Comments on: A Quincy Dry House (p1)

By: Jay Wrix

Jay Wrix — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:31:26 +0000

eh once they’ve sat around, they’ve lost all the chemicals, and i doubt they are of any threat, other than chemicals leaking into the ground……

By: dcclark

dcclark — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:37:48 +0000

You can walk around outdoors at Quincy anywhere you like, as long as you don’t take or break anything.

If those are indeed batteries — and they do look like it — they could be quite dangerous if they’ve been sitting around all this time. Aged, untended batteries could be very unstable.

By: Jay Wrix

Jay Wrix — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:19:16 +0000

Ya, i know they cant be tilted. I didn’t think about isolation from a short circuit.

The ones in the front most of the picture, are tilted on there side, probably from age, im kinda curious, to see a bigger picture.

Is Quincy off limits to walking around, Do you need permission to be able to walk out there?

By: Gordy Schmitt

Gordy Schmitt — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:01:17 +0000

I was thinking along Joe’s line of thought on those batteries having something to with the charging the miners battery pack.
I would venture to guess on the rubber feet on the side of the battry, its probably to keep the cell isolated from contacting anything else, being they are metal housings. Strange on how the feet are only on the wider side of the battery and none on the end. These cells are probably only 2 volts per cell, but the amperage could be a couple of hundred amps. From the looks of Mikes small photo, there seems to be several rows of the cells, 3 for sure. Depending on how many cells were hooked together and the amp hour rating, you could have one heck of a short circuit if more than one cell leaked. About the only battery you can lay on its side would be the more modern gel cells or a sealed battery. Those in the photo had to stay upright.

By: Jay Wrix

Jay Wrix — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:51:18 +0000

The batteries are strange because the vent cap, for maintaining them, is on the top, but there on rubber feet on the side closest to the camera, making it look like that’s the bottom, but id kind of figure that would leak if you did it that way.

By: Joe Dase

Joe Dase — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:48:54 +0000

Quincy didn’t have a large number of battery Loci’s, they were set up for trolley types, since they had sunk the capital into the catenaries already. The battery loci’s have been used on development headings (where you wouldn’t want to blow up your catenaries) or for going back into older previously worked out headings, where the catenaries were already removed, or never put in.

Plus you would never bring the battery’s to surface, loci battery banks are HEAVY and cumbersome to move. All charging would have been done underground. I would think that since it’s a newer concrete structure off of the dry that the structure is the lamp room (kept separate to incase to goes ‘oomph’ from the hydrogen generated when charging). I would also venture to guess the batteries were a battery back up for the lamp charging rack, as electricity probably wasn’t as reliable when Quincy finally started switching to electric lamps as it is today. Even today you can find some sites using backups to the lamp racks since they take so long to charge back up and are so critical to get fully charged. Believe me, there is nothing worse than being underground when your lamp starts to go dim, worse when it goes out.

By: dcclark

dcclark — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:39:17 +0000

I think Lankton’s “Old Reliable” says a bit about electrical tramming. I recall reading that some engines actually were run off of exposed overhead wires, but that batteries became the preferred power source (for obvious reasons!). Since the engines only had to make relatively short hauls, a big chunk of cells would last for a shift at least.

By: explorer

explorer — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:12:51 +0000

Gabe – thanks for dropping some comments! Always happy to see new contributers to the site. For some reason I never thought of a tram engine, but I thought they looked to big and cumbersome for miner’s lamps. I believe that Quincy was one of the first mines to use mechanical tramming underground and that most of the “exhibits” of those trams you still see today are from that mine. I assumed that they ran off of overhead lines, but as you suggest that probably wasn’t the safest route. But I wonder how efficient battery technology was at that time, how long an engine could go on battery power alone before needing a recharge?

By: Gabe Emerson

Gabe Emerson — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:41:50 +0000

Oops, I meant to include this picture:
http://www.mining.jamison.museum/images/1940%20mine%20train.jpg

Although the fellow in the first picture would probably have appreciated such an engine!

By: Gabe Emerson

Gabe Emerson — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:37:30 +0000

Those are indeed batteries, probably from an electric tram engine or other underground equipment. They’re still used in underground mines and tunnel construction where overhead power lines would be inconvenient or dangerous.
http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/showbib.aspx?bib_id=599073#