As discussed earlier in 5.2.1, shaft house structures varied form operation to operation; size and design depended upon the type of mining used. ILLUS. 21, 24, ILLUS. 47 & 48.
The function of the shaft house in every operation was to protect the shaft from the elements of nature. However, some buildings also were used to house machinery and/or to store ore. Consequently the contents of the shaft house and their arrangement varied from mine to mine. For example, the main shaft of the Blue Nose in Goldenville contained "a 40 ton ore bin and a large-size Gates rockbreaker"(1). A similar arrangement was described by E.R. Faribault at the Dufferin Mine at Salmon River. Here the ore was brought up from the mine in "sheet-iron wagonettes" in two cages that were counterbalanced. At the surface the ore was dumped from the wagonette onto plates of iron and with the exception of the largest pieces of slate, the ore was chuted down into an immense 12 x 20 inch Mason-Blake breaker.(2)
One of the more thorough descriptions of the shaft house gear is that of the Boston and Richardson Gold Company at Goldboro in the 1907 - '08 Report of the Mining Metalurgical Industries of Canada:
Shaft House: 32 x 46 feet, with change room annex 12 x 33 feet; pump house annex 18 x 2224 feet, containing 90 horse power, internal fired boiler, steel jackets; 2 Blake jaw crusher, one 60 horse power straight line engine for operating crushers, Cornish pump, ect; one Cornish pump; one Gates rock breaker; Style k. no. 5; one trommell 1 ¼ inch; one 36 foot bucket elevator.(3)
At the Brookfield Mining Company in North Brookfield, Queen's County, the mill building was located directly over the shaft house. The ore was hoisted from the shaft to a deck on the top of the mill. The deck was faced with iron plates, and the ore was dumped directly onto the floor from where it was shoveled directly into a 10 x 15 inch Dodge rock breaker placed below the level of the deck. From that level the crushed ore was fed directly into various ore bins. The hoisting engines, a double cylinder steam engine, was placed on the ground floor of the mill.(4)
The most basic shaft house required for the opening up of a mine was described in this maner:
… a shaft house should be built, say 40 x 60 feet, with ore house for storage of ore, say, 40 x 40 feet; the equipment should be a 40 horse power engine and a 60 horse power boiler. The machinery, shaft house and skip, with which all incline shafts should be equipped, will cost about $4,500…(5)
The placement of the rock breaker varied form mine to mine. The crusher at Hardman's mill at Oldham was situated on the top floor of the mill building similar to that in ILLUS. 49. There were difficulties with this arrangement, primarily because the weight of most crushers added additional strain to the mill building.(6) Other mine managers recommended that the crusher be placed in the shaft house, and the ore be sorted and crushed before being transported to the mill. Another factor favouring this arrangement was that it reduced dust levels in the mill.
In addition to a shaft house, some mining plants had a hoist structure to house the gear employed for hoisting the ore from the mine. The hoist house at the Boston Richardson Plant in Goldboro was a frame building, 18 x 24 feet, "containing on Jeneckes double drum hoist, 2 cylinders, each 10" x 12", operating skip cage, safety clutch, 7/8" cable.(7)
At the Dolliver Mine the "large double drum Lidgerwood electric hoist" (ILLUS. 42) was housed in an engine house,60 x 45 feet, situated close to the shaft house. In addition to the hoisting engine, the engine house contained the air compressor for the underground drills.(8)
The Blue Nose did not have a separate hoist house for its hoist and engine system. It was also located within "a commodious shaft-house".(9) The illustrations of the Royal Oak Mine in its 1902 Prospectus do not show a separate structure to house the hoisting and related gear. ILLUS. 50
1 N. S. RDM, 1901, p. 49.
2 PAC RG 45, .146, Notebook 4451 (1899) September 13, 1899. Faribault's description of Dufferin Mine at Salmon River.
3 Canada, Report of the Mining and Metallurgical Industries of Canada, 1907 - 08 (Ottawa, 1908.), p. 512
4 B. T. A. Bell, ed., op. cit., 1899.
5 S. A. Joseph, How to Open Up a Mine", Industrial Advocate, v. V, n.5, March 1900, p. 12. This shaft house was recommended for a 500-foot shaft and a system of drifts, along the full length of the 1,500 foot claim.
6 J. E. Hardman, "Recent Gold Milling Practices in Nova Scotia", Transactions of the Mining Society of Nova Scotia, v.I, part II, p. 35.
7 Canada, Report of the Mining and Metallurgical Industries of Canada, 1907 - '08, p. 513.
8 N. S. RDM, 1902, p. 49.
9 N. S. RDM, 1903, p 50 - 51.