Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1857-12-10
American Coal Fields.

been repeated fluctuations in this countr,
in both the demand and supply of nearly
all products, from bank bills to grind
stones but the coal trade has been sing
ularly exempt from the influences of al
the eddies and whirlpools which have Sc
often interrupted the stream Of business
The iron trade has languished while thu
| demand for coal has increased the scar
city of money has caused the fires o
scores of furnces to be extinguished
half the steamers in the country have
been laid up, consumers have been obli-
! ged to practice the strictest economy in
the use of fuel; but through all these
changes and discourageing circumstan-
ces the demand for coal has never gone
backward, never been checked, never
ceased to keep close up with the constant
and rapidly increasing supply. An ar
ticle SO necessary to the welfare of civil
lied men, and the consumption of which
must continue to grow larger for many
years to come, naturally suggest the in
quiry whether or not such an enormous
waste will one day entirely exhaust it?
According to the most reliable author
ity, the area of all the known coal beds
III the United States is little more than
100000 square miles. But this puts
down all the fields west of Iowa and Min &,
nesota at only about 10000 square miles.
There is little doubt that the settlement
of this vast territory will reveal the ex-
istance of many other fields, and perhaps
swell the aggregate to five times 90, 600
Coal has recently been discovered in
Texas, it is known to exist in Kansas, and
and the imperfectly known Rocky Noun
tain region may in many places be un-
derlaid by valuable seams But suppose
as basis of calculation, we reckon the
coal fields of this country at no more than
100000 square miles, we shall still have
quantity which we may safely set down
as inexhaustable.
The coal layers in this country vary in
thickness from less than a quarter of an
inch to fourteen or fifteen feet. The an
thracite basin of Pennsylvania contains
twenty-five productive seams, with am
aggregate thickness of nearly one hun
.aI:ed-- faat. the BAnalaahiar-- 6all a,,.a,,.l
trail Alabama, and the largest in the
world, ten productive seams with an ag-
gregale thickness of about thirty feet;
the Illinois field, extending through the
greater part of Illinois. and a large por-
ton of Indiana and Kentucky. seven pro-
ductive seams with an aggregate thick
ness of from fifteen to thirty feet; ; the
Missouri field, extending. with slight
interruption, from central Iowa to central
Arkansas, three productive seams, with
an aggregate of perhaps eight feet.
The Michigan field contains two OF
three seams but they are SO difficult of
access that mining operations will never
be carried on with much profit. twill
be safe to set down the aggregate thick
ness Of all the coal seams in this country
at an average of fifteen feet With an
area of more than $4,000 square miles.
This would give an aggregate of 500 GU
bic miles of coal. A cubic yard of coal
contains about ton, and cubic mile
contains 5,451, ,776, 900 cubic yards
The annual consumption of coal in this
country now reaches nearly 90, oOO,0 900
tons-and at this rate cubic mile would
last more than 272 years. Let us sup
pose that only half the coal in the pro-
ductive seams can ever be mined, and
that during the next two hundred years
the annual consumption shall average 90
times as much as at present, still but lit
tie more than fifteen cubic miles will have
Dtcu SououhiVu, iS.tN my uHlouSHSu ~oo
cubic miles, or, at the same rate of con
sumption, fuel for three thousand six
hundred years. 1t is safe to assume that
long before the lapse of this period, the
ingenuity of man will have discovered
some substitute for coal-some cheap pro-
cess of manufacturing fuel from air OF
water.
| Man will never be able to know how
many years ago those vast coal deposits
were formed but science has demons n
ted that they are composed of wood pre-
served from decay by an air-tight cover
ing of soft earth or mud, which has beer
converted into its present condition by
the combined action of time, pressure
and heat. The deposits in the Rhod,
Island field have been so severely burned
as to be reduced almost to cinder, and a'
a consequence, their coal is worthless
The deposite in eastern Pennsylvani;
were roasted, or converted into charcoal