COAL MINES OF JACKSON COUNTY. 1013 
other markets. J. A. Long & Co. also send part of the product of their 
mine, the Eureka, to Ironton, for furnace use. 
The first furnace built at Jackson, called the “Orange,” was erected 
in 1863. This furnace has not been in blast during the past 10 years, 
but is still standing. 
The Star Furnace, which was erected in 1866, is one of the most 
successful of the county. Last year it made a fraction less than 7,000 
tons of metal, the daily product of the furnace, when running, being 
about 21 tons. The average amount of coal used daily was 1,460 
bushels, or 58 and }2 tons, besides about 4 of Connellsville coke. This 
represents the daily output of screened coal of the mine, none being 
shipped to market. 
The Star shaft is 50 feet deep; the coal varies from 3 to 4 feet in 
height, receding below 3 feet on the hills in the mine. The coal is a 
homogeneous mass. The mine makes a little fire-damp, and has done so 
ever since it was opened. 
Owing to the irregular floor of the coal seam, systematic mining 
cannot always be followed, the hills and hollows encountered perplexing 
the mining engineer. Four pumps are used in the Star mine to drain 
the workings of water, the aggregate capacity of which is 500 gallons 
per minute, and they are all run day and night. The size of the shaft 
is 8x16 feet, divided into three compartments, two for hoisting and one 
for pumping and for the ingress and egress of the miners in case of 
accident. 
The Tropic mine of the Tropic Iron Co. was formerly located along 
side the blast furnace, but in December, 1879, the workings were inun- 
dated with water, the roof having given way in a room driven directly 
under Salt Creek. The water was pumped out, and the fallen area 
filled with clay and furnace cinder. In 1880 the roof again gave way 
under Salt Creek, and the workings were again filled up. The mine 
was a second time pumped dry, and the course of the creek changed, 
but the proprietors,: dreading accident, abandoned the workings alto- 
gether in 1882, and located a new shaft ¢ of a mile east from dangerous 
excavation. The Tropic Iron Co., in thus voluntarily abandoning a 
dangerous mine rather than run the risk of sacrificing human life by an 
inundation of water, is deserving of special mention. Such disinterested- 
ness is rare indeed. 
This new shaft is 93 feet deep. The workings make fire-damp, 
