COAL MINING. 351 
Wicks and Wells, the owners and projectors of the enterprise. A 
powerful hoisting engine of 400 horse power, built by E. P. Allis & Co., 
ot Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and two bucket water-pumps, each of 27-inch 
bore, 6-feet stroke, and capable, while running 10 strokes to the minute, 
of discharging 3,500 gallons of water per minute, the pumps being 
designed by H. Hackney, Esq., Superintendent of the Mahoning Works, 
and built at the shops uf the company in Youngstown, were applied for 
hoisting and pumping. Everything being in readiness, the pumps were 
started up in November, 1880; when the water was lowered to the depth 
of 136 feet in the shaft, one of the workmen accidentally dropped a 
steel wedge into one of the pumps, which stopped it, and it was found 
necessary to take this pump out to remove the wedge; in doing so the 
shaft again filled with water. In a few days the work of pumping was 
again resumed, and six weeks later the mine was pumped dry, and the 
miners, after an absence of five years, ventured down the shaft, and 
commenced mining operations. The mine having but one opening, and 
the excavations that had been made requiring a second opening, as pro- 
vided in the mining law of the State, an escape shaft, or traveling way, 
was sunk into the mine, for the egress of the miners in case of accident, 
to the hoisting shaft. This traveling way was completed only two days, 
when the wooden structure covering and surrounding the hoisting shaft 
caught fire from a spark from the smoke-stack, and was burned to the 
ground. The miners found safe egress through the second outlet or 
traveling way ; had there been but one opening, every soul underground 
at the time of the fire would have speedily and inevitably perished. 
The fire, which ocenrred on the 21st of August, 1881, having 
destroyed all the buildings covering and surrounding the shaft, and dis- 
abled the pumping and hoisting machinery, all the subterranean excava- 
tion were again filled with water. The company at once commenced 
rebuilding the works and repairing the machinery, and on the 15th 
of October following, the pumps were again started up, and a month 
later the mine was once more pumped dry. ‘There is an excitement in 
mining, unknown, perhaps, to any other industry, hence, all the mis- 
fortunes of this ill-fated mine have not in the least daunted the courage 
of the mine owners, or alarmed the fearless spirit of the miners, and 
work was resumed with the same degree of cheerfulness as in the begin- 
ning of the enterprise. 
The mines in the Steubenville district, in Jefferson county, are 
