Description: This photograph depicts mechanical vibrating conveyors, or MV conveyors, made by the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company in Columbus, Ohio, being used at a metal casting foundry in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1955. The Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, also known as the Jeffrey Mining Corporate Center, was established in 1876 as the Lechner Mining Machine Company in Columbus, Ohio by Joseph Jeffrey and Francis Lechner. The company was the number one manufacturer of coal mining machinery worldwide until the mid-twentieth century. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00955
Subjects: African Americans--Employment; Coal mining; Coal mines and mining--Ohio; Coal mines and mining--United States; Inventions; Coal-mining machinery; Manufacturing industries--Ohio; Inventors--Ohio; Ohio Economy--Economy--Labor;
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio); Columbus (Ohio)
 

Description: Exterior view photograph of the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company headquarters on First Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, ca. 1946. Jeffery Manufacturing started in 1877 as Lechner Mining Machine Co. It built equipment to make coal mining easier. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02850
Subjects: Manufacturing industries--Ohio; Coal mines and mining--United States
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Handwritten on reverse: "Smoke Scene" and possibly "Mine Fire" This photograph shows smoke wafting from several different places in a forested area. This is most likely the New Straitsville Mine Fire. The mine fires are said to have started November 13, 1884, when striking miners pushed burning cars into a mine, during a strike over wages between the New Straitsville Mining Company's management and mine workers. A small group of union members decided to sabotage the mines. Cars filled with oil-soaked timber were set on fire and were pushed into a mine owned by the New Straitsville Mining Company. The fire quickly spread to the coal seam underground. Reportedly, the coal seam was fourteen feet across and extended an undetermined distance into the Earth. It took several days for the fire to be discovered. By that point, it was too late to stop the fire's spread. As a result of the fire, the mine closed. The New Straitsville mine fire has raged ever since 1884. In 1936, the WPA began work to stop the spread of the fire by building barriers across burning veins of coal. In 1938, nearly 350 men were employed on the project, which then was estimated to cost less than $1, 000, 000. Under the direction of James R. Cavanaugh, a veteran mine fire fighter, tunnels were driven through veins in the path of the fire, and were filled with a clay-water mixture or similar non-burning material. The mines fires affected coal deposits in Hocking and Perry Counties in southeastern Ohio. It was estimated that by 1938 the coal destroyed, more than two hundred square miles, was worth fifty million dollars. In 2003, smoke began to emerge from the soil of the Wayne National Forest, 119 years after the fire began. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B10F02_013_001
Subjects: New Straitsville (Ohio)--Photographs; Coal mines and mining; United States. Works Progress Administration
Places: New Straitsville (Ohio); Perry County (Ohio)