TripAdvisor.com The Rand Drill like this one on display in the Quincy Mine, was the first mechanical, air-powered drill developed that was small enough and portable enough for use in the Lake Superior copper mines. The drill itself weighed just under 295 pounds, with the mounting post and the clamp ring adding another 309 pounds, for a total weight of over 600 pounds. With the expectation of the drill being small enough to be handled by two men, plus a boy, operating it was not for the faint of heart.

Companies like the Quincy and the Calumet & Hecla focused new technologies to lower the costs of mining. Reducing costs was absolutely essential to the mines being able to remain competitive with the new Western mines and air compressors, pneumatic drills and high-explosives were the technologies that became available around the same time.

Trials, time studies and close financial analysis revealed that the adoption of these technologies did reduce costs to the point that the larger companies at last felt able to breathe a bit easier, at least for the time being.

The success of air drills and dynamite in reducing costs and increasing efficiency not only benefited the mines that adopted them, they also allowed for other, long-idle ventures to re-open, as well. One of these mines, in Keweenaw County, was the St.Clair Mine.

(Michigan. Dept. of Mineral Statistics for 1883)

The St. Clair Mining Company was organized in 1863, when the Civil War raised the price of copper. The company operated out of one shaft, to a depth of about 300 feet, and one adit. The mine began producing copper in 1865 and by 1871 was promising enough that the company constructed a stamp mill with 12 heads of stamps in 1872. Just one year later, in 1873, the financial panic forced the mine to close and it was taken by creditors. With all the publicity of the enormous benefits of air drills, the company reorganized in 1879 and began mining again the following year.

As we’d talked about over the past couple of weeks, The Burleigh drills, powered by both steam and compressed air, were used in building the Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts. The Burleighs were efficient enough when they worked, but broke down too frequently. It was quickly revealed at the Hoosac Tunnel that the “average life of each machine without repairs did not exceed 50 hours and that required four machines to keep one at work,” E.L. Hawes, of Duluth, Minnesota, reported in his article, “The Development of the Rock Drill and Its Relation to the Lake Superior Mining District,” which appeared in the Proceedings of the Lake Superior Mining Institute 28th Annual Meeting, Sept. 10 and 11, 1930, Vol. XXVIII.

While major improvements were made, the Burleigh was still so large that it required a wheeled carriage to move it around. That was okay for large, straight railroad tunnels, like the Hoosac, but the Burleighs were just too big and cumbersome for the four-foot wide and six-foot high, twisting drifts of the Lake Superior copper mines. Machine drilling simply was not feasible, nor possible, in the local mines.

About 1875 the Rand Little Giant Drill with a tappet valve action controlled by the motion of the piston was developed by A.C. Rand and George Githens, Hawes wrote. These drills quickly became popular in the Lake Superior District. In fact, these drills made it possible to re-open old, long abandoned mines that, while they did contain copper, were not profitable using hand-drilling, and permitted declining mines a new lease on life.

For example, at the Central Mine in Keweenaw County, Agent Samuel Bennet introduced 10 power-drills, and employed some 200 men. Their shipping point was Eagle Harbor, where they had a warehouse and dock. In spite of the drills, the copper content of the mine continued to decline, but the technology kept the company limping along. In 1875, the product of the Central Mine was approximately 1,003 tons of mineral averaging 71% refined copper. For the first half of 1882, production had dropped to 951 tons. It was the reduction in the cost of mining brought about by machine drilling that permitted the mine to continue working.

The Mohawk Mining Company, incorporated in 1898 with Joseph Gay as president, was, in a way, the first 20th century mine, as far as technology was concerned. The Mohawk No. 3 Shaft was equipped with an Ingersoll-Sergeant 25-drill air compressor, and smaller, 8-drill compressor of the same manufacture at the No. 2 Shaft, with a total of 12 drills underground, all of which were Rands. Air compressors and machine drills were not the only technology that made for faster copper production at lower costs.

In 1895, according to Stevens, The Tamarack Mining Company installed a steam hoist at its No. 3 Shaft, manufactured by the E.P. Allis Company of Milwaukee. The double-conical hoist drum was 13 feet, 6 inches in diameter, on the ends and 36 feet, nine inches at the center. The hoist raised 10-ton capacity skips up the vertical shaft at 55 miles per hour.

Stevens noted, also, that the Isle Royale Mine, in the Portage Lake District, was also given a new lease on life, thanks to the new technology:

“It is probable that with present-day methods, 20,000-25,000 tons of copper would be secured from the ground that actually yielded less than 18,000 pounds in the past.”

The evolution of mining technology came quickly in the Lake Superior copper district, both underground and on the surface. At the shaft, rather than rock being calcined, which could take days, the development of mechanical jaw crushers broke rock down to usable sizes in a matter of minutes. Steam-powered stamp, which had replaced the old gravity stamps, used steam to drive the stamp shoe up, then used steam again to thrust it back down, were not only much more powerful, they were far more efficient.

Underground, air drills drilled holes much faster than hand drilling, so more holes could be drilled per shift, and high explosives brought down far more rock than black powder could. Mining was becoming scientific in many ways, which bought more time for the lifespan of the copper mines. But it is also true that a mine shortens its future by consuming its present and no technology invented could replace a nonrenewable recourse. One day, the mines must reach the end of their lives. But it would not be right now.

(Author’s note: I have begun inserting the sources used in the writing of Copper Country’s Past & People to enable readers the opportunity to search more in depth the topics discussed in the column. You will find them below).

– E.L. Hawes. “The Development of the Rock Drill and Its Relation to the Lake Superior Mining District.” Lake Superior Mining Institute 28th Annual Meeting, Sept. 10 and 11, 1930, Vol. XXVIII. (https://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/GIMDL-LSMI1930A_301867_7.PDF)

– History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Containing a Full Account of its Early Settlement; Its Growth, Development and Resources; an Extended Description of its Iron and Copper Mines. Also, Accurate Sketches of its Counties, Cities, Towns and Villages, their Improvements, Industries, Manufactories; Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers; Views of County Seats, Etc. Western Historical Company, Chicago. 1883

– Horace Jared Stevens, Walter Harvey Weed. “The Copper Handbook.” 1900. Horace J. Stevens, 1900 (https://books.google.com/books?id=pHbhAAAAMAAJ&vq=air+drills&source=gbs_navlinks_s)

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