The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-12-13
Written for the woRKISsMAS's ADVOCATE.
The Origin Of Coal-No. IA.
BY ANDREW ROY.

Along the line Of the Allegheny coal
field, in northwestern Pennsylvania and
northeastern Ohio, there exists remarka-
Bile coal-bed. 1t is coal seam No. | u the
geological nomenclature, and is known by
various names, as Block coal, Briar Hill
coal, Furnace coal II ranges from six
inches to six feet Of thickness, the general
miDable thickness being from two and one
half to four feet and upwards. Like all
furnace Goals it possesses a lamenated
structure, splitting into sheets, and il very
difficult to break on the opposite side Of
the lamIned. The faces of the layers are
often covered with a soft dead carbona-
ceous material, like charcoal, and the
whole seam throughout is marked by al
ternate layers Of dead and bright looking
coal. 1t is a magnificent furnace coal,
being used in the smelling Of iron in the
raw state, as it comes from the miners
picks. In the act Of combustion it neith-
er swells nor changes form, the blocks re-
tanning their shape until they are burned
to ashes in the furnace. In Mercer coun-
ty, Pennsylvania and in Mahoning and
Trumbun counties, Ohio, the extreme
northwestern limit Of the Allegheny coal
field, it is found within sixty miles Of Lake
Erie, and is largely employed in the re-
duction Of the rich and magnificent iron
ores Of the Lake Superior regions, which
are moved to Cleveland and Erie by the
lakes, at low rate of transportation.
Within the past twelve years this coal has
made the fortunes Of many mining adven-
turers. 1t is everywhere sought for with
unparalleled energy, and its discovery in
mineable thickness is fortune in itself,
alike to the land owner and to the mining
adventurer
Unlike every other coal seam Of this
coal-held, which exists in good regularity,
it is often wanting where the practical
miner, unacqualnted with its peculiarItIes,
would unhesltatingly pronounce it's exist
ence; and it has to be searched for every
where by boring at great risk and expense.
AS not one acre in twenty is found to pos
sess it, it is made the subject Of continued
research, and is no sooner found than It is
sunk for and mined, the prospectors being
scarcely able to discover a new basin be-
fore the last one is threatened by exhaus-
ton. Were this coal seam continuous
where 1t is due, the coal regions Of the Ma
hOning and Tuscarawus valleys. in Ohio,
and the Shenango valley, in Pennsylvania,
would become before the lapse Of tie pres
ent century, the greatest mining and man
ufacturing centres in the world, but as il
a. h.. "a, e H.,
probably witness the extraction Of the last
ton Of furnace coal Of these valleys, and
the consequent decline and fall of these
great coal and iron industries which have
already placed Youngstown and Sharon in
the foremost rank in the American union,
OF iron manufacturing centres.
The upper surface Of the Waverly sand
stone, upon which this coal rests, is very
wavy and uneven; and the coal-bed is in
varlably found in long, narrow, irregular
and sinuous troughs The coal is always
thlckest In the bottom of these basins, or
synclinals, growing gradually thinner on
the sides of inclination. Sometimes the
deposits are found crossing hill, fOraing
an anticllnal, by dipping over into another
syncllnal In every case tho coal Is very
thin on these anticlinals. The troughs in
which the minable coal is found extend
lengthwise for miles. Occasionally they
are cut out ny surface eXisiOns but this
is the exception. Their line Of direc-
tion l., in the majority Of cases, towards
the northeast, though they are found oc-
cupying every point Of the compass,
and they irrevocably possess a zigzag
course. The inclination Of the strata, on
the hill sides, is at first very gentle, but
It gradually grows sleeper, and many Of
the dips are quite abrupt, being from 10
to 20 degrees
These troughs are seldom more than
few hundred feet in width, the coal does
not often continue to thin out till it reach
es a thin point like wedge, but is cut out
as il is frequently in the swamps, or low
est places Of the coal, by disturbing for
ces,-by what appears TO me 70 be wash
faults currents of water in rapid motion,
rushing past in the shape Of a rivulet, after
the carbonaciOus matter Of the coal forest
had been buried by the slime Of the ocean.
DR.. Newberry, the eminent state geolOgist
Of Ohio, IN the report Of progress OF the
Ohio Geological Survey for 1870, refers
to these facts, but the learned geologlst,
while scientifically accounting tor some Of
the peculiarities Of this coal, 50 far as
swamp troubles are concerned, does not
seem to be aware. that the agencies Of re-
moyal in the swamps, have been still
more active on the hill sides OF ridges,
that the coal is oftener removed on the
margins of the original coal marsh, not al
ways indeed by beds Of sand, transported
by water in rapid motion, but by water
and mud -hreclay, during the subsidence
~ Z.
roof, be ii sandstone or tire-clay, encIrcles
the ridges of the coal marsh, the coal is
wanting, and this is equally the case in
the bottom of the synclnal as on the sides
Of the trough. The proof ot forcible re-
moval, on the hill sides, Is as transparent
az Is that of the swamps. metlmes one
side Of the trough will rise 70 10 feet Of
perpendicular height up the hillside, when
the white roof 81 sand or clay, as the case
may be. appearing, the coal forthwith gives
out, while on the opposite side Of the syn
clinal, the seam will rise up the steep hill
for 20 OF even 30 feet perpendiculac. pre-
serving minable height throughout, then
,hatten for some distance, and az length
dip over into another coal swamp, forming
ing a saddle or antichnal. If the white
roof appears anywhere along the edges Of
this plateau, as il sometimes does, there
the agencies Of removal are at once expe-
rienced, for, as on the opposite side Of the
trough, and frequently in the bottom Of the
swamps, the upper portion Of the coal seam,
II not the whole of the bed itself, will be
found wanting washed away by unmis-
taxable water agencies.
Contrary to the theories Of thegeoiogists,
that every coal seam is underlaid by a bed
of fire clay, (the original land surface OF
the coal marsh), this coal is often found
resting in the Maverly sandstone, and aa
often III the carboniferous conglomerate,
where that rock exists, while it not always,
and then not a. conglomerate, but az a
pure sandstone, filed with the rootlesS,