Cape Breton's Magazine

have now. So that there's at least a 2% times saving using electricity compared with compressed air. Quite possibly a lot more. (This compressed air is sent down from the surface.) Yes, in great big pipes. At one time they had 12-inch-diameter pipes going down No. 12 colliery. Enormous things. And this, apart from being costly and every? thing, the leaks, hauling the pipes around. (And the further out you go, the further the pipe has to go.) Yes, that's right. So this was the incentive to start to go to electricity. But one had to be very care? ful. And this was only possible when you got people like the British Deputy of Mines who would do the testing on the elec? trical equipment so you could be absolute? ly sure that it was safe and there would be no danger. As far as I know, they never did have any explosions which have been traced to electrical causes. So that was really the next step, shortly after the longwall got established. This was when I came. It would be somewhere a- bout 1932 or '33. (Did the electrification then make possi? ble the machinery that followed?) Well, I don't think the machinery that followed would have been possible. Because the Dos? co Miner, which followed--it went up and down the longwall face, and it had a ca- ble going behind. Now I suppose it could have dragged a hose behind, but it would have been very cumbersome. (So the Dosco Miner was an electrically operated ma? chine .) Yes. Never had anything to do with compressed air. (Was the Dosco Miner the very next main step in mechanization?) As far as I can re? member, that was the next step. I was go? ing to say the invention of the Dosco Min? er. This was really an adaptation by the Dominion Coal Company, headed by Harold Gordon, of a design which had been in? vented out in Denver, Colorado. It was called a Silver Machine. It was developed by a fellow called Silver who was a super? intendent of coal mines in Denver, Colora? do, area. It was built, I think, by a manu? facturer of sugar beet machinery. Anyway, the principle was: it was a series of chain saws--parallel blades, side by side-- which were gradually jacked up into the coal. In other words, the coal was cut down, just like a chain saw would go in through a log. (My sense is that it chewed into the coal.) Yes, exactly. It did That's a good word. It chewed into the coal. (So that you not only got the coal but you got it in pieces.) Yes, that's right. And this coincided, too, with a little change in the marketing of the coal. See, formerly, the coal company got_their best i' CANADA LIFE Peter H. Norres-Rudt Life Underwriter Life Insurance - Income Replacement - Pension & Group Benefi Business & Estate Planning - Registered Retirement Savings Pl' Telephone: (902)295-3367 V Fits X 'lans ' 'e('ape Pottery 'ou'e norres-rudt and GUEST HOME German Spoken * European Style Breakfast BADDECK Cape Breton, N. S. BOE 1B0 Louisbourg ?? j|u Environnnent Environnement Canada Parks Canada Pares Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Park Nova Scotia June 1 - September 30 Forteresse de Louisbourg pare historique national Nouvelle-Ecosse l'r juin -30 septembre Information (902) 733-2280 DON'S FLOWERS P..0. Box 179, Port HawkesBury, N. S. BOE 2V0 Serving Port Hood, Judique, Inverness, and sur- rounding areas. Telephone 625-2215 or 625-2717. Ramsay's Honda Shop 539-7644 * 480 GRAND LAKE RD., SYDNEY * 539-1730 Complete Line of 3- & 4-Wheeled Vehicles for Year Round Use Available Accessories: Trailers, Snowplows, Mowers * Great Utility Vehicles * * Great for Hunting & Fishing * HONDA fl??lf BidelSieBonghGoimtrsii mmfOBft located 1/2 mile off the Cabot Trail at NeirsHarbour 336-2288 Enj(qr your favorite (20)