A Novelty in Mining.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 166, 14 January 1873, Page 6

A Novelty in Mining.

A NEW USE FOR KEKOSENE. A discovery has been made by Mr D. R, Orichton (manager of the Bathurst Gold Min. nig Company, at Trunkey) the simplicity, in. expensiveness, and undoubted success of which, render it important to the mining community that it should widely be made known. During the late close and sultry weather, producing a heavy and stagnant state of the atmosphere, great difficulty was experienced in ventilating the mine, and the men in the deep workings were frequently compelled to come to the surface through the accumulation of foul air below ; and at last the deep shaft* had to be abandoned, since none of the usual methods for restoring a current of air proved of any avail. To enable our readers to understand the difficulty Mr Crichton had to contend against, we must explain that one of the Company's shafts is the deepest in the colony, being nearly 400 feet in depth. This is called the A shaft, and within 20 yards of it is the H shaft, which is a little over 300 feet in depth, communication being established between the two shafts by a drive at the latter level. In the H shaft the men are engaged in sinking and driving—the centre slabs serving to divide the workings, and it was here that foul air principally accumulated, A long canvas hose, connected with a fan on the surface, was tried as a means to effect ventilation, but failed,—the men having repeatedly to be hoisted out of the shaft, as the candles and lamps went out.

This state of things went on for three days when Mr Crichton determined to try a fresh experiment. He had noticed that the flame of the kerosene lamp lived much longer than that of the candles, and as he would not ask' another to do what he was afraid to attempt himself, he determined to put the design into execution by descending the H shaft alone. He had the canvas hose coiled on the top and filled with air by the fan, and stepping into the bucket, the hose was fastened to the whim-rope so as to allow its mouth to rest upon his shoulder, and thus he secured a constant supply of fresh air round his neck and head. He took an ordinary frying-pan and emptied into it about a quart of kerosene and placed in the liquid a handful of cotton waste and setting light to it, word was given to descend. One man plied the fan, and another lowered the hose, to keep pace with the whim-rope, and considerable suspense was felt by the workmen round the shaft as their plucky manager disappe•• cd from sight beneath the underlay. A ruddy glare from the burning kerosene was reflected upon the footwall for a long time after, until an acute | angle cut out the reflection and shrouded the J shaft in darkness. There was nothing then to mark the descent of the adventurer but the rapid gliding down of the rope, as the whim revolved. The appearance of the upI bucket, a minute or two after, announced the j completion of the descent, and then came a ! period of some anxiety to those who were waiting above. Of a sudden up came a swarm of flies, that had noticed clinging on the slabs of the shaft by the workmen ; but still no signal from the manager. Had lie, on arriving at the bottom, stepped out of the bucket (where at least, he was sure of air as long as the fan worked freely above) and vei ■ tured into the drive, and succumbed to the poisonous atmosphere'? There was dead silence as minute after minute passed away —then a perceptible current of air was felt coming from the shaft, followed a minute or so aftewards by the ringing out, in vigorous tones upon the bell, the preconcerted signal to send the miners down to their work, complete ventilation being established. It may be as well to remark here that the Company have introduced bells instead of knockers as a means of establishing communication between the men below and those on top. Mr Crichton says that on reaching the bottom of the shaft the kerosene burnt lazily for a while, just as spirits of wine would do, and then the flame gradually shot up higher and higher till it reached the height of two or three feet, and a strong current of air was established. The success of the experiment was complete, and now whenever the candles give warning of foul air, the captain of the shaft sets light to some cotton waste steeped in kerosene, and thrusting it on a shovel through the centre slabs, towards the other

half of the shaft, secures perfect ventilation hi a few seconds, at a cost of about sixpence. We were curious to test the state of the atmosphere when wo were at the mine on Tuesday last, and descending the shaft found the air to be as pure below as it was on the surface. It is of course a very old method of ventilation to burn fires in mines, where the workings extend perhaps for a mile or so, as hi collcries ; but our gold mines have not reached such a scale of magnitude, and foul air ill them is often merely the result of some temporary change in the weather. Jh Crichton's discovery is therefore, we think, one of great value to gold-miners, and cannot be made known too widely.— Bathurst Thn&