Abstract: Apparatus for and method of controlling the mining by a mining machine of a seam of material (e.g., coal) overlying or underlying a stratum of undesired material (e.g., clay) to reduce the quantity of undesired material mined with the desired material, the machine comprising a cutter movable up and down and adapted to cut down into a seam of coal on being lowered. The control apparatus comprises a first electrical signal constituting a slow-down signal adapted to be automatically operated to signal when the cutter has cut down into a seam of desired material generally to a predetermined depth short of the interface between the seam and the underlying stratum for slowing down the cutting rate as the cutter approaches the interface, and a second electrical signal adapted to be automatically operated subsequent to the first signal for signalling when the cutter has cut down through the seam to the interface for stopping the cutting operation, thereby to avoid mining undesired material with the desired material.

Abstract: Adjacent alternating rows of relatively coarse and fine coal are deposited onto a horizontal moving grate running through a coking furnace.

Abstract: A mine roof-bolter machine having an extensible conveyor running therethrough operates behind a continuous miner machine. As the continuous miner advances, the roof-bolter advances from position-to-position while installing roof bolts and plates, and the extensible conveyor gives and takes the slack between the continuous miner and the roof bolter and feeds mined material to a surge car behind the roof bolter.

Abstract: A process for producing formcoke composed of char and selected binders comprising process steps in which non-oxidative thermal carbonization is employed.

Abstract: Connected support sections for a mineral face conveyor are individually supported on the forward sides of chocks which move in towards the rib of a panel behind a mining machine. Backfill is transported to the mined area behind the moved-up chocks via a conveyor supported from connected support sections on the rear sides of the chocks.

Abstract: A column of hot, particulate char from a shaft furnace is moistened with quench water as it moves downwardly into a vessel which it fills and forms a pile. The material in the pile is shifted from a central core at the base of the column to a zone which surrounds the sides and bottom of the column by material flowing from the lower portion of the column; and steam is exhausted from the upper portion of the vessel.

Abstract: An articulated ancillary support for a conveyor is attached onto the forward side of a mine roof chock by extensible means which, when retracted towards the chock, shifts the ancillary support from a normal condition in which it occupies an area of relatively wide lateral extent to another condition in which it overlies an area of relatively narrow lateral extent, freeing a large portion of the space under the chocks to clear the way for a retreating continuous miner.

Abstract: Raw coal is charred in pre- and post-treatment carbonizers, then pulverized, mixed with pitch, briquetted, re-circulated through the pre- and post-treatment carbonizers with succeeding green coal, cooled, and finally separated from the as yet un-briquetted char.