Joe Joy, developer of the Joy Loader, will be inducted in the underground load & haul category at the gala dinner in the Brown Palace Hotel, Denver on February 16 (www.im-halloffame.com). Joseph Francis Joy was born in September 1883, in the small mining town of Cumberland, Maryland. He started working in a coal mine age 12 as a slate picker, and by age 15 he was working underground as a face-miner using a pick and shovel. He would drill the face with a hand-held auger, charge the holes with dynamite to “shoot down” the coal and then hand-load it into small rail-mounted cars pulled by mules or ponies.
This was hard, dangerous work for strong men, let alone a young boy. While lying on his side soaked in mine water, for long hours as he laboured, this bright young man visualised a “better way” to do the work.
On his 20th birthday, his rare combination of his working knowledge, fortitude and specialised education, Joy produced his first sketch of a unique digging and loading device. He proudly shared his idea with a close friend who later provided convincing evidence of Joy’s invention of a mechanical loader.
His work in the mines continued where he held every job from pumper to general superintendent. All during this time, Joe Joy attempted to convince others of his mechanical loading device invention. He circulated his drawing trying to persuade various mining companies to help him build his gathering arm loading machine. This marked the beginning of an uphill struggle to win his first of a total of 190 patents in his name.
In 1913, at age 30, he took a lower paying job in exchange for the opportunity to work on the development of his machine. He was hired as an engineer for Jeffery Manufacturing Co where he spent his days in Pocahontas, Virginia, as a team member developing cutting and loading equipment. At night, he continued to develop his gathering arm loader which he eventually presented to Jeffery management. Failing there, he took his invention to senior officer, John A. Donaldson, at the Pittsburgh Coal Co. Donaldson was so impressed that he requested Jeffery to manufacture this machine. The first gathering arm loader was shipped to Pittsburgh Coal’s Sommer Number 2 Mine on September 27, 1916.
Joe Joy applied for a patent for this gathering arm loader, and continued to work on its testing and development underground. He was awarded a patent, in his name, for the machine in 1919.
In June 1920, the first crawler-mounted JOY loader was manufactured at Traylor Engineering in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Greater mobility proved itself, delighted Joy and promoted more interest in his machine. A major machine order was subcontracted by Joy to Charleroi Iron Works in Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
The first model JOY 4B sold for $2,800 in September, 1922, to the D. J. Kennedy Co which sold coal, bricks and building supplies. Soon the loaders were successfully operating in West Virginia, Illinois and Saskatchewan, Canada.
The model 4A, 4BU and 5BU (U referring to its underground application) were developed and manufactured at Joy’s first commercial assembly plant in Evansville. 184 4BUs were sold as the first commercial loading machines of their kind. The 5BU, however, was truly the forerunner of the modern loader, and the first with an articulated conveyor tail section. The first 5BU was manufactured in February, 1923 and installed in a mine in West Frankfurt, Illinois.
