At the beginning there were no compressor houses, due largely to the fact that there were no need for such machines considering air drills hadn’t been invented yet. Mines from this period relied on the rather archaic mining method of using chisels and sledgehammers. It wasn’t until the introduction of the Rand company’s air powered drills around the mid 1870′s that mines began purchasing air compressors and adding them to their surface plants. Since these machines were late additions to the mines, companies would often erect new separate buildings to house them. Surface plants for new shafts, however, were built with the use of air drills in mind and the compressors were then grouped up with the hoists and housed in the same building. This way the mine would reap significant savings in construction costs as well as allow for a much simpler surface layout. This was the case when Mohawk 6 was erected, and this is why the building’s hoist shares space with the mine’s compliment of compressors.

The compressors at 6 would have sat up on the rather obtuse concrete foundation that took up the majority of the building’s east end. Since it rose several feet above our heads we knew it wouldn’t be easy to get ourselves up there. Our best bet would be to find the old steam inlet tunnel, the tunnel through which steam pipes from the neighboring boiler house would have made their way up to the compressors. Luckily we had already seen this tunnel before, through a window on the outside of the building. Making our way back out there we climbed our way through the window and into the tunnel.

The tunnel was only a few feet wide but stood about seven feet in hight. Its walls were rather plain save for a series of small openings found alongside the floor.

A look inside these openings revealed them to house bolts, most likely the bottom end of the anchor bolts used to tied down the compressors to the foundation.

Looking upward we could see a series of openings in the roof. These originally would have provided egress to the compressors for steam pipes, but today would help us make our way on top of the foundation. Lucky for use someone had the same idea, since there was already a make shift ladder leading up through one such opening. We took the invitation and climbed the rather rickety ladder up through the large opening above our heads.

Once on top we found ourselves looking out over a sprawling concrete slab punctuated with three large rectangular openings. Those openings would have provided space for the compressor’s fly wheels, and by the looks of what stood in front of us we assumed the building had three – two original machines and a third that was added later in the mine’s life.

Here’s compressor No.2. Besides the rather obvious fly wheel slot you can also make out the outlines of where the machine itself once sat – one set for the steam cylinders and another for the air cylinders. (for a look at what these machines would have looked like, check my air compressors post for an overview).

Mounting this machine to the foundation were a series of iron bolts, just like these two. The other end of these bolts sits seven feet below here, protruding into one of those small openings we explored earlier.

Here’s compressor No.1, which looks very similar to its neighbor. These two guys would be the building’s original compressors, placed here along with the hoist when the building was erected. But compressors can only power a finite number of drills, and as the mine deepened and work expanded underground more drills would have been required. With more drills comes an increased need for air, air that these two guys couldn’t fulfill. So another compressor was added to the mix.

To Be Continued…

The Mohawk No.6 surface plant sits on private property and is not open to the public