chanical skill the very shaft on which the wheel re- 

 volves is in its taper and make to avoid the slight- 

 est tendency to warping a model of skilful adapta- 

 tion. Black, Hawthorn & Co., of Gateshead-on- 

 Tyne, Eng., are the makers of the Guibal fan, which 

 is doing such excellent work. The great cost of in- 

 stalling this fan in the first instance is outweighed by 

 the complete security it yields from the insidious 

 enemies of mining the gaseous emanations, weak 

 and foul air, the causes of many a calamity and great 

 destruction of life in the past history of coal mining. 

 But no earthly good without its attendant drawback, 

 which in the use of the fan system of ventilation, is 

 that the "breeze of wind" passing along the working 

 wayse dries all accumulated dust, and should a blown- 

 out shot of an isolated explosion occur, the almost 

 imponderable dust is diffused so as to make it a dan- 

 gerous, inflammable and explosive mixture. This 

 contingency is provided against, so far as possible, 

 by sprinkling water in the dry and dusty districts 

 of the mine. Besides the large fan is another on the 

 Murphy plan for use in case of emergency. In an ad- 

 joining building is the engine for this auxiliary fan 

 and also an air compressor, going night and day sup- 

 plying power for small pumps and hoisting gear in 

 dipping places below. 



On the way to the No. i shaft is a forest of prop- 

 wood of all sizes and lengths, and there are piles of 

 lagging for timbering the mines, rolls of Hessians 

 (canvas) prepared with tar, for curtains, to divide and 

 turn the air, food for mules; and these with the num- 

 erous supplies used daily in working the mine, are 

 loaded on cars and put on the cages at the surface 

 landing of the shaft in the intervals of hoisting runs 

 of coal. By ascending a flight of steps the pit-head 

 of No. i, about twenty-five feet above the ground, 

 is reached. This pit-head or bank, is built of heavy 

 balks of fir, 16x16, set crosswise, so as not to obstruct 

 the flow of air and yet sustain the weight and pres- 

 sure of the pit-head winding frame and gear which 

 rises to a height of fifty feet above the platform of the 

 bank. The pit-head is well housed, and is a snug re- 



