March 1, 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



285 



The Uses of Rubber in iMining. 



THE mineral industries of the Three Americas arc enor- 

 mous factors in the sales of inrlia rubber manufac- 

 lurid goods. The past year's production of minerals 

 from mines at home and abroad that are controlled by 

 domestic capital is estimated at two and one-half billions of 

 dollars. The annual production lias been almost doubled 

 since the year 1900. In rank of mineral production, Pennsyl- 

 vania has been for many years in the first place. But the 

 center of di.stributioii of all kinds of rubber products for our 

 mineral industries is Chicago. Hose is a large item in 

 purchases by mines. There are in our country, Canada and 

 Mexico, probably 100,000 mines which use rock drills. Under 

 present conditions, at least 850,000 rock drills are at work, 

 and the average length of hose for each drill is 100 feet. In 

 no other indus- 

 try are condi- 

 tions as hard 

 against the life 

 of hose as in 

 most of the 

 deep mines. 



George W. 

 Salisbury, o f 

 Chicago, was 

 the father of the 

 present-day sys- 

 tem of making 

 hose especially 

 for deep mines 

 where the tem- 

 perature is high. 

 Before going in- 

 to the rubber 

 business he had 

 operated v c r y 

 large t e .\ t i 1 e 

 mills in New 

 England, and 

 then engaged in 

 the making ai 

 rubber goods in 

 the same locality 



before going West. He found a .ijreat deal of leather hose 

 in use in Western mines, due to the fact that most of the 

 mine captains and engine drivers and machinists were 

 Cornish or Welsh, and adhered to old English practices. 

 Most of that leather hose was made in the mine shops, and 

 was slushed with grease in the belief that the grease largely 

 increased its life. In 1883 George W. Salisbury brought out 

 a special hose for mine work under the extremely trying 

 condition.s which existed in Montana and Nevada deep mines, 

 where the average temperature was 110 degs. F. In one 

 of John W. Mackay's mines at that time the men could not 

 work more than twenty minutes at a time before keeling 

 over in a faint, because of the high degrees of humidity and 

 heat. In that mine the Salisbury pattern deep mine hose, 

 wire wound on the surface, worked so well that even the 

 Cornishnicn admitted its superiority to the leather kinds. 



Several tires in big mines in Pennsylvania that have been 

 going on for many years, and which have been walled off 

 at enormous co.st to confine them within a fixed area, could 

 have been put out when they started if the mines had been 

 equipped with good hose. One fire has been burning in 



-Montana since ISSl, and has destroyed many millions of 

 dollars' worth of copper and silver ores. One in Pennsyl- 

 vania has been burning over fifty years. Fire protection in 

 mines lagged until good rubber hose came into general use. 

 Today, every well equipped mine has a mine fire department 

 with special pumps and mains and hose equipment main- 

 tained in the highest condition of efficiency, and rigorously 

 inspected by the chief engineer. The timber used for props 

 in mines in North America required the cutting down of well 

 grown trees from an area equal to that of New York State 

 and Rhode Island — 50,420 square miles. Every year sees 

 timber that represents the stripping of the trees from an 

 area equal to four times that of New York City — 1,308 square 

 miles — put down the mouths of mines for props and other 



purposes. This 

 gives an ade- 

 quate idea o f 

 the value of a 

 well equipped 

 mine fire de- 

 partment in 

 minimizing fire 

 risks as to mine 

 timbering. 



A great d eal 

 of suction hose 

 is used by the 

 mining industry, 

 and as all well- 

 managed mines 

 and quarries to- 

 day are officered 

 by technical en- 

 gineers, the hose 

 specifications de- 

 mand the best 

 to be had. .'\ 

 recent large 

 shipment of suc- 

 tion hose for 

 mine systems 

 was made by a 

 local pump making w-orks to the gold mines of the richest 

 native prince in East India. About sixteen billion gallons 

 of water had to be pumped out of his mines, that have been 

 flooded to the top of the collars since 1860. Almost three- 

 fourths of the rock drills in use at the great gold and 

 diamond mines of South Africa are made in this country, 

 and so far as the orders of the chief engineers of those 

 mines — mostly Americans — can be carried out, the hose and 

 fittings of rubber for these machines are shipped from this 

 country. 



The stock of rubber hose and rubber packing carried in 

 the stores of the gold mines near Johannesburg, South 

 .Africa, is estimated at $175,000. Stocks thereof at the Kira- 

 berley diamond fields are estimated at $100,000. Specifica- 

 tions for rubber hose and packing are rigidly drawn and 

 only the best grades are used. 



In the mining, engineering and kindred industries there is 

 developing a country-wide movement to buy rubber hose 

 in accordance with specifications drawn with particularity, 

 to ensure the best possible wearing qualities. The principal 

 reas"it (nr thi^; demand for hieh erade hose is because 



Rock Drill in Deki' Gold Mine in South .Afric.v. 



