Lethbridge Colliery, Alberta, N.W.T. 1885
In the Lethbridge colliery there are two seams of coal
separated by a thin layer (about one inch) of slate. These seams are undulating and very regular, their combined
thickness being about five feet two inches.
The system of working is that of laying off "rooms" at right
angles to the double "entries" (each being nine feet wide) which
are driven "over the butt" of the coal. The "rooms" are run nine feet wide a distance of 15 feet back
from the "entries" when they are then widened out to 20 feet. By
this means all the coal is extracted, leaving pillars 15 x 24
feet along the sides of the "entries" to support the roof.
The company has introduced six American coal mining machines
and two air drills; these machines greatly facilitate the mining
and enable the company at any time to greatly increase their
output, should the demand require it.
The power employed to work the machines is compressed air
manufactured by a Norwalk compressor 20-inch cylinder with
24-inch stroke and weighs about 15 tons. In connection with this
compressor, there are three reservoirs for storing the air,
about 5,000 feet of five-inch main pipe and about 5,000 feet of
one-and-a-half-inch pipe for the purpose of conveying the air to
the various workings of the mine. The compressor is situated in
the same building with a 60 H. P. hoisting engine, which hauls
the trucks out of the valley, 2,200 feet up an inclined railway
on to the "Bankhead", where the coal is dumped into chutes and
discharged into the railway cars, which stand on scales below.
Compressed air is also utilized for pumping water out of the
mines, running the emery wheel for sharpening tools and
[running] the forge in the blacksmith's shop. Three large
tubular boilers are employed for making steam for the hoisting
engine and compressor.
Total expenditures during the year [1885] on Capital Account
amounts to $38,283.00 while Working Expenditure was $177,480.00. Total expenditure up to 31st December 1885 [presumably from
April 1882] on Capital Account amounts to $175,180.52 while the
Working Expenditure up to the same date amounts to $201,323,85.
C. A. Magrath
Lethbridge, Alberta
This article is extracted from Alex
Johnston, Keith G. Gladwyn and L. Gregory Ellis.
Lethbridge: Its Coal Industry (Lethbridge, Lethbridge:
City of Lethbridge, 1989), Occasional Paper No. 20, The
Lethbridge Historical Society. The Heritage Community
Foundation and the Year of the Coal Miner Consortium (of which
the City of Lethbridge is the lead partner) would like to thank
the authors for permission to reprint this material.
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