A Production Befitting a King
By Sheena Delazio, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader
May 20–It’s no secret coal used to be king in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Although far from its peak, the coal industry was still booming 50 years ago. In that year, approximately 45,442,000 net tons of anthracite coal were produced in Pennsylvania, where 75,377 people were employed in the anthracite industry.
At the time there were 359 Pennsylvania anthracite breakers, mines, steam coal plants and river washery sites in operation, according to the 1951 edition of the “Anthracite Mining Manual” distributed by the Wilmot Engineering Company in White Haven.
So how did less than 76,000 people produce nearly 600 times more coal then there were workers?
The mining process
Older residents remember the days of coal and the intricacies of the industry but generations born since likely don’t know about the process or the terminology.
In the 1950s, the coal mining process started with an air drill. Into the drilled hole went dynamite and a blasting cap. The coal seam was blasted to accelerate the extraction. “We would wait until the end of the day to blast because of the dust. It would settle by the next day so we could work,” said Tom Supey Jr., of Pittston, and operator of the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour in Scranton.
Supey and his brother Andy and their father Tom Sr. have been operating the underground mine since its reconstruction in 1977.
And the trio is no strangers to the black diamond.
The Supeys owned their own small mine company in West Wyoming in the 1960s, where they and a team of at least 10 men would go underground and mine for coal. Because the small mine operation didn’t have its own breaker, once the coal was mined, it would be shipped to the Harry E. Breaker in Swoyersville for cleaning and sorting before sale.
Back at the mine and after the dust settled, the miners would go underground and extract the coal, and load it onto a conveyor belt. “The conveyor would dump the coal on another conveyor, and then another, like a piggy-back system,” Tom Jr. said. “And then the coal would spill out on the ground.”
Once out of the mine, a payloader would move the coal into a truck, that would bring the coal to the breaker in Swoyersville, which has since been razed.
“At the breaker, impurities are taken out, like dirt, and then washed and sized,” Tom Jr. said.
Sizes of coal were broken down into five basic sizes. Broken pieces, egg size, stove (the size of coal used to burn in a stove), chestnut size and pea size. Then there were stages like Buck #1 (size of buckwheat), Buck #2 (the size of rice), Buck #3 (the size of barley) and Buck #4 (pieces smaller than barley and even smaller.)
Through tests run in 1944 by Wilmot of coal coming from the Lehigh Coal Company, some coal ranged in sizes from 53 to 73 pounds, depending on size and percentage of coal to rock.
The Wilmot Engineering Company sold machinery to aid coal companies in the manufacturing of coal. After coal was mined and brought to the surface, it would undergo several stages before being available for purchasing.
Machines such as the Wilmot Hydrotator were used in the coal cleaning process at a breaker. Raw coal would enter the chute in to a suspension tank. Lighter coal would rise and overflow into a launder, then to a dewatering shaker, and then be discharged from the machine.
Larger coal would settle at the bottom of the suspension tank and pass through a butterfly valve. Then, the coal would be sent up a conveyor belt, and discharged from the machine.
Coal was able to separate itself because iron ore was added to the cleaning process. More iron ore caused the coal to rise. Less would make it sink, which enabled miners to sort out wood and other debris.
Water and smaller coal passed through a screen into a sump (essentially a sewer-like part of the machine). From there, an intake pipe would transfer the coal to a recirculation pump — into an agitator that would clean the coal — and out of the machine.
The butterfly valve would free coal that got jammed, and determined which size coal should go where.
A hydrotator could be 48 feet long to 19 feet high, and depended on the size of the coal company and how much coal was being processed.
The Wilmot company also manufactured the Wilmot Crusher Rolls, which, according to the manual, were “made with interlocking segments which entirely eliminate shear from segment bolts. …It is more efficient for primary crushing and for secondary crushing when the percentage of coal is high.”
The manual also boasted that “If it’s Hydrotated, it’s cleaner coal.”
Wilmot also manufactured crushing, conveying and sizing machinery, along with underground chain conveyors for moving coal and several machinery parts.
In 2003, the Wilmot Engineering Company closed its metal fabrication business so it could focus on the rivetless chain, the product the company was founded upon in 1908.
“Even when we had the fabrication business, the anthracite coal industry was a very, very small portion of our business,” said Wilmot Company, Inc., President K. Glenn Cole.
The Wilmot Company had the original patents on rivetless chain, and has been owned by Cole and his partner since April 1996.
In 1949, the Pennsylvania Department of Mines stated 28, 805,887 tons of deep mined coal was produced, along with 11,081,087 tons of stripping coal and 4,823,144 tons of bank coal for a total of 44,710,118 tons!
The U.S. Department of the Interior in 1949 said that underground mechanical equipment consisted of 589 scraper units, 27 mobile loader units and 3,618 conveyor and car loader units.
“This is the process that most mines had,” Tom Jr. said of the underground mining and breaker cleaning. He said their small mine eventually closed because of a higher demand for oil and gas which were cheaper 50 years ago. “And people didn’t want to deal with the leftover ashes.”
The Supeys’ mine also closed in part because of the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972 Tom said the mine got flooded and the coal was not proper for sale.
Tom said the coal from their mine was sold for $6 a ton. Other larger mines would sell theirs for $48 to $50 a ton.
The Supeys were able to stay with their coal mining roots because of the Lackawanna Mine Tour, which attracted tourists to Lackawanna County before minor league baseball and shopping centers.
“People come here to see their heritage. How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve come from?” Tom Jr. said. “Without coal, Northeastern Pennsylvania wouldn’t have been as wonderful as it was.”
Supey said in about 10 years, it will be virtually impossible to find an underground mine. “It’s a hard job.” He added that even if coal was in demand, it would be hard to find good coal because it’s so deep in the earth’s surface.
“And people don’t want to do it (go underground) anymore. That’s why there’s strip mining.”Even though Supey said mining was a tough job, he wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“Overall, it’s a rewarding job. I have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, when you see what you’ve produced. I’m working with my hands, and the results are everything. It makes it all worthwhile.”
All things that are coal
ON THE WEB
— Stripping: the surface excavation of coal caused by strip mining.
— Strip mining: the operation by which coal is secured by removing the earth and rock which cover it. Strip mining occurs where the coal lies too close to the surface of the earth.
— Pothole: a cavity in a rock caused by the erosion of water, sand and water or sand and pebble-laden water. These were frequently discovered in mining operation, especially in northern coal fields.
— Vein: a length of coal in its virgin state in the earth.
— Jig: used to separate coal from extraneous materials.
— Dolly car: a car that runs on a track into the earth on the food of a plane or incline and was used to haul coal from the inside of the mine.
— Shifting shanty: a building miners went to before and after leaving the mines to change into work or street clothes.
— Tipple: a facility used in loading coal for transportation by rail or truck.
Want to see an underground mine?
Visit the Lackawanna Coal Tour, located off Keyser Ave., Scranton, next to McDade Park.
Admission is $8 for adults and $5.50 for children.
The tour is open from April 1 through the end of November, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
To read more Look Backs, go to www.timesleader.com
Machines such as the Wilmot Hydrotator were used in the coal cleaning process at a breaker. Raw coal would enter the chute in to a suspension tank. Lighter coal would rise and overflow into a launder then to a dewatering shaker and then be discharged from the machine.
Sheena Delazio, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7235.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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