MECHANICAL AND ENGINEERING PROGRESS AS 

 INFLUENCED BY THE MINING INDUSTRY. 



BY JOHN BIRKINBINE. 



[John Birkinbine, president of the Franklin institute; born in Pennsylvania, 1844; 

 educated at Polytechnic college of Pennsylvania; became assistant engineer with the 

 Philadelphia water works in 1870, and since has been the leading American authority 

 on this branch of engineering, having designed and constructed important water sup- 

 plies, water power and blast furnaces; is expert on iron and manganese ores for the 

 United States geological survey; president American Institute of Mining Engineers, 

 1891-3.] 



Travelers through the country always are enthusiastic 

 at the number of imposing mills and factories, and point with 

 satisfaction to these evidences of development; and if a train 

 is scheduled to arrive at an industrial center when crowds of 

 well dressed artisans are going to or returning from their daily 

 labor, the appreciation of the value of these industries to the 

 workingman and to the state is emphasized. But journeys 

 through mining districts, as a rule, offer fewer evidences of 

 great achievements; for beyond the head and power houses 

 or the breakers of mines, stocks of mine timber, rows of miners' 

 cottages, and, in some cases, great piles of mine refuse, there 

 is little on the surface to indicate what is being accomplished ; 

 and it is only occasionally that the mine openings are located 

 near enough together to permit of any considerable concen- 

 tration of working forces. Even if the miners are seen en route 

 to or from work, the division of labor into shifts of from eight 

 to twelve hours each, and the necessity of lifting the miners 

 in small companies from below the surface, usually prevent any 

 large assemblage of workmen. There are exceptional mining 

 localities where a number of shafts are close together, and hun- 

 dreds of men and boys may be seen at one time, but even in 

 these instances the grime of the underground life has a tend- 

 ency to detract from the effect upon the general observer. 



Thousands of miners toihng deep in the earth's strata are 

 not only lost to sight, but generally entirely forgotten by the 

 public, until an Avondale fire, a Twin shaft cave, or an explo- 

 sion, sacrifices such a number of lives as to appall the com- 



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