Show cc cc cc r cc a aaa a a aa j a 44 lw w steel freab frames at mines wm 11 U the past four years nearly D 1 all of the large mines of butte montana have had their top works 1 rearranged arranged re and rebuilt re built this change has been brought about chiefly because the existing appliances were too light for the increasing depth of the mines and the increased loads it was desirable to raise other causes also were considered in making these changes one result be that an entirely different and more economical method of ore handling has been adopted in some instances new shafts were sunk some of the old shaft houses were destroyed by fire and in many instances t the h e wooden buildings were taken down and in all such cases fine s steel t e e I 1 structures have been erected in their place and solely to avoid future possibility of loss by fire in the history of mining operations at butte and up to the beginning of the year 1897 it was the general practice to build the hoist house so that it would entirely cover the head frame with the hoisting engine in the ahe rear of the building attached to the building would be the carpenter shop and peril il a p s t the h q blacksmith shop and the boiler roam room the machine shop building compressor room rope house and other buildings would be attached to or very close to the hoist house these buildings were invariably all of wood with the exception of a few boiler houses which had been constructed of steel the head frames were all of wood and at that time prior to the date men camp and their use was almost immediately and universally adopted by all of the large minin mining a companies the first mine to be thus equipped was the st lawrence belonging to the anaconda company the head frame was made entirely of steel and was ninety seven feet high from with an eight inch brick curtain wall the boiler house is some distance away and is a steel structure covered with corrugated iron the blacksmith shop and carpenter shop are each separate buildings and are of steel construction st the same general arrangement of frame and buildings applies to AF ax h 96 at k v K 7 N ilk av A r va N 1 AL 4 tinned had been built to heights varying from forty to seventy feet the buildings thus grouped together greatly increased the liability of fire and they covered in most instances valuable machinery inconsequence of which the insurance item became very large these were the conditions when steel buildings were first introduced into this great the top of the foundation to the center of the sheaves the frame is ia not in any way enclosed by a building at the rear rear of the frame is the engine house which is just large enough conveniently for the engine and is used for no other purpose the building is completely fire fireproof proof being built with steel posts and steel roof the sides being filled nearly all of the mines of butte which have been recently equipped the principal features being that the structures are all fireproof fire proof that they are built separately and that the head frames are not covered by a building of any description the shaft shaf t at the st lawrence is vertical and is now down a depth of something over 2000 feet the ore is raised in skips containing seven tons each which are a r e filled through chutes at the different levels level and dumped automatically at the top among other steel frames frame s since built might be mentioned the hoist at the west calusa mine belonging to the boston montana company the head frame has a height of seventy feet to cente sheaves the frame at the anaconda mine belonging to the anaconda company is sixty feet in height the steward mine ow owned ned by ron hon W A dark clark which is worked through an incline shaft is equipped with a similar hoist fifty five feet in height to the center of the sheaves the head frames at the high ore and diamond mines owned by the anaconda company are duplicates and are the largest and heaviest yet built in butte their height beina being 1 feet to center of sheaves the shafts are vertical and the frames are figured to hoist ten tons of ore at each trip from a depth of feet if ne necessary cessare ces sary views of each of these frames are shown in the accompanying illustrations the S pecoular Spec pec tular mine belonging to the Spec tular mining company has a frame fifty feet in height the shaft being vertical the construction construction of this frame is the lightest of any in the camp but it gives excellent satisfaction and hoists hard loads with very little vibration the frames at the mountain view and leonard shafts belonging to the boston montana vIon tana mining company are practically duplicates the height of frame is eighty feet and shaft vertical A aa frame is isnow now being built at the parrot mine the dimensions are exactly the same as at the high ore and diamond mines but the metal is about thirty per cent lighter the entire top works of this mine were destroyed by fire last summer and all the structures have been rebuilt re built of fireproof fire proof material butte has undoubtedly established the of steel in the con st ruction of g gallows a 11 0 w s frames some of these frames have been subjected to very severe strains all of them have very hard quick k service the vibration in the frames especially t those h 0 s e last built has been reduced until it is s scarcely c a r c e I 1 y perceptible these frames if properly painted should last almost indefinitely the steel frame has this advantage that itcan easily be t taken a k e n down and moved to some other mine this is evidenced by the fact that three mines in in butte have frames practically alike and two other mines have duplicates regarding the cost of these frames when compared with woo wood 1 it is probable that the stee steel frame can be built even cheaper than the wood and especially so for the larger structures structure S in fact it would be difficult to build a frame of wood feet high capable of withstanding for any length of time the strains to which the high ore and diamond frames are subjected for the smaller frames perhaps the steel would cost a little more than the wood however steel frames fifty feet high are being built and erected complete for less than |