1950s: Labor Peace, Continued Mechanization and a Changing Focus on the Environment – 1950-1959
The decade of the 1950s began with a mixture of hope and fear within the pages of Coal Age. Reflecting upon the previous strike-filled year, editor Ivan Given asked if John L. Lewis, the UMWA and 1949 work stoppages were extracting too high a price from the industry and the nation as miners struggled with operators for control. Consistently inconsistent coal production was practically handing over market share to the natural gas and oil industries. All the while hydro-generation was gaining favor and scientists continued experiments with the potential of atomic energy. Coal’s future depended on its ability to stabilize labor relations and reliably produce the energy vital for the America’s expanding post-war economy.
In 1950, “underground, the mining-and-loading machine and roof bolting held center of the stage. In stripping, increased equipment capacity was paralleled by growing use of big augers and other equipment for increasing coal recovery after the stripping limit had been reached. And in preparation, growing emphasis on higher quality and increased coal recovery further stimulated mechanical cleaning and the installation of special equipment for treating fine coal including both coal-washing tables and floatation units.”
Throughout the late 1940s, numerous advances in underground production had led to the development of continuous mining techniques. In the February 1950 year in review issue, Given wrote, “experience in 1949 indicates that mining-and-loading machines are today averaging 200 to 400 tons per shift, depending upon seam thickness, with crews of 4 to 6 men.” Mining without shooting the solid and using conventional loading and cutting equipment were also inaugurated that year. Roof-bolting was spreading rapidly around the industry “with mounting evidence indicating that it will provide better roof support at a substantial reduction in cost compared to standard timbering.” Underground conveyor belts were common, and higher capacity belts were getting longer. “At one mine, installation of a 30-in steel-cord belt conveyor 10,900 ft long, head to tail, was completed at the end of the year. Operating at 300 fpm and powered by a single 200-hp motor,” wrote Given.
Nationwide, continued advancements in surface mining were allowing greater amounts of tonnage to more efficiently be mined as well. “Another increase in the number of large walking draglines and another high in the capacity of shovel dippers paced stripping developments in 1949. Other major advances included a substantial increase in deep pit operations, the use of larger and bigger augers at highwall operations, and an increase in dipper sizes. With additional coal being surface mined, producers were also coming under increased environmental scrutiny. New land-use policies were being debated as miners learned to be better stewards of the land. Tree farming, cattle raising and other post-mined land uses were becoming more common throughout the end of the 1940s and into the 1950s.
Negotiations between coal operators and the union went well in early 1950 and the contract they collectively settled on created precisely the labor stability needed for coal to move ahead. Deemed “a sick industry” by President Truman, full government takeover or nationalization—at the time happening worldwide—was looming unless all parties could find some middle ground, roll up their sleeves and get back to it. Labor peace began early that year. “Coal can offer more value and better service if it has an opportunity to settle down and really work. With the 1950 contracts appreciably broadening that opportunity, the situation can be truly described as a new start,” wrote Given in his April editorial.
The new UWMA contract was good through June 30, 1952—a period of 28 months—and could not be reopened for any changes until after March 31, 1951. “All this adds up to a chance for stability for at least two years and possibly longer.” Following the agreement, George H. Love, president of Pittsburgh-Consolidated Coal, and the operator’s lead negotiator at the talks stated, “This coal industry is not a sick industry…This country is one of a very few where coal mining is still in private hands operating under a free enterprise system…It is a modern aggressive industry with three to six times the productivity of the coal industry in any other country and we are going to do better than that. We need stability and the contract provides it.”
Labor peace couldn’t have come any sooner. By the middle of the year war with North Korea had erupted and, with the Chinese and Soviets backing the Communist government, World War III seemed like a real possibility. For coal, this “could bring a return to the conditions in 1944 and 1945,” but this time, with the increased capacity created during the war, coal was ready. Combined between anthracite and bituminous, almost 800 million tons of production was possible. “Both industries are equipped with modern preparation plants that produced special-purpose fuels for industry and a variety of quality coal for home and commercial uses. In addition, there’s no fifth column in the coal mines. Miners are loyal and patriotic citizens,” wrote Given.
By the end of the year, the nation’s 479,000 coal miners had produced approximately 560 million tons, an increase of more than 15% from 1949 figures. New machines and mining methods also helped bituminous operators increase efficiency from 6.43 tons per man-day to over 6.75 tons per man-day. But unlike World War II, the nation’s war machine now ran almost entirely on oil. Railroads burned almost 20% less coal in 1950 than the year before and fewer consumers heated their homes with it. The only real bright spot was in the electric utility sector; that year power plants burned an estimated 90 million tons, more than 7% from the year before and reflective of a longer-term trend. Though there were 637 fatalities—44 more than the year before, these fatalities occurred at the new record low rate of 1.16 per million tons, a 6% improvement over 1949. Key to improved safety: roof-bolting. “At the end of 1950, approximately 450 large mines producing over 1,000 tons daily were using the technique.” The Bureau of Mines estimated that about 75 million sq ft of roof had been bolted through that year.
Things were going so well in the industry that labor and management came to a “voluntary agreement” on January 18, 1951, to boost miner’s wages by $0.20 an hour—“the first time in some 30 years that a new wage agreement had been effected in the bituminous industry without prolonged negotiations or a mine stoppage.” The $1.60 increase brought basic wages to $16.35 per day.
Stability was rewarded. In January 1951, Consolidated Edison, New York City, returned to coal. In February, the federal Munitions Board sent a memo to all defense agencies urging that coal be made the No. 1 choice among fuels. In September, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced the largest single coal contract ever: more than 18 million tons to be delivered over a 10-year period. Combined, through September 1951, the TVA had agreed to purchase a total of 27,795,705 tons of coal for use at its five steam plants at a total cost of $92,647,705. Contract prices varied from $2.45 to $4.70 a ton. TVA consumption of coal at the time was projected to reach 13 million tons annually by 1956.
Production all year went smoothly and by year’s end approximately 576 million tons had been mined—the highest total since 1948. Bituminous operators mined more than 535 million tons, almost 25% of which was surface mined and more than 55% of which was mechanically loaded underground. However, as 1951 came to a close, tragedy struck the coal industry. At 8 p.m. December 21, as the last shift before Christmas shutdown settled into work, the CW&F Orient No. 2—the fifth highest producing mine in 1950—exploded killing 119 men instantly. A stunning blow to the industry, the causes and ramifications of the disaster had long-lasting effects. And, in a way, the Christmas explosion marked a turning point in the coal industry.
Hopes were high, however, that 1952 would prove a better year. The overall economy and all basic industries, due to the Korean “Police Action,” were producing at record rates—except coal. Stuck at only 80% capacity, one hoped for growth area for coal was powering the atomic weapons and energy sector. The semi-secret new cold war plutonium trigger and depleted uranium facilities required lots of electricity and coal was tasked to provide it. “As the impact of the defense effort is felt by heavy industry throughout the United States, I believe that there will be an increase in the market’s demand for coal, principally the steel industry, the backbone of our defense production, and by the power industry, which is basic to our national defense,” said Stuyvesant Peabody Jr., president, Peabody Coal Co., in the February issue. New chemical plants were also built along the Kanawha and Ohio River Valleys, adjacent to water, rail and vast coal reserves, the aim was to construct something of a modern Ruhr Valley deep in America’s interior.
1952 was also an election year. With no incumbent, the Stevenson-Eisenhower race would prove something of a referendum on the New Deal, the regulated economy and the power of organized labor. In September, the UMWA succeeded in achieving a $1.90 raise to the basic daily rate of $18.25 as well as a $0.10/ton increase to the UMWA welfare fund, raising that contribution to $0.40. And, for the second time since 1950, agreement came without government intervention and without a nation-wide strike. The steel workers strike, however, was a different matter entirely. Incredibly contentious and front page news all year as operators, the union and a divided federal government wrangled over control and nationalization. The strike lasted 54 days and, though the United Steelworkers won many of their demands, they lost in the court of public opinion. Truman, Stevenson and the Democrats suffered a serious rebuke as the national economy suffered. Coking coal production was down by more than 18 million tons as a result of the strike. Bituminous production dropped 13% to 465 million tons. But oil and natural gas, in contrast, had great years. In November, General Eisenhower won the election handily and the Republicans took executive office for the first time in 20 years.
With much of the world fearing escalation, Ike, instead of expanding the Korean War, ended it. And he ended many of the wartime restrictions on the economy as well. But coal production fell in 1953 and again in 1954, all the way down to 421 million tons. In the October 1953 issue, quoting from the Keystone Coal Buyers guide, the magazine reported that less than 11% of the estimated 6,500 coal companies in the U.S.—roughly 695—produced approximately 85% of the total mined or almost 400 million tons in 1952. Pittsburgh Consolidation, the largest U.S. producer throughout the decade, mined roughly 5.5% of the total that year, and U.S. Steel Corp., the largest captive miner, produced about 4.1%. As the markets contracted, however, the advantage went to the lowest cost producers—in particularly the more mechanized, less labor-intensive operators.
In the January 1955 issue, J.R. Forsythe, general manager of the Keystone Coal Buyers Manual, reported the nation’s electric utilities would purchase more than 20 million tons more than they had in 1954 for plant operation and building up stocks. “This addition, the biggest annual increase in the history of utility fuel purchases, will accelerate the increasing reliance of the utilities on coal, and will push the use of coal by utility power plants to a new record of nearly 130 million tons in 1955.” Forsythe analyzed the data and, based on announced contracts, forecast that by the end of the decade, the 62 largest utilities would be purchasing approximately 170 million tons alone.
Beginning in 1955, a wave of mergers hit the industry as markets continued to contract. In the February issue, the magazine reported that Col. Henry Crown, chairman of the board of the Material Service Corp., and owner of the Empire State Building in New York and the Freeman Coal Mining Co., would acquire the properties of the Chicago, Wilmington & Franklin Coal Co., owners of the Orient mines in Illinois. By the end of the decade, the merged company’s flagship Orient No. 3 mine—new in 1950—would grow into the second most productive operation in the nation, consistently extracting more than 3 million tons annually.
On June 6, 1955, Peabody and Sinclair Coal announced they were going to merge. On June 7, Island Creek and Pond Creek Pocahontas Co. announced they were going to combine too. The Peabody/Sinclair combination would have a reserve base of more than 1.7 billion tons of economically recoverable coal. Island Creek/Pond Creek would operate 12 mines in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky capable of producing more than 9 million tons annually. Peabody/Sinclair, following their merger, became the second largest national producer after the Pittsburgh-Consolidation Coal Co. In the September 1956 issue, the magazine reported that Pitt-Consol would merge with the Pocahontas Fuel Co., then the nation’s seventh largest producer. The merger gave larger Pitt-Consol access to low volatile coking coal in Virginia and southern West Virginia. Around the same time, Pittston Co. also announced it was going to merge with Clinchfield Coal. Finally, in the February 1957 issue, Island Creek announced its acquisition of Algoma Coal & Coke Co., securing the company’s status as fourth largest annual coal producer.
Though still far below war-time highs, production increased both in 1955 and 1956, and held fairly steady again in 1957. But production peaked in the mid-1950s at 532 million tons in 1956 and then fell to 433 million tons in 1958—and held steady at those lows through 1962. Squeezed between oil and natural gas competition, higher transportation costs and increasing wage costs, King Coal was hurting. Railroad freight rates rose between 20%-25% from 1952 through 1956. Producers began looking for any way to cut down those mounting costs. Pitt-Consol began constructing a 106-mi pipeline. Truax-Traer constructed a massive combination preparation plant, rail and river dock on the Kanawha at Cerdo, W.Va., as the Inland Waterway System became a more cost-effective mode of transportation. Several new mines located adjacent to new utility power plants and, by going to a mine-mouth arrangement, simply cut out transportation costs entirely.
Increased mechanization and reliance on new continuous mining technology helped producers control costs as the UMWA secured a $2/day raise again in 1955. That year, more than 300 million tons or 64.5% of bituminous and lignite production was mechanically loaded. Only 11% was still hand-loaded. Roughly 25% of total production was surface mined. The use of continuous machines with roof-bolt drills mounted at the sides spread to more operations while rock-dusting machines helped contribute to better safety results mid-decade. Fatality rates in 1955 per million tons mined decreased to 0.71. Since falls of roof, face and rib were still the largest single causes of death and injury underground roof-bolting became standard operating procedure in the nation’s most progressive mines.
In March 1957, Coal Age sadly reported on the death of Joseph F. Joy, founder of the Joy Mfg. Co. who died February 19 at his home in Ft. Pierce, Fla. “Mr. Joy, whose machine design revolutionized the mechanical loading of coal in the United States, began his experiments in mobile loading in 1916. In 1919 he organized the Joy Mfg Co. and began production of coal mining machinery. Principal product was the Joy loader. From 1925-1927 Mr. Joy served as a consultant to Russia during modernization of USSR coal mines. He returned to the U.S. to organize Joy Bros. Inc. in Marion, Ohio, where he produced, among other equipment, the coal saw and the safety drill. Later, Mr. Joy joined the Sullivan Machine Co. as the head of design. Specializing in developing cutting machines, he developed the 7AU, which was the parent of many of the universal machines then in service. From 1938 to 1940, Mr. Joy was senior ordinance engineer with the War Dept. On completion of government service, he returned to private industry and was retained by the Joy Mfg Co. as a consultant.” Perhaps no single individual had done more to change the way coal was mined in the U.S.”
Exports, Barges & the Death of the Iron Horse: Evolving Transportation
One of the biggest surprises of the mid-1950s was a surging export market. In 1955, it doubled from 15 million tons to approximately 32 million tons. With Europe, Brazil and Japan expanding and short on coal, U.S. producers were quick to pounce. The railroads, of course, took their bite out of the expanding market as well. By 1956, it seemed like exports would become a steady 35 million to 38 million ton per year market for bituminous producers. In the March 1956 issue, associate editor W.A. Raleigh analyzed the export market by looking at the needs of 21 principal overseas nations worldwide. To help exploit the opportunity, operators, railroads and the UWMA banded together to create the American Coal Shipping Co. to carry coal from U.S. ports to foreign destinations. Capitalized at $50 million, using mothballed Liberty Ships, the consortium viewed ACS as a way to control freight rates and ensure American coal prices would not be further hampered by exorbitant ocean shipping charges. Excluding Canada, exports would increase to 58 million tons in 1957, only to fall back into the mid-1930s for the rest of the decade.
Another era formally ended as Coal Age reported in the August 1958 issue that the Norfolk & Western Railroad, the last major railroad to rely mainly on coal power, had decided to scrap its fleet of 262 ultra-modern steam locomotives and switch to diesels. Championed just a few years before in the December 1954 issue as the Alamo of steam power, at the time the N&W was the nation’s second largest originator of bituminous coal and dozens of coal users were located along its rail network. The company had also invested heavily in design and development of new coal-fired steam locomotion. But, by the end of the decade, no iron horse existed that was able to successfully compete against diesel power.
As late as 1925, American railroads had 65,006 steam engines in service and 352 electric engines. On April 1, 1958, there were only 2,113 steam engines left with more than 27,500 diesels and 560 electric locomotives in operation. That number would drop to zero by 1960 as both steam engines and the railroad coal market went by the wayside.
No longer buyers, railroads began to insist that coal do more to pay the freight. As those rates rose through the 1950s, coal consumers started switching to barging instead. In the August 1958 issue, editor Given heralded June 14 of that year as a milestone. On that date in Paducah, Ky., “the tugboat Chippewa passed with the first complete barge shipment of coal destined for Tampa, Fla. Originating at the Peabody River Queen mine on the Green River in western Kentucky, the eight barges of coal traversed a 1,100-mile route down the Ohio, Mississippi and, after transfer to ocean-going equipment at New Orleans, across the Gulf of Mexico. Destination: an electric utility changing from oil. This trip, the forerunner of others, reflects vividly the broadening horizon for coal in generating electricity.” The shipments to Tampa from western Kentucky were part of a 20-year contract and, since success always has it imitators, many more millions of tons of Midwestern and Appalachian coal followed up and down the beckoning Inland Waterway System.
Bolstered by various new lock and dam projects, it was more than up to the task. In the December 1956 issue, the editors illustrated how “slick, low cost barge loading swings coal to river transport.” Many Midwestern producers were keen to locate their new operations along the river system. In the April 1959 issue, associate editor Raleigh reported how barging was keeping coal competitive, particularly as it eliminated “high-cost rail transport” that was fast becoming “a block to new customer sales.” The “new 981-mi Ohio River system” stretching from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Cairo, Ill., now featured more than 50 new locks and dams and maintained a minimum 9-ft channel the whole length. Traffic grew from 11.5 million tons in 1951 to over 22.3 million tons in 1957 on the Ohio and from 49.6 million tons to 78.8 million tons along the whole of the Inland Water System during that time.
By 1959, coal had become “the premier power-plant fuel.” And, in fact, the utility market was the only growth sector for the industry throughout the decade as the U.S. economy contracted throughout the later part of the decade. In 1958, utilities purchased 152 million tons and had become the coal industry’s biggest customer.
In the October 1959 issue, the magazine reported that new coal-fired utility plants were being built out west as well, closer to coal deposits though further away from population centers. New high capacity transmission wires made transporting electricity to market cheaper than hauling coal instead. The main subject of the piece was the recent opening of the Dave Johnston steam plant of the Pacific Power & Light Co. at Glenrock, Wyo. The new 100,000-kW power station, built in sight of still visible wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail, was powered by deposits of nearby 7,000 Btu subbituminous coal. The citizens of Glenrock, according to the magazine, had requested the new power plant be built in town after a large oil refinery shut down. Ground broke June 30, 1956 and the plant was dedicated December 20, 1958. “Now instead of watching their town decline, the people of Glenrock are seeing construction of a new housing development for the additional employees that will be needed at the new Dave Johnston plant.”
Bituminous production, however, was down to approximately 400 million tons by that point, a figure that would stay steady for several years to come. However, fatalities had fallen all through the decade, to new lows of only 477 in 1957 and 356 in 1958. Still far too many, but a remarkable decrease since the war years of the 1940s. By the end of the 1950s, most of the high-cost non-mechanized producers were out of business. Remaining were the large-scale fully mechanized outfits using continuous mining machines, roof-bolters and other safety machines to ensure a smooth production cycle.
Coal, Coal Age and the Environment
The questions of what to do with mined out land, how to treat acid mine run-off and other environmental concerns have long troubled the coal industry. Though not a regular feature topic until the late 1940s, Coal Age first began reporting on reclamation in the January 4, 1913, issue with a feature on reforestation efforts in the English Midlands and “Black country.” As reported in the June 1953 issue, “the nation’s first surface mining reclamation program was begun in Indiana in 1918 with the planting of peach and pear orchards that are still producing. Of the 50,000 acres of land strip-mined since that time, more than 40,000 have been revegetated, 5,000 have been devoted to public recreation and 1,500 have been converted to residential sites.” Tree-planting, surface mine reclamation and environmental mitigation would become a widely reported topic from the 1950s forward, especially as larger and more productive mining equipment was deployed throughout the decade.
Attempts to control acid water mine effluents were reported on as early as the June 3, 1926, issue. Reporting on a conference session, Coal Age quoted Andrew Crichton, consulting engineer, Johnstown, Pa., on the expense of treating acidic run off. Even as early as 1926, the enormity of the problem was apparent. The “cost of treatment to neutralize acid within the present area of developed and abandoned mines will be from $80 to $100 million yearly. The treatment plants would cost $145 million, and the water would still be hard afterwards,” said Crichton. Though not an impossible task, mitigating environmental damage has long been a challenge for the industry. Federal control of stream pollution became a reality during the Great Depression and the New Deal. Though it was challenged in the courts, federal control eventually gave way to various state and regional authorities. Pennsylvania, easily the most mined out state, early on took an aggressive leadership role. In the February 1953 issue, the magazine reported on the Pennsylvania Water Board’s efforts to neutralize stream pollution and water runoff.
In the August 1955 issue, assistant editor Raleigh reported that more states were passing regulations on discharge of water and wastes from coal mines and preparation plants into the nation’s waterways. “States are enforcing or proposing new legislation aimed at reducing to acceptable standards the drainage of sewage and industrial wastes that ‘poison’ streams and make them unsuitable for municipal and industrial use.” These included efforts in the Ohio Valley, Missouri, Colorado, Montana, Washington and Kansas, as well as laws already on the books in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In October 1956, the magazine reported that President Eisenhower signed the federal Water Pollution Control Law providing more controls on both the state and federal level over water effluents.
Back in the early 1940s, Coal Age also reported on large-scale reforestation efforts on strip mines in southeastern Ohio and southern Illinois, some of the first such modern practices. In the August 1942 issue, the editors reported that more than 7 million trees had been planted since 1930 on more than 7,250 acres in Illinois and that old spoil banks statewide had been made suitable for grazing, fishing, wildlife propagation and recreation. Again in 1946 and 1947, the editors covered in detail efforts to farm, introduce and raise livestock and “reclaim” strip mined land in the two states. In the March 1950 issue, T.C. Cheasley, assistant to the president of Sinclair Coal, Kansas City, wrote a piece touting the company’s widespread efforts to return formerly stripped land to use. Stating that post-mined land may be more fertile or more suitable for human use, Cheasely wrote, “Strip mining actually adds to the value of otherwise worthless farm lands, makes forage crops and trees flourish where there was only scrub growth, conserves water and turns drab landscapes into attractive recreation parks for fishing, hunting and camping. Instead of a curse, strip mining, scientifically planned and carried out, is most often a boon for the community.” Accompanying photographs suggested ways Sinclair had solved the riddle.
In the December 1951 issue, G.H. Deitschman, forester, and R.D. Lane, officer in charge, Central States Forest Experiment Station, U.S. Forest Service, Columbus, Ohio, wrote about how strip mined lands can grow trees profitably. A veritable how-to guide, the article presented tips which trees grower faster and bigger along spoil banks. A fairly new concept, “forest products also have been harvested from other scattered cuttings in Oklahoma, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Because spoils plantings are all relatively young, only small-diameter products, consisting of posts, poles and pulpwood, have been obtained.”
By the mid-1950s, however, strip mining—which accounted for about 25% of total tonnage, was driving a nascent environmental movement. And efforts were under way to address those concerns. In the August 1953 issue, the editors surveyed the work of Meadowlark Farms, Inc. Owned by Ayrshire Colliers Corp., and its affiliates, Delta and Fairview Collieries, Meadowlark’s farming operations embraced more than 57,270 acres of stripped and reserve coal lands in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.
Irwin H. Reiss, who had started out as an Illinois farm boy, had matured into Meadowlark’s general manager with 41 farm managers and employees working under his direction. “Much of Meadowlark’s land is marginal or submarginal, unfit before or after mining for ordinary farming with ordinary methods. But with sound doctrine, a fine public spirit, patience, agricultural know-how and a watchful eye on costs, Meadowlark has shaped a model program to reclaim strip-mined land and rebuild worn out farms on and near reserve coal lands. Meadowlark also makes it pay. That’s the way it should be,” wrote the editors.
In the September 1955 issue, F. J. Foresman, director of industrial relations at Pittsburg & Midway, wrote about his company’s efforts to raise prize angus on strip lands in southeastern Kansas where more than 5,000 acres had been reclaimed. In the March 1957, John Crowl, executive director of the Kentucky Reclamation Association, summed up the situation well. “Today’s mammoth strip-mining shovels have focused public attention on what should be done with the scars left on the earth’s surface after the land has been stripped. One of the main draw-backs to reclamation of the stripped lands was lack of knowledge about what to plant and when and where to plant it.”
Surface mining began in the area in large amounts during World War I and operations grew in size dramatically in the mid-1940s. Beginning in 1948, a group of Kentucky coal companies banded together to bring that know how together. Since the mid-1950s the group had developed research and test tree-farms at various points at different mine sites to determine which trees were best to grow in the disturbed areas. Fishing and recreational use were also being tried throughout the region.
Battle of the Behemoth Shovels: Surface Mining in the 1950s
In the rapidly expanding surface mines of western Kentucky, Coal Age reported that special drilling and heavy shooting had helped solve the double trouble of tough sandstone overburden and a hard limestone parting in strip mining the No. 12 and No. 11 seams simultaneously at the Colonial mine of the Colonial Coal Mining Co.—located some 10 mi west of Madisonville, Ky. As reported in the August 1950 issue, “The hard sandstone cover ranges from zero at the crop line up to 40 ft or more at the 70-ft stripping limit. The limestone parting between the two seams ranges from 3 to 10 ft thick and is extremely hard.” Production runs about 3,000 tpd of washed industrial, domestic and stoker coal, together with some railroad coal. In addition to working the No. 12 and 11 seams, the company also strips the No. 9 seam. This coal, about 5 ft thick, lies about 80-ft below the No. 11. Heavy shooting prepares the sandstone overburden for the dragline—a Marion 7400 walker equipped with a 175-ft boom and 12-yd Esco bucket. Other mobile equipment, including diesel-powered Caterpillar D-8 tractors, went after the No. 12 seam.
In the Illinois stripping region, to increase productivity and better utilize equipment, the United Electric Fidelity and Buckheart mines both tested double-shift strip loading in 1949. Heretofore, strip mining had only been a single-shift endeavor. But, as reported in the March 1951 issue, with new equipment and better lighting, going to a second shift was almost immediately successful. At Buckheart, more than 3,000 additional tons with 49 extra men was produced over the regular first-shift output of 4,500 tons with 158 first shift workers including 56 men on maintenance. At Fidelity, a second shift crew of 55 was able to produce another 4,000 tons in addition to the nominal daily output of 7,000 tpd with a crew of 285. United Electric management believed that double-shifting could be accomplished without any additional stripping equipment. At Buckheart, improvements in the wheel excavator already in service permitted uncovering the extra coal desired, while at Fidelity there was enough equipment on hand already. The only ingredient needed was the additional workforce.
In August and September 1956, the magazine published two stories on Truax-Traer’s massive surface operations in northern Illinois and southern West Virginia. The company’s Fiatt, Ill., surface mine had recently begun employing the first production model of a wheel excavator in the U.S. working in tandem with a 33-cu yd shovel. Eventually the wheel took on more stripping duties as it was able to remove more of the softer top material thus reducing the amount to be handled by the shovel and allowing it to advance faster. The wheel strips and spoils an average of 10,000 cu yd of material in a shift, removing 25-30 ft and leaving 30-35 ft for the shovel. The wheel can work the top from an 80-ft highwall down to a 30-ft high bench.
At the Marfork mine in southern West Virginia, the company had recently deployed a Bucyrus-Erie 750B equipped with a 19-cu yd shovel. A 900-ton giant designed to “tear off the hilltops to recover the Dorothy seam. Towering 85 ft above the ground, the electric power shovel chews up blasted rock…while uncovering a 115-ft strip of coal.”
For the October 1956 issue, associate editor Flowers reviewed the new Gibraltar Coal Co.’s massive new surface mine situated in Western Kentucky along the Green River. Supplying more than 2 million tons per year to the Atomic Energy Commission’s new power plant at the Portsmouth atomic production center, Gibraltar began as a joint venture between Ayrshire and Midco mines and constructed with a 4 million tons per year capacity. Stripping from two seams, the Kentucky Nos. 11 and 12, overall stripping ratio was approximately 6 to 1. To handle the job, Gibraltar used a 42-cu yd Marion 5561 electric shovel with a 135-ft boom that worked 24 hours per day. “This unit is designed to strip the cover over the No. 12 coal, which will average 40 ft. A 6-cu yd Bucyrus-Erie 190B high-lift machine with a 70-ft boom removes the intervalbe-tween the seams. The third stripper is a 13-cu yd Marion 7400 dragline with a 175-ft boom.”
Less than a year later, the largest shovel ever constructed by Bucyrus-Erie, the 55-cu yd 1650-B River Queen began taking 80-ton overburden bites at the new River Queen Coal Co. mine near Greenville in Western Kentucky. Located not far from the giant Gibraltar operation, together the two new mines placed Muhlenberg County at the forefront of the nation’s stripping areas. Jointly owned by Peabody Coal and the W.G. Duncan Coal Co., the two companies were determined to squeeze all possible efficiency out of the new shovel as they worked to produce 2 million to 3 million tons per year. When three-shift operations began, the shovel uncovered “overburden averaging 45 ft to expose the 4 1/2 ft western Kentucky No. 12 seam. With the No. 12 removed, the River Queen will remove an 8-ft limestone parting to expose a 6-ft formation of the west Kentucky No.11 seam. The two seams were to be worked simultaneously.” With a 145 ft boom and an 86-ft dipper stick, the River Queen was able to dump overburden as far away as 300 ft from its dragging point. The working weight for the machine: 2,424 tons, or the equivalent of a Navy destroyer.
Later that summer, Coal Age reported on the “biggest shovel ever,” a Marion Type 5760 shovel that about to begin operations at the new Peabody Coal River King mine in Freeburg, Ill. Equipped with a 70-yd bucket, and designed to remove overburden up to 80-ft deep, the shovel and new preparation plant at Freeburg were part of Peabody’s $38 million coal development program in southern Illinois. In the January 1958 issue, associate editor Flowers reported that the newly named “Big Paul” shovel, also known as the “King of Spades,” was wearing a mighty crown uncovering coal at the rate of 2 million tons per year. “It digs, hoists, swings and dumps a 105-ton bite in 50 seconds.” Located near St. Louis, the groundwork for the mine was laid in 1955 when Peabody started developing barge sites in East St. Louis as the company developed plans to mine out of its massive reserves in the area. Potential output was designed for 4 million tons per year over a 50-year period from both surface and deep operations.
Underground Mining: Roof-bolting & Continuous Mining Change the Game
In the 1940s, new equipment began flooding the best equipped mines. New loaders, better haulage machines and shuttle cars coupled with longer conveyors allowed more coal to flow to the surface. But two machines would change the 1950s: the continuous miner and the roofbolter. Together, productivity soared along with safety as the number of roof falls decreased dramatically through the decade.
Coal Age reported on the new 3JCM-2 Joy continuous miner late in the 1940s. “With a design capacity of 2 tons per minute,” it was currently being produced in two models, a low seam unit for cutting in 40-60 in. and a higher seam model for cutting in 54 to 96 in. coal. The unit consists of a swinging front end comprising the ripping head, intermediate conveyor and necessary power units, plus the main chassis mounted on crawlers and including a hopper and swinging rear conveyor. Both can be swung 45° each way.
By the early 1950s, CM units were quickly being deployed throughout the nation, particularly as labor costs rose. In the March 1950 issue, J.J. Snure, production manager, Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Co. wrote a piece titled, “How Continuous Mining Works: Its Results, Problems and Future.” “In the past, equipment has been considered the smaller part of a mechanized operation, with well-trained personnel and efficient management the greater. Today, receding realization and markets, extremely high wage rates with all the trimmings, and the general attitude of the worker, which is one of not assisting the industry in supporting our present $15.70 average daily rate, have completely reversed this percentage. At this time, our only hope is the development of continuous mining.” The miner machine’s cutting and loading head was composed of six standard cutting chains that ran vertical to the seam. Coal was conveyed to the rear and dumped into one of two standard cable reel shuttle cars that work behind the miner.
Better shuttle cars were also being deployed. In the January 1950 issue, James W. Woolf, electrical engineer with Joy Mfg Co., discussed how new cars were being equipped with dynamic braking for operating over long steep grades and that cars could now operate over distances as great as 2,000 to 5,000 ft. Speeds had improved, but were still dependent on grades and loads, and averaged only 4 ½ mph.
Beginning in the September 1949 issue, Coal Age began publishing feature pieces on the new roof-bolting technique. The magazine reported that small bolts inserted into bad top at a Pittsburgh seam mine had reduced roof falls by almost 80%. Quickly roof-bolting spread throughout the industry. In the April 1950 issue, Coal Age published a piece “How You Can Get More From Roof-Bolting.” Written by Edward Thomas, mining engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Mines, he compared pneumatic vs. rotary drilling methods, bolt designs, anchoring methods and prevention of corrosion as well as how to overcome problems with dust. “Best results from roof-bolting have been obtained in highly mechanized mines in which efficient production cycles have been established.” Calling for more experimentation, Thomas vowed the Bureau would help develop and prove various tools to enhance the new technique.
In total, from 1942 through 1951, the industry had invested approximately $2 billion or more in new mines and new equipment including preparation plants and power equipment. But fully half or more of that capital had been spent on mechanical mining and stripping equipment. Tons per man per shift in the bituminous industry had risen from 5.12 in 1942 to 7.04 in 1951, an increase of 34%. The outstanding record for progress over that decade was set in western Kentucky. In 1942, tons per man averaged 6.51 per shift. By 1951, that number had increased to 14.24 tons per man per shift—a 118.8% gain. Huge new surface mines would increase that number throughout the end of the decade. But underground, in the January 1954 issue, Coal Age reported that in the new Consol Hendrix mine in eastern Kentucky, crews were able to achieve 47 tons per man shift in 42-in coal with the help of new Model CM33 Lee-Norse Junior Miner mounted on the chassis of a Joy 14-BU loader.
Throughout the rest of the early 1950s, many features treated and tracked those developments. In the October 1953 issue, associate editor A.E. Flowers reported on successful roof-bolting at the Mine No. 44 of the Bethlehem Mine Corp., Idamay, W.Va., where 138.42 miles of entry had been bolted with no major failures of development over a five-year period. Bethlehem adopted roof-bolting early on in 1948 when they purchased the mine and subsequently began rehabilitation work that included replacing timbers and other supports. Initial roof-bolting was restricted to out-by intersections. But management soon realized that to really harness the potential of the technique, roof bolting must be done at the face as soon as possible after the coal was extracted. Once roof-bolting was part of the mining cycle, no problems were encountered and productivity increased significantly.
In the April 1954 issue, the magazine reported the Warwick No. 2 mine, owned by the Duquense Light Co., Greensboro, Pa., had mounted twin roof-bolting drills on their continuous-mining machines so they could place bolts while machines cut at the face. The big benefit was a material reduction in timbering delays which formally consumed up to 15% of shift time.
In the April 1957 issue, the editors reported on the surge in roof bolting. The year prior, 424 bituminous operations used systematic roof bolting as a method of roof support. Of these, 159 mines used bolts as the sole method of support. In 1955, almost 3 million bolts were being used per month. Among the mines using bolts in 1956, 8% employed water to allay dust, 35% employed dry dust collectors, 10% used water with drilling in parts of their mines, and 44% employed no mean of dust control other than respirators.
In the June 1957 issue, Coal Age reviewed the new Pittsburgh & Midway Coal Co.’s DeKoven mine in western Kentucky. The old company’s first venture underground, “modern is the word for DeKoven—the newest giant among coal producing properties.” Intent on loading high quality industrial fuel on the Ohio River, the new mine boasted “a 2.5 mi overland belt conveyor system from mine to cleaning plant and from plant to river, a modern river-loading dock and efficient raw-and clean coal storage facilities at the cleaning plant. The DeKoven workings are in the No. 9 seam, which averages 59-60 in. thick. Coal is produced underground by four high-capacity conventional mining units operated by eight 12-man crews on a two-shift schedule.” Two new Colmol units were in the process of being introduced to increase production to more than 100,000 tons per month in 1958.
In the July 1959 issue, Coal Age reviewed operations at the new Clinchfield Moss No. 3 mine where “specially designed equipment enables section crews to mine up to 1,500 tons per shift from the 10 to 18 ft Tiller seam. Production target for end of the year is 22,000 tons of clean coal per day.” Planned to be the world’s largest mine able to produce up to 5 million tons per year, the new operation was designed from the beginning to take advantage of automation and continuous mining technologies. Management deployed Joy 10-RU cutters and 15-SC shuttle cars for section haulage. “Thus the main problem was to get a rugged high-capacity fast-tramming loader. Joy undertook the job of building a loader to Clinchfield’s specifications and came up with the 15-BU.”
In the December 1959 issue, the magazine closed the decade by reporting on the new Loveridge mine of the Mountaineer Coal Co., a division of Pitt-Consol. Planned output of 15,000 clean tpd spread over three daily shifts, production comes from boring-type continuous miners supplemented by shuttle-car, belt and mine-car haulage, plus belt hoisting. In the first room-and-pillar stages, equipment included two Joy Twin-borers, two 11BU pickup loaders, two 7-ton NMS Torkars and one Joy extensible belt for operation to a maximum distance of 1,000 ft in room advancement. The opening of the mine, in March 1958, brought up to 12 and 10, respectively, of the number of mines and preparation plants operated by Consol in northern West Virginia. These operations accounted for 35% of Consol’s overall production.
Coal Preparation in the 1950s: Automation to Push-button Controls
Preparation would become more important throughout the 1950s as more loading machines were introduced. High wages were leading more companies to invest in higher productivity loaders and increase mechanical mining methods. “The use of loading machines underground has made it more difficult to eliminate impurities, and experience seems to indicate that the cheapest mechanical-loading costs can often be obtained by shooting considerable roof material, bands or partings in the seam, and even bottom material, with the coal,” wrote John Griffen, consulting engineer, McNally Pittsburg Mfg. Corp. in the April 1951 issue. “These new mining methods, in addition to adding heavy refuse materials which can be removed from the coal fairly easily, often add materials with a specific gravity only slightly higher than the coal and thus pose much more difficult mechanical-cleaning problems.” Some of these problems were beyond the powers of conventional cleaning methods. New heavy media, cone type separators, cyclones, froth flotation and spirals would be introduced in new prep plants throughout the east and Midwest.
In the October 1950 issue, James MacPhail, field engineer, Denver Equipment Co., penned a piece titled, “Flotation for Fines” reviewing the flotation process, how it works, costs and factors and how to predict results. Relatively new in the United States at the time and not yet widely understood, MacPhail predicted that industry would soon find it a very “profitable new tool.” By the end of the decade, flotation would be standard equipment in preparation plants nationwide.
One of the most modern of these plants would be the upgraded Truax-Traer Ceredo, W.Va., preparation facility. New in 1949, and already the subject of a feature article in 1950, Coal Age revisited the upgraded plant in the December 1955 issue to discuss the newly installed cyclones, filters, mechanical dewatering equipment and heat driers that were improving output at the high capacity plant. The 800 tph plant was built on a 150-acre tract near the confluence of the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers and the intersection of the Norfolk & Western and Chesapeake & Ohio railroad mainlines—arguably the most heavily coal trafficked point in the United States mid-century. Taking in various run of mine coals with steam and coking properties, the improvements significantly lowered fine-coal loss and a reduction in labor. Installed were a 225-hp heat-drying plant, drum filters with metal screen surfaces, and a fine-coal surge bin especially designed to maintain uniformity of mixtures.
By the end of the decade perhaps no single plant embodied the technological developments of the era than that of the new Clinchfield Coal Co. Moss No. 3 plant where “one man has at his fingertips control of 90% of the 1,500 tph plant featuring four independent coarse and fine coal washing circuits. Nucleonic density controls on heavy media washers assure consistently high coal quality,” wrote the editors in the July 1959 issue. The newest addition to the Moss group (Moss No. 1 was the nation’s fifth largest mine, Moss No. 2 was 28th), “the aluminum-clad preparation plant was designed, built and erected on a turnkey contract by the Link-Belt Co. The coarse coal is cleaned in Link-Belt’s new tank-type heavy-media vessels and the fine coal on Diester Concentrator twin-deck tables in four parallel coarse-coal and fine-coal circuits. After cleaning, the coal undergoes additional processing, including crushing, sizing, mechanical dewatering and heat drying before being loaded onto railroad cars.” The new Moss No. 3 plant was so automatic that it required only 18 men per shift, including greasers and mechanics.
