. Off-hand sketches : a companion for the tourist and traveller over the Philadelphia, Pottsville, and Reading railroad . ther track,the bell is again rung, and the empty car descends and the loaded oneascends, as before. This hoisting and lowering of cars is alwaysgoing on with despatch during the day-time, and sometimes whole night, there being often two sets of hands and miners, one forthe day and the other for the night. The time usually occupied forbringing up a car is about one minute, which includes attaching toand detaching the car from the chain, &c. Where from one to twohu
. Off-hand sketches : a companion for the tourist and traveller over the Philadelphia, Pottsville, and Reading railroad . ther track,the bell is again rung, and the empty car descends and the loaded oneascends, as before. This hoisting and lowering of cars is alwaysgoing on with despatch during the day-time, and sometimes whole night, there being often two sets of hands and miners, one forthe day and the other for the night. The time usually occupied forbringing up a car is about one minute, which includes attaching toand detaching the car from the chain, &c. Where from one to twohundred tonts of coal are prepared and shipped daily, (besides the ANTHRACITE COAL FORMATION 189 refuse and accumulated rubbish of the mine, which must be broughtup,) it Tvill be seen that it forms one of the most important featuresin mining. The next feature in mining is that of preparing the coal for market,that is, cleaning it from the slate and earthy matter that sometimes ismixed with it, and breaking it in suitable sizes for the various pur-poses required. The coal dirt, consisting of small particles of coal. FIG. 54.—COAL BREAKER. and slate, besides various kinds of earthy matter excavated in themine, is hauled out and deposited in heaps along the sides of the hills,where it sometimes forms large elevations. The loaded coal cars,which are here represented as coming from a drift, or a mine abovewater-level, are seen on the left, running, by a slight inclination, tothe Coal Breaker, which is represented in fig. 54. To fully retainthe idea, the loaded cars are seen coming out of the mine, and goingdirectly to the Breaker works. The Breaker machinery is, of course,erected as near to the mouth of the mine as local circumstances willadmit, and considerable elevation is necessary in order to break andprepare the coal at as little expense as possible. The side of a hill istherefore preferred, as a railroad to conduct the coal from the mouthof the mine to the Breaker can easily b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidoffhandsketc, bookyear1854
