Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-05-10

| 100, uuu conurincu In substance the
conclusions of Professor Jcvons, but
added some facts 10 show that very
sight difficulty in the procuring OF coal,
causing an enhancement of price, would
revolutionize British industry and cause
dire distress to her tceming population.
And now Mr.. Price VIII ans has pre-
sented paper to the Royal Statistical
| Society in which he estimates the dura
ton of the principal English coal fields
at the present and prospective rate of
consumption, thus
:, No. Of Years.
Northumberland and Durham. ... "a
' Eastern ; division %
Lancaster and Cheshire - "a
Yorkshire, Derbyshirc and Nottingham SO
| Warwickshire. N
Denbighshire and Flntshiro .......... 250
Scotland. on
| United Kingdom ......... 1O5
Although coal has been used more or
less as fuel in Great Britain from n yerv
carly period, perhaps from the time of
the Roman occupation, the total produc-
ton of the United Kingdom did not
reach 10000, 00o tons per annum until
the beginning of the present century.
we may say, therefore, that no percepti-
bic draft had been made upon the stock
prior to the year Loo. During the next
iifty years the increase of consumption
was moderate, reaching only 52, OOU, OJO
tons in the year 1852 From that t,me
onward the rise has been by leaps and
bounds. In 1856 the outp t was lOI.-
600, 900 tons, in 1888 It had reached
100, O00, 600 tons, and it has increased
since that time at the rate of IL Ter
cent. per annum. Ii Mr.. Price Willlams's
computations are to be accepted
as correct : and they coincide re
markably with those of .Jcvons and
Marshall : it will appear that a
period of 19l years, beginning with
the year 1900, will have sufi; ced to dis.
embowel the United Kingdom of that
element OF wealth and power to which
she owes her present greatness, and in
comparison with which all other elc-
ments arc trivial and ms gnificnnt.
When her coal is gone there will be no
more Great Britain. Empire will pass
out oil her hands into those Of countries
better supplied with this indispensable
article, and so, according to our present
knowledge, will empire shift her seat
through coming ages from one country
to another until ali are reduced to the
common level of want, for oil. coal. beds
are cxhausti!hc. The Heading Railroad
Company. which owns or controls one
third of the anthracite deposits of Penn
Sylvania, has estimated the duration of
Its supply at about one hundred and fifty
years, ana has deemed it necessary to
create sinking fund to meet the ext
gcncy.
Up to this time nobody has venturcd
10 say what fate will ovcrtake the human
race when all the coal is consumed and
gone Or course economies will be in
troduccd. More power will lie got out
ot given amount of coal Great econo-
mics have been introduced, but the
annual draft on the mines increases from
year to year. The annual draft in
creased in England at the rate of 3 per
cent. per annnum from 1865 to 1915. 1t
mas been reduced to l. per cent, but it
ID an increase still. More tons are re-
CURED every year than the year before
Natural gas petroleum, and shae where
they exist, will serve the turn to exc out
the coal supply, but these too are OK
haustible. They are nil scraps of the
GUNS radiant energy, imprisoned by
chance or by Divine Providence in the
earth's shell. They arc, oil told, but n
fraction of the radiant energy which the
sun pours over the earth every day, and
this is an inapprcciable fraction of what
the sun pours into illimitablc space. Will
the genius of man ever contrive means
to capture and impound the fraction
which our globe intercepts as it rushes
through sun-lit space. Here is the great
est question ever presented to the human
species, for unless this feat be accom-
pushed, population must eventually be
reduced to the number who can
be supplied with fuel from the cul-
tivation of trees. Power may be OBJ
tanned from falling water and from the
ocean tides, and this may be converted
into heat; but it is pitiful and poor
substitute for coal, and would not bcpin
to maintain the worlds present popula-
ton i'll the present scale of civilization
and comfort.
The prize of greatest magnitude ever
offered to men of science the honor of
rescuing the entire ra c from misery un.
| speakablc-awaits the man or men who
shall grasp, and hold, and render SER
vlceable the rays of the allpowerful sun.
No one can say that this problem will
not be solved. We now know that light
and heat are manifestations of one and
the same tn ng. We know that light is
abundant and superabundant. We do
not know whether it can be con entrat.
ed aud converted into heat so MS to take
the place of coal in the .onom;es of the
world. Acc ording to our present knowl-
edge, we are living in the worlds golden
age. Those who went before us knew
not the civil alton that We enjoy, be-
cause they knew not the uses of coal.
Those who follow lis, after the oal is
burned up and gone, will have to resign
that dvilization-a mu harder fate
than never to have known it-unless the
great sun problem an be solved. No
body who is now alive need con ern
himself with that hard destiny, but in the
history of the planet. even the written
history, the age of GAL will be Compare
lively short one.-Men York Pasi.
The Fig Tree.