Show flair IN A BIG COA L min I 1 A MILLION TONS OF anthracite UNDER GROUND A an int immense e is n tied 11 of d 9 coal C 1 1 ered by O clr thirty feet of solid ua hai resisted for over el eighteen eteen scan years all at to quench the 1 lame in 1873 a fire broke out in the inside slope 0 ot f no 6 colliery near lansford Lan stord in this state AD and 1 I it is raging still till with all the fury which the cry very best of 0 fuel can ghe give it it Is in aa a bed ot of coal 2000 feet long 30 feet thick and feet deep and though it la Is cover covered edwith with rock and lay to a depth ranging rau glos from thirty to fifty feet the antones intones stones oa on the surf earice poe at are r e s so 0 heated that a parlor match laid on oil them h e m wl will 1 men I 1 ignite la in an lo 10 betant la in one ione spot the men employed at tb the diamond dimond drill light their pipes with the superheated super heated pebbles there Is very little external evidence ot of the iare save the constantly rising vapor and the noxious gas that the air and at times kills birds and small animals that linger too long in the neighborhood the early history of no 6 was very uneventful until etwas it was opened some thirty odd old years ago by old jim andrews Andrew saud and was worked on the water level for some years without serious acci dent and without producing any considerable quantity cf coal the gangways ways were turned east andrest and west at a point yards vertically erti cally below the surface a and u d a number numan of breasts were opened an and d continued to be worked until the lehigh coal and gaviga on company reclaimed the place the company originally obtained control of the largest tracts upon the rental of an ear of corn per year but as may readily be imagined mael ned in lieu of paying payin g the great increase of rent demanded when the developments had bad been made the company acquired title in fee it the 1 he workings were all opened from th the e 11 toot foot of the elope slope and the machinery for pumping and hoisting was ivas not only in place but working a along long smoothly v when hen the fire broke out it Is alleged that a handful of oily cotton waste used about the machinery aud and carried perhaps by the rat rats up the elope slope and behind the timbers ignited spontaneously and caused a conflagration which has since cost A fortune in cash and coal it is estimated that a yard of coal in the vein weighs a ton the dimensions of the area in which the fire is inow fined and beyond which jt it cannot ext extend su eod her hereafter earter indicates cubic yards lardner or tons of coil coal cavoli invoked ed from this must be deducted the small amount which old jim andrews an and 1 I his big successors mined and the portion w which may eventually be saved OTHER en TIKES fines IN MINES prom from all OTH these thebe circumstance the statement will be the more readily credited that 4 in all the hundred of mine fires la in the an ir th region the one at no 6 is unique there aro are other others which have burned longer kast pine knot a few miles from potts ville has burned more than thirty years ears without working ene on quarter equart so much destruction st at Wa wadesville desville in the same neighborhood there Is lea a mine which alch has burned forty years and at night Is 1 quite volcanic in appearance but which likewise did vastly less legs damage and was wad not fought with the persistency which marked the efforts at no nor did it exhibit the stubborn resistance and energy which this has shown there are numberless instances of inter nal fires which had bad much greater reater ff start t than ban this a and mere sub subdued tied ia in a bhart time but they were below the water level and were quenched by turning a stream of water into the blazing subterranean re c borses ats in the case of no 0 the alre started bel below ow tho the wt r level 11 l betit tat lie aar rapidly upward that while the me slope alre was soon drowned out there was no 0 known ino way of checking its progress a abw vs e water level except by shutting out the air that is needed to support combustion this was the first effort made brattices Bratt ices were built across the gangways gang stopping every hole and crevice acrel ice which air could reach the lire fire the mine was hermetically sealed all pumping of water and air was suspended and men were left to watch the result in two v weaks acks when reopened it was found that t the fire burned with increased fury the I 1 attempt to smother it was a IL failure then an effort was made to draw the fire and avid men were engaged ia la mining the glowing rio ing coale coals until one after another they were overcome by the heat and gas and several jives live were endangered ATTEMPTS TO rut OUT THE FIRE at var various ions times men were so fir far gone that their recovery was doubtful general superintendent william D I 1 zehner was carried out in an unconscious condition and for halt half a day he lay in the brushwitz brush with excited men working over his inanimate body another man was packed 1 I in an en delope of moist clay with nop no part art of his skin exposed but that which covered hia his nostrils and thus he be lay for hours before returning life became apparent the third attempt was by drowning D dams ams and brattices bratt ices were constructed acro across ss the tunnels two dams of brick laid in the best cement were w ere built across 6 0 aria one on the other bide across no 11 7 whick cuts all the tho veins and extends I 1 right through tigh the entire mountain was poured in int yet y tr 1 were surface indications Indication 3 that the alre was still rising raging wherever these indications ap appeared it 16 was a sign that there the fire lire was getting air and clay was piled upon the spot by men employed tor for the single purpose of watching tor for these manifest alons at one time an effort was ande to destroy the atmospheric air by the introduce tilon through A drill hole of lime and nitric acid gas a and at other times other gases have been manufactured high up on locust in mountain side bide and forced in upon the burning burning mass bat but without having the slightest apparent edict effect upon the energy ot of tb the e fl flames arnes thus th US the unequal contest was waged un 1 ji 1 ty until IM 1830 when vi ben all hope of ex the alre was abandoned aban donel audit and it waa was decided to cut the fire off or rather rather to confine it to definite area 2000 feet long by deep cute cuts transversely vein eln philadelphia press |