Salt Lake Paper - Rope Idlers in the Raven Shaft

The shaft of the Raven mine, at Butte, Mont., is an incline 1,700 ft. in length and dipping at various angles. At the top the dip is 70" from the horizontal, but this is gradually flattened until at the 300-ft. level the inclination is only 47. This angle continues to the 1,100-ft. level, below which it curves with a 125-ft. radius to 78". In addition to these variations in dip, the shaft does not lie in the same vertical plane, with the result that the hoisting rope not only rubs at intervals on both the hanging and foot walls, but presses strongly against the west dividers near the collar, while 300 ft. below it runs close to the east end plates. The early operators used no idlers, aid wall plates cut 6 in. deep by the rope resulted. Later operators first attempted to overcome the excessive friction, and the wear of rope and wall plates, by introducing solid cast-iron idlers, 3 in. in diameter. To allow for the travel of the rope from side to side some of these had to be 3 ft. long and were very heavy. Judging from the appearance of the old idlers of this type found at the mine, they often failed to turn in the bearings, which is not surprising when it is considered that they would have to make 1,000 rev. a minute under ordinary hoisting conditions. The next rolls were made of wood, 6 in. in diameter, with an iron band about each end, and a pintle of 1-in. round steel driven in at the ends to serve as a shaft. These wore rapidly, and were soon replaced by rolls made from water pipe, 5 or 6 in. in diameter, cut to the desired length and fitted with a wooden cylinder into which the pintle was driven. Where the idlers were used on the hanging wall of the shaft the original bearing was simply a piece of + by 1 3/2 in. strap iron, 10 in. long, turned up at the end in a circle 11/8 in. in diameter to receive the shaft. A small hole served for oiling, and common black oil was generally used, although filtered oil from engine bearings and compressor bearings was also used. When the rolls were to be placed on the foot wall the bearings were made from two pieces of 1 by 3 in. steel, 6 in. long. A half circle was cut on the flat side of each piece and the two half circles together formed a bearing. Oil holes were provided, and in some cases holes were bored through the two pieces so that they could be screwed or spiked to the wall plates.