THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN AND JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES. Vol. evil. FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1914. No. 2782. A Modern German Colliery Plant. THE EQUIPMENT OF THE FRIEDRICH HEINRICH COLLIERY. By P. BUSSING, from Gliickauf. The Friedrich Heinrich Colliery, Lintfort, is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, immediately adjoining the Rheinpreuseen Colliery, and has a coal area of about 10,500 acres. The coal measures lie at a depth of about 950 ft., under a cover rock of permian and trias strata, topped by marine sands and clays belonging to the upper oligocene and lower miocene, the extensive quicksands in these strata giving rise to considerable difficulties in sinking the shafts. The coal deposits were proved by five boreholes, and found to have a total thickness of nearly 60 ft. of bituminous coal, distributed over nine workable seams (mean thickness 40 in.), which, with the intermediate strata, extend for a depth of 1,670 ft. Below these measures are seams of lean coal and gas coal, which have not yet been proved. The seams dip at a very low angle (6-8 degs.) from S.S.W. to N.N.E., but are interrupted by several faults, with a downthrow of as much as 540 ft. in one part. The total coal in the various seams is estimated at about 731 million tons, of which 382 million tons belong to the bituminous group and 349 million tons to the lean coal group. The two 20-ft. shafts had to be put Fig. 2.—General Plan. 23 ■H 1. No. 1 pit. 2. No. 2 pit. 3. No. 1 pit winding engine. 4. No. 2 pit ditto. 5. Store. 6. Powt'r-house. 7. Cooling towers. 8. Boilers. 9. Washery. 10. Ventilating fans. 11. Workshops. 12. Picking bands & screens. 13. Coke ovens, 120 ovens. 14. Do. 120 „ 15. Water tank. 16. Benzolfactory. 17. Sulphate factory. 18. Sulphate store. 19. Laboratory. 20. Re-cooling plant. 21. Settling tanks. 22. Workshop. 23. Oil tank. 24. G-oorley-Brook. 25. Steam accumulator. 26. Offices and bathhouse. 27. Friedrich-Heinrieh-Allee 28. Head offices. down by the freezing procss, owing to the extensive quicksands and to the porosity of the underlying blue clay, 35 boreholes being sunk for the freezing brine (magnesium chloride, with ammonia as the refrigerating agent). In sinking the No. 1 shaft, an open cavity, filled with gas, was struck at a depth of 787 ft., and as this made a gap in the ice wall, unfrozen sand leaked into the shaft, which then had to be allowed to fill with water while the necessary extra boreholes for freezing up the gap were being put down. Owing to this delay, the No. 1 shaft took 3| years to put down, whilst the No. 2 shaft was down in 2J years. The cost of sinking by the freezing process amounted to £500 per metre, including the cost of tubbings and concrete backing, whilst sinking through the solid ground cost only £50 per metre, including brick lining. The No. 1 shaft has a depth of 1,312 ft., No. 2 being 1,574 ft. deep. Each is divided by oak bratticings into two winding compart- ments, and is served by four cages. The pit water is raised by a centrifugal pump set (fig. 1), having a capacity of 880 gallons per minute against a head of 1.890 ft., and consisting of two five- rotor pumps coupled direct on the two ends of a 900-horse power electromotor, running at 1,480 revolu- Fig. 1.—Turbo Pumping Set. tions per minute. At present this plant is on the 1,312 ft. level, but as the pit is deepened will be installed later on at the 1,800 ft. level. Surface Arrangements. The general arrangement of the surface plant (fig. 2) is such as to combine a sightly appearance with utility, and the possibility of future extensions without impairing the unity of the design. The buildings were built of brick from designs furnished by the manage- ment, the head offices and housing accommodation for the managei- and officials being on the western side of the Friedrich-Heinrich-Allee, whilst the shafts and plant are on the opposite side of the road. The bath house and works offices (fig. 3) are combined in the one building, but separated by a passage, 24 ft. wide, through which the men enter the bath house, pay office and the central covered court (62 by 70 feet), round which the offices are arranged. The dressing room, which is entered from the passage through double swing doors, measures 230 ft. by 67 ft. by 33 ft. to the eaves, and contains 4,320 clothes pulleys for adults, 324 for boys and a similar number of day labourers, or 4,968 in all. The shower-bath rooms are on either side of the dressing room, and are 16 ft. wide, containing 244 shower nozzles for adults, 12 for boys, and eight for day labourers. The bath house foreman’s stand is on the level of the first floor, and provides a good view over the whole apartment including the shower-baths. Here are situated all the main valves for the heating apparatus, hot and cold water, shower-bath mixers, &c., together with distance thermometer for the water- heater, fan switches, and levers con- trolling the fresh-air inlets. To the right and left of this stand are two stairways leading to and from the room where the lamps are given out, which room communicates with the shaft building by a covered foot- bridge. There are two separate passages leading from the bath-house to the shafts—one for going and the other for returning—so that the men cannot get in each other’s way. The basement of the office building con- tains a steam laundry, refectories for the miners, a bar for milk and non- alcoholic drinks, cycle garage, and an exercising room for the rescue corps. The whole building and the bath water are heated by exhaust steam, the plant for this purpose being housed in the basement of the No. 2 shaft engine-house, and consisting of a closed circuit apparatus, served by electric circulation pumps. The condensed steam is pumped back to feed the boilers. The heating pipes are laid in a conduit passing all round the dressing and bath rooms, and the fresh air entering this passage is discharged, in a warm state, into the rooms, entering above the level of the men’s heads. The water for the baths is delivered into two hot-water tanks, holding over 5,000 gallons each in the basement of the bath-house, where it is subjected to the 18 reiHiir■ ■ ■ ■ mi ■ BIB IM B ■ a ■ ■ II»l Fig. 3.—Plan of Baths and Offices. 1. Covered court. 2. Overmen’s office. 3. Wages office. 4. Baths for 5,000 men. 5. Lamp rooms. 6. Entrance. 7. Timekeeper. 8. Staircase. pressure from a high-level tank. The heating is con- tinuous, the cooler water in the top of the tanks being drawn off by a centrifugal pump and delivered to the heating apparatus, whence it is returned to the tanks. The total consumption of heat for the hot-water and air-heating plant is about 1'8 million calories per hour; and since, if steam had to be raised for this purpose, 6,500 tons would be required per annum, at a cost of 2s. per ton, the saving effected by utilising the exhaust steam works out at £650. The arrangement of the heating pipes is shown in plan in fig. 4. Power Plait, The central power-house is shown in fig. 5. Turbine engines exclusively are used both for generating the electric energy, and for producing the compressed air required in the mine. Up to the present two turbo- compressors and two turbo-generators (supplied by the Gutehoffnungshutte) have been installed. Each engine is provided with its own surface condenser, mounted in