Death of Pioneer Metalworker
Recalls Story of Many Safety
Devices Perfected for Mining

By Carl Boye

A forgotten man in the mining industry's stride toward
safer working cindit8ions for miners appears to have 
been W. J. Woof, veteran mine blacksmith, who died
here last week at the age of 77 years.

Although few knew of his work, Mr. Wood is credited
with having perfected devices which savewd the lives
of many of his fellow workers.

In 1896, Mr. Wood was working at the Western Coal
and Mining Company's No. 2 mine at Denning, Ark.
Men were hauled out of the mine on simple flat bottomed
elevators called cages, and these were also used to
haul coal from the pits.

The cages were without any device whatever to assure
safety of the men in the event the rope or cable broke.
The breaking of a faulty or worn cable could and often did
result in the death of the men as the cage plummeted
to the pit bottom, often 200 feet below the surface.

Observing these conditions, Mr. Wood concluded
this loss of life unnecessary. So he went to work and
patterned a device whith which to prevent the cage 
from falling.

This safety invention consisted of two "dogs"
fastened to the top of the cage frame and connected
with by one shackle, the ends extending through the
sides of the cage. When the tension was released,
the "dogs" would fly outward, forced by a spring. If 
the rope broke, the points would spring out and plunge
into the wooden guides, thus preveting the cage from
falling.

Another invention of Mr. Wood's was an automatic
dumping cage, which greatly speeded up production.
At that time, coal was being hoisted from the mine in
flat bottomed cages and considerable time was lost
at the bottom then weighed and dumped the car by
hand when it reached the tipple.

Mr. Wood's design of a switch-back,weighing hopper
and locking device saved the work of two men and
three operations. The time necessary to load a car at
the pit bottom, raise it to the top, dump and weigh the
load, then return the car to the bottom for replacement
was cut to one third.

Mr. Wood never patented his invention and never
received any remuneration, outside the pleasure of
seeing the lives of his fellow workers protected.

George Woodbury, hoisting engineer at the Denning Mine
and mining superintendent Charles Schelf, Frank Levering
and other workmen who realized the importance of the
new devices aided Mr. Wood in their perfection.

Mr. Wood came to this region about 1896 from Kansas
and started working as a mine blacksimth. He took a
correspondence course from a business school so he
could make the various drawings needed to convince
engineers that his devices were workable.

"The statement that these devices were perfected and
used first at Denning is well substantuated, said H. R. 
Wood, soon of Mr. Wood and a department of justice
agent stationed at New Orleans. "I saw them first tried
out, saw changes made, heard discussions of their design
and efficiency and during the years following, saw my
father make the same devices again and again at other
mines in Jenny Lind, Huntington, Prairie Creek, Midland
and other places."

"In later years," the son continued, "I traveled through the
Pennsylvania fields and through curiosity visited them and
saw there were the same devices in use. I questioned the
old timers as to when they were first introduced and learned
that the automatic cages and the other devices were not
put into use until about 1900."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------