Mining Gilsonite - part IV

........Our desire to visit the men at work is granted and presently we find ourselves going single file down a series of dust-covered ladders. As we decend from one landing to another the air becomes more and more dusty and the light less and less effective. Three men, working near the bottom of the last ladder, recognize that we are strangers and kindly come with their electric lamps to help us get our bearings.
We follow to where they are working and amuse ourselves at the dexterity with which they use their picks and sack the dislodged ore. These men, like all the other miners, work in teams of three. They operate ona contract basis and share their earnings. Each team, ordinarilly, fills about 150 sacks a day and each sacks weighs about 200 pounds. The empty sacks are second hand for they were formally used in shipping raw sugar to certain big sugar refineries.
Occaionally the workman stike fire with their picks and they hit against sandstone adjoining the Gilsonite. This startles us as we are aware of the fact theat we are in the midst of an extremely combustable dust, but Mr. Ford allays our fears by telling us by some unaccountable manner the dust has never been known to iginite from fire flashes of this sort. He also remarks that utmost percautions are taken to prevent dust explosions. No body is allowed to carry matches int he place and any employee found smoking in the mine would be discharged at once. Hoisting machinery is always kept away from the workings as a safety measure and only electric safety lamps of the very best make are used by the miners.