Show fortunes sunk in mines with ncr eased and increasing de mand for coal the necessity for opening our lower steams the deeper shafts meant heavier capital expends ture in the coll ery enterprise it is worthy of remark how little the out side realizes the great biffl cuttles that have often to be overcome in sinking such as passing through water bearing strata or running sands or of the enormous cost el by some colliery developments As early as john buddle in giving evidence before the house of lords declared that the cost of sink ing even then was frequently 50 to 75 and J taylor stated before a select committee on rating of mines in that at haswell colliery m the county of durham was expended in contending with a quicksand and that the shaft had ulal to be abandoned at murton colliery a few miles distant from has well 1 BOO was expended in sink ing the quantity of water pumped during the operation of passing through the overlying magne limestone bed abound to an aver age of 9 gallons a minute from a depth of feet and the three shafts ultimately reached the hulton seam at a depth of 1 feet from the sur face in april 1843 many deep and costly sin kings several much deeper than in the last instance have been put down since the murton winning but none I 1 be lieve at a greater expenditure of capital owing doubtless to the greatly improved methods now employed in carrying on such operations through watery strata notably the kind chau dron system whereby the shaft 13 bored out and the side protected by metal cylinders lowered from the sur face and the or methods whereby the water is in the running sand or other water bearing stratum and the shaft bunh through the solid mass engineering magazine |