-built structure thrown across the Waimangaroa creek or gorge to connect the workings in the mine -with the bins now lefi behind us 80 chains to the west. The body of the bridge rests on three iron lattice-worked columns, with two 80ft spans and one 20ft ditto, and has foundations of stone masonry suck well on to the bedrock, which is at its greatest deptb quite 90ft below the railway. It is a substantial structure, and cost the company over £1000. Standing on it midway, and looking straight ahead eastward, you cannot fail to notice the seam of magnificent coal and the tunnel through it. Turning to the right, masses of grey rock tower straight up to the heavens, the ledges of which resemble giddy masonry of castellated towers. Mr Milligan, mine manager for this section, now appears and takes us through the workings, disclosing many thousands of tons of excellent coal standing in sight in hundreds of pillar*, ready to be hewn out as required. In some places the seam i& only 6ft, but in mostothers it is 25ft to 30ft thick, though the general average is 17ft. Here we find at the head of a bord rocks of it two to three tons in weight piled about on the floors of natural vaults ; there up the last bord great uninterrupted walla of coal glisten under the influence of our links ; all around us is the roar — intensified by the myriads of caverns, corridors, and chambers — of incessantly rolling trucks on rail?, steel wire-rope on iron pulleys, the snort of a distant engine, of active hewers' hammers, drills and shovels, diversified by the occasional belch of a powder blast, bringing down from unknown dark heights many tons of wealth. Now and then we come across " steps " — sudden downthrows or upthrows of rock bars which^lmost, cat oat the coal for a yard or so, and alter'the seam's level ; " faults," which^ cut out the mineral for greater distances ; bat these are few, happily. We have now traversed only' about 25 acres of coal pillars headed and bord, which, based on the argument that one acre of ooal lft thick yields 10C0 tons, and this seam averages 17ft, would give 425,000 tons of coal when the whole area is mined out. After seeing thousands of tons of coal in many other pillars, Mr Lindop shows me a water drive now in course of construction, which is for the purpose of draining a certain wet portion of the mine. When completed, this adit will do away with an expensive pump at the other end. COALBBOOKDAIiE— SECTION PBOPEB. This part of the mine is divided into what for convenience sake are respectfully styled the Munsey section, the Cascade, and the Main Dip ; they are really one and the same field, but have two seams, as will be further on more particularly described, the dips being ail to the eastward. Going there last Thursday, Mr Lindop, manager of the Denniston Hill mine, and I were met by Mr John Green, mine manager, at the company's office, which is connected by telephone with the office at Danruston. Provided wish lamps, we follow Me Green *np the first open incliae, which has a grade of 1 in 5 and a length of three chains. On this are double lines of rails, which are need for lowering the coal down in tubs to connect with the endless wire rope incessantly travelling down the main line to the company's line. The motive power is a Targyes steam engine at the top of the incline, which is distant from the office about 20 chains, capable of lowering three 12owfc tubs at once and of drawing up a similar number of empties. Whilst there we observe that it does its work without a hitch. A chain or so on is the Munsey tunnel, which we enter, and are first taken to see the Mansey stables, a 'comfortable, clean, four-stalled place, in one of which contentedly stands one of the underground mine horses. Oace here, a horse hardly ever sees daylight again. Regaining the tunnel, we descend an iodine, catting coal long ere the bottom is reached. Here we are right in the middle of a coal hemisphere — the euperior mineral from which has given the company such a name. Our guide leads off and takes us round and round innumerable streets and pillars of coal, all standing to the east of the tunnel. The average thickness of the coal is 12ft, and we manage to do 14 acres of it, visiting every bord and face and seeing great hardy fellows steadily hewing there. How carefal of their welfare the managers are. Now it is Mr Lindop speaking a cheery time of day ; sometimes raising notes of warning about wanting sprags against risky faces, or props to secure scaly roofs ; or, " Ah, capital coal here, lads ! " Here stood solid, shining walls of coal, so clean' as to soil not on contact therewith. "Mere rocks of it I" piled up. One rock — the result of a shot just fired — was estimated to be quite five tons measurement. Mr Green sounds every roof, wall, and face where men are sometimes working, ordering inßtaut "geourements" at times, but oftener commeudlog the men for the workmanship. All through the tramways are well made, the tubs xun easily ; all the turntables and rail points are perfect ; the horses used in pulling "trucks are extremely well trained", and, in short, here as elsewhere in the mine every facility for -quick despatch, combined with safety in getting onr coal to daylight, is apparent. - After lunch we drive once more into the bowels of the mountain and tra-

' verse for hoars the wealth-lined corridors of the Cascade section, going also up and down small inclines, in more than one of which we find pulsometers, with their clock-like ticks, doing their work on the small quantity of water which here begins to drain. Midway j down the main incline we also come on a pair of Tangyes having Gin and Bin steam and water cylinders. These, under pi eseure of 601b to the square inch, throw ap all the drainage of this part of the mme — wbioh is not more than, I should say 4ln — clear of the workings ; but Mr Lindop told me that when the water drain (about which I shall have something to say anon) is finished, all pumping will be done away with. One, two, six, ten, twenty pillars of coal we walk round and examine — they will bear it. All the coal is of thesatno qaality — bituminous, black, olean, and shinirg — almost pure carbon. Some fragments picked down and falling on heaps lying on the floor of I the tunnel actually ring like glass or falling metal. We have been wandering through a uniform 12ft seam called the lower Oasoade seam, bu.t now we ascend by a ladder a manhole about 12fb high, and stand in what is known as the new mine, or upper seam. Here the seam has an average thickness of 8 ft, but is similar to that below ; the coal is of excellent qaality, and plenty of it too. Sitting down on the nearest coal lump, I get the following questions readily answered by oar friend Lindop : What do you estimate the actual coal area we have traversed through in the Cascade ?—? — Ten chains by 6 chains. The average depth of the ooal in this section bsing 12ct, approximately how much coal have we seen 7— Reckoning 1000 tons to one acre of lrt thick, we would have in the Oasoade 72,000 tons on pillars. How much ooal on pillars did we pass through in the Munsey ?— Fourteen aores on the Munsey section — 168,000 tons. What area is worked and how much coal in Might have we in the new mine 7—7 — Forty acres, average thickness of seam Bft; and area should contain 320,000 tons of coal. We now retrace oar steps, and gaining our starting point, the company's office, and then along a double line tramway, 30 chains in length, we arrive at the entrance to the tunnel leading into the section known as the Main Dip, which has two seams of coal, the lower being 12ft thick and the upper sft ; the depth between each being about 15ft, bat it was found in parts of the workings that both scams join issue. The acreage of coal on pillars is 36 aores. From these portions of the Coalbrookdale mine -i.c , the Mansey and the Cascade — the best coal .is bewn, and from which was obtained all the handsome testimonials from steamers, land engineer?, gas companies, and household consumers, magnificent comparative results, and gold prize exhibition medals. It is from here, also, that the Union Steam Ship Company, tbe New Zealand and the Blderslie Steam Shipping Companies get their full supplies and their great Bteaming power. It was from this sample, too, that H.M.S. Calliope succeeded alone in ■ steaming safely out of Apia harbour in "face of the fiercest hurricane ever known. Here we have nearly half a million tons of coal standing on pillars in sight, and the estimated millions of tons not yet touched, all of which will be profitably mined on the' basis of this company's past successful operations. As I have already remarked, the lower part of this section requires pumping by the joint aid of Tangyes and- pulsometers, and tbat, small as the present inflow of water is, it is always an uncertainty, which may increase in difficulty and in volume as the workings extend further afield and deeper down. Ever mindful of aiiytbiog calculated to retard progress, as they are alive and ready to supply everything in the way of improvements in machinery and facilities for the mine's speedy and profitable working, and scenting mischief ahead, they sent their staff of managers, engineers, and surveyors to work drawing up reports, taking level?, makiDg plans, and preparing estimates for a possible drainage scheme by means of an adit, and no sooner was a way found than the company immediately acted. A line commencing at a point in the mine and terminating at a peg in the Cascade creek, whic 1 ] in turn empties into the B jller river, was described, and tenders were invited and let for driving 33£ chains, which is the total length of the adic. Up till last Thursday 20 chains had been completed, and good progress was continuir g Bat perhaps the happiest effect of the eff jrb, signalising it almost as a stroke of fortune, is the striking in the adit the wonderful wealth of coal in the outcrop -known as the Lady Glasgow, now in the Westport Coal Company's lease. Bat of this discovery I give a fuller description further on. The most encouraging feature here is that this adit will also drain this very large and valuable seam, alorg the lower dip of which it runs, and the company will be enabled to work the coal on this extensive quarter with ease and profit.

( To be continued )