COAL CUTTING AT PUPONGA.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12405, 21 November 1908, Page 5 (Supplement)

COAL CUTTING AT PUPONGA.

♦ INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY. Mr C. Y. Foil, manager and attorney for the Pupouga Coal Mining Co., Ltd., in New Zealand, returned this week from a visit to the mines, where the Ingersoll Sergeant "Kadialax" coal-cutters have been installed. Although there were large quantities of coal available the company found that by hand work they were making a dead. loss each month, and on the advice of Mr E. A. Paterson, the mining engineer, it was decided ■to install these machines, which enable the coal to be mined at less expense and with much less waste. The machine is designed especially for the work of shearing and entry driving, and in - operation it lias shown itself fully capable of meeting all requirements in coal mining work. As an under i cutting machine it ecouomicall and rapidly undercuts headings to a deptli o fabout eight; feet and a -width -of twelve feet at a "single setting, and used' as a shearing machine it will shear one or both sides of an entry with speed and economy,, from the floor of the mine to a depth of eight feet. The drill or cutter is mechanically directed and all operations are performed without any shock or jar to the operator. This machine appears to have solved the problem that has perplexed and balked the coal mining operator since coal mining began — the problem of rapid and economical development, for by- its use entrios can be driven in less than half the time required .by band methods. Being mounted upon a plain vertical column it can be easily raised or. lowered aud applied to an undercut at any point between roof and floor, or it can be used to remove slate bands or other impurities that, are found -in the seams, leaving the coal as mined cleaned and ready for the market. The machine operates with compressed air, and delivers a six hundred pound blow at the rate of about three hundred a- minute, making a cut from 4t> inches at tlie face to 2£ inches at the bottom* It is believed to be the first machine of the kind installed in New. Zealand. The prospects at Puponga are looking well, and another drive lias been opened 'out in a new mine which will be known as-the Puponga "B" mine.