Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-02-01
IN Address before the Students OF the
Pardee Scientific Department in Ia
fayctte College, by Dir. r. W. Shcafcr.
Continued

y
can follow their coal seams. Profess
soy Jeyoul "silrinks from endorsing
She 4 900 feet theory" but stops short
at $500. and says when they reach
that depth Il complete supply Of coal
will come in from Pennsylvania. We
have superior advantages in working
our Anthracite Goals, from the inclina
ton OF the beds and their consequent
cropping out on the surface. We find
solid coal within twenty to fifty feet
OF the soil, and sinking our slopes i'll
the coal itself, at cost of not more
than 500 per yard, exh .ust the first
set of coal chambers, and then, sinking
one hundred yards deeper, make new
get, and so go on until We reach the
bottom of the basin. This is far cheap
ar and more expeditions than the deep
shafts which the English are obliged
to sink vertically through hard rocks,
intereepting all the water courses
which lie between the strata, and
thus adding heavy expense for drain
age to the dead loss af capital in re-
moving unrem lucrative material.
The great Monkwearmouth Pit was
only completed after twenty years Ia
Dor; our energetic Americans sink
their slope, build breaker, put up
miners houses, pumps, engines, etc,
in one year, and the next are shipping
coal
\ good IDEA Of the extent Of our
Anthraelte resources may be gllned
from singleiiustration. The Maha-
noy Valley, in Schooikill Co, Penn
sylvania, is about twenty miles in
length by half mile in width. In
this area there are twenty-five collier
les, and these will produce, on an av-
crage 100000 tons of coal annually,
for the next fifty years. all this from
q single synclinal trough containing
about one iortieth Of our Anthracite
coal area.
But though Pennsylvania store Of
Anthracite Will last for many years,
ard long after it is drawn upon to sup
PLY England. it is useless to deny that
there is I, limit to the supply, and
that, after time, it will be exhaust
ed. Then what shall we do?
We shall proceed 10 open the grand
reservoir, the Bituminous coal fields,
compared to which our Anthracite
beds are bnt as a mlll-pond to the
Gulf Of Mexico. With a Bitumlnous
area of $1,000 square miles in Penn
svlvania, and $4,000 in the United
States, We can supply the world with
fuel for ages to come.
And after the Bituminous, what
Brown coal-Lignite-that queer,
woody looking mineral, little known
a vet, bat already beginning to be used,
and destined to play an important part
in tbs worlds great drama, long ages
hence. With this, as with the o!,.e1
Goals America Is still the IA ored
land It is found from Behrings
Straits TO Salt Lake City, AMI again,
in Tehuantepec, Panama, Peru, and
from Chilli to Patagonia, Bat it also
occurs Iii many other parts Of the
earth 1t stretches i'll almost q con
tnuous belt across half the world,
from France 10 China. l. is found IN
Australia. Van Deman' Land, Suma
ira, Bornco, and probably in nlany
other countries where the b0wc..5 OF
the earth have not vet been explored
So We shall not .avk for fuel r1y
soon, The main point. however, is
that Pennsylvania holds the key 10
these vast store houses Of fuel, and
consequently to the workshops of the
world Her saprsme command of the
world $ snpplv CT Anthracite, and her
rich deposits of iron, give her pres
tsgc which she will never lose.
Widely distributed though the Goals
and metals are, glance at Il map OF
the world on which their areas are de-
fined, will show how insignificant Is
the space they occupy, when compared
with those parts Of the earth from
which they are absent 1t has always
been the case that ,he nations best s'Ip-
piled with these treasures, and which
knew best how to use them, have held
the commercial supremacy Of the
world. Where these truly " internal
resources 90, wealth and influence
are sure 10 follow. The distribution
Of fuels is almost entirely, and that OF
metals to a great extent in the north
efn hemisphere and the northern
hemisphere is the field ia which all the
arts and sciences arc cultivated. In
the United States, u belt four degrees
In width, say 25S miles wide and 2
600 long, containing 670,S0O square
miles say bit one fifth of our total area
having for it's medal line the fortietl
degree of north latitude, and running
FROM the Atlantic to the Pacific, en-
braces the most Of the great coal and
ore beds; and ii is precisely within thi;
belt that the main railroads and canals
the Pacific road from Omaha to the
Sierra Nevada; the great centres o.
industry, the principal commercial an6
manufacturing cities, are to be touna
New York, Philadelphia, Pits,
burgh Columbus. indianapolis
Springfield (bll:Ao.s), Den2er, and
Salt Lake City are all naarly in tA6
middle of this belt while Boston
Chicago and San Francisco are jus,
outside of it, The fortieth degree o