The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-11-12
Coal Mining in indiana.

Hamilton Smith, President of the Anne
riean Camel Coal Company, at Cannelton,
has published, in the Cannelton Reporter an
elaborate and interesting letter, addressed to
the State Board of Agriculture, upon the
subject of coal mines in Indiana, and the
mode of operating them. He says coal
mines on the Ohio river have been slow in
yielding any returns for the heavy invest
ments made in them. He adds, that after
the operations of nearly twenty years, and
an investment of something over six hun
dred thousand dollars reckoning interest at
six per cent they are now just beginning to.
make both ends meet, and rely with reason
able certaiuty on satisfactory dividends in
the future: In the last few years our coal
lessees have made very respectable profits
On their business.
l give this frank expose, in order to eau
tion men of capital and energy, who are now
so largely embarking in this coal business
IN the western sections of this State, not to
expect immediate returns, even if they lay
down plans of moderate extent. There is
no branch of business more profitable than
the mining of Goals, with economy andsys-
tenn, on large scale and with ample means.
There is no property in the West of such
intrinsic and prospective value as coal prop
srty, eligibly located and judiciously devel-
oped. Yet there is no business in the West
that Is so deceptive and dangerous, and that
has proved SO disastrous, as the coal busi-
ness carried on as it has usually been, and
I no property so unsafe as coal property un-
der its usual management. At first, the
/ profits promise so largely the opening and
I working OF the mines appear TO be so simple
and easy, and the contingencies SO unim-
| portant, that men of enterprise, with limit
| ed means, do not hesitate to stake their
/ capital and credit both in the property and
/ the business. Experience soon shows how
many unthought of expenditures are abso-
! lutely necessary, and, in great majority of
cases, the parties become irretrivably en-
barrassed before they are aware of their true
( condition.
Hundreds who have been enticed INTO the
deceptive business will acknowledge the
truth of the above expose No one should
engage in the business without ready cap
ital of S50,00O Mr. Smith says:
1t is doubted whether a less quantity than
two or three thousand bushels taken up a
shaft daily, from any one of our coal seams,
will pay any profit at any reasonable price,
even when the work is performed in the
best manner and by the most suitable ma
chinery: and no price will justify the work
! ing of a coal mine, through shaft, without
more skill than is possessed by ordinary Eu-
ropean miners. The cost of excavation, en-
| gine ropes, &c, of shaft, say two hundred
feet in depth, and through the ordinary
rata of earth and slate, surely fails below
forty or Fifty thousand dollars. The cost of
opening coal mine by an adit leven pre-
pairing the galleries and entries for delivery
\ of say three thousand bushels daily, build
ing inside and outside cars, purchase of
mules and erection of the necessary build
ings, construction of railroads not over a
] mile in length, and all prepared for perma-
nent and economical use, will range, here
on the Ohio river from say forty to sixty
thousand dollars. This does otinclude the
expenses attending surveys, experimental
shafts, borings, dwellings,, and engineering
generally, wherein this Company have ex-
pended at least twenty-five thousand dollars,
from first to last, and perhaps have lost more
than that sum by not employing competent
coal viewers and not making the necessary
prelimary examinations at an earlier period.