Mechanized Miner

The timing could hardly have been better. Last week, in the second week of the coal strike, the Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Co. let it be known that it had conducted successful experiments with a new machine which cuts, crumbles and loads coal in one continuous operation. The machine promised to revolutionize the mining industry, which is already highly mechanized, and make mere button-pushers out of miners.

Mechanical miners that do all the work from coal seam to mine car are nothing new. Mining engineers have been trying them with limited success for years. But coal men cheered the vast improvements in this one as the "most serious start" ever made towards simplifying their complex operations.

The new machine was invented by Har old F. Silver of Denver, a designer for the sugar-beet industry. He tackled the problem shortly before the war at the request of a Colorado coal company, perfected his mining machine in 1947, then sold the patents to Pittsburgh's Joy Manufacturing Co. Joy, leading mine-machinery maker in the U.S., added the results of its own research to Silver's design, and began tests in the lignite fields of Colorado last year. But the tests at the Pittsburgh Consolidation mine in Daisytown, Pa. were the first in a regular coal mine.

Both Joy and Pittsburgh Consolidation tried to keep all details top secret, but some leaked out. The "Joy Continuous Miner," as it is called, is under 25 feet long, weighs less than 20 tons and moves on caterpillar treads. It has powerful cutting arms which first dig into the face of a seam at floor level, then cut their way up to the roof. As it is cut and broken, a conveyer system carries the coal back over the machine directly into cars, in which it is hauled to the surface.

In uninterrupted succession, the mechanical miner thus performs three separate operations--cutting, breaking and loading--which currently require separate crews and machines in even the most highly mechanized mines. More important, it entirely eliminates blasting and all its dangers. Requiring only two operators, with additional crews for handling the cars, etc., the machine may easily displace as much as 50% of all mining personnel.

The Joy Continuous Miner will not solve the labor problem in coal mines. John L. Lewis once said that he would rather have 100,000 union members secure in their jobs than 400,000 who were insecure. But mine operators were anxious to see the machine. One of them has ordered 30, sight unseen. Joy hopes to have commercial models ready by year's end.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.