THE CONNELLSVILLE COKE REGION 197 



change took place in the operation, methods, and appliances. 

 Coal lands advanced in price from $12.00 per acre to $1,000, 

 and at this day even $1,500 per acre is not thought a pro- 

 hibitive figure. The drift mines, with their single entries, 

 natural drainage and ventilation, mule motive power, and 

 an output of a hundred tons or so per day, gave way to immense 

 plants, such as the Standard Shaft mine of the H. C. Frick 

 Coke company, at Mount Pleasant, Pa. (the largest coke plant 

 on earth), with its batteries of 908 blazing coke ovens con- 

 suming daily over 3,000 tons of coal and turning out daily 

 125 carloads of the silvery fuel that fears no rival. There, 

 the drift or adit is replaced by the shaft that pierces hundreds 

 of feet vertically the rocky stratum that but a few years ago 

 was thought to seal from man its treasure of black diamonds. 

 The mule is replaced by enormous engines; natural drainage 

 by huge pumps; natural ventilation, by powerful fans; the 

 hand dump, by the steam ram or pusher ; and the lard oil 

 torch, by the electric light. Single entries are replaced by 

 double and triple entries, and they and the rooms and pillars 

 are laid out and driven with mechanical precision. 



There are many fine operations among the 89 estab- 

 lishments that are marshalled under the generalship of the 

 leaders of this great industry. I shall outline one of the 

 giant plants, the Oliver Coke works of the Oliver & Snyder 

 Steel company, located at Oliver, near Uniontown, Fayette 

 county, Pa. 



This plant, with its battery of 708 coke ovens, is the 

 second largest in the world, and it is to a very great extent 

 the result of the energy and foresight of Messrs. H. W. and 

 George T. Oliver, iron and steel manufacturers, of Pitts- 

 burg. The mine workings are reached by two shafts, 415 

 feet and 387 feet, respectively, in depth. The workings 

 proper were developed under the six heading system, i.e., six 

 parallel entries, protected by pillars of coal 600 feet in total 

 width. The mine workings cover an area of 900 acres, which 

 are, in turn, connected together by 46 miles of entries. The 

 total area of the coal field at present tributary to the mine 

 is 1,400 acres leased from the estate of WiUiam Thaw, de- 

 ceased, and more will be added when required. The coal 



