The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-01
TIE coal QUESTION.

heating andl steam gen Grating purposes, is
greatly commented upon by the eastern
press The train leav cs Washington every
morning at o'clock and makes the run tC
Philadelphia in three hours when the
bridges keep in their places and no unto
ward circumstances intervenes. On the
occasion referred to there was large
number of officials of the company aboard
Of the engine. and this trip was to be test
of the qualities of soft over those Of hard
coal for the purposes in question, and CON
siderable interest was taken in it. 1t is
recorded that the train entered the depot
at Philadelphia three minutes ahead Of
time
It is stated that fer good while the Off
cials of the Baltimore s. Ohio railroad
company have been trying to arrive at some
means by which they could run their trains
so that cinders might be kept out of pas
sengers' eyes. Numerous experiments were
made with hard coal, but in every case they
proved altogether unsatisfactory. Finally
coke was suggested and it was tried with
many misgivings. These were not mater
tally strengthened when the coke proved
unsuccessful as it did for awhile, but con
tinued experiments showed that this was
due to the inexperience of the firemen, who
were not familiar with the article and did
not know how to feed fire made from it.
The trip referred TO- however, was alto
gether successful, as the time and general
circumstances showed and is regarded as
marking a revolution in the use Of fuel for
passenger locomotives even if it should not
become generally utilized
Those who are familiar with the subject
will recognize the great advantage which
was gained by the success OF the expert
Raent spoken Of, whether it shall be gener-
ally adopted or not The object Of fuel in
a tender is olcourse heat, and the greatest
amount of heat that can be generated with
the least heft and space taken up by the
eombustible material the more space and
place there is for something else that not
only is not consumed and therefore hauled
for nothing, so far as immediate receipts
ire concerned, bat which are directly a
source of profit.
e Il is not loo king for too much to sec in
the forming embryo of time motor whose
power is productive Of and produced from
less destruction than anything we now
have 1t is we Il understood that the field
OF electricity is a comparatively unexplored
one, aud achievement Is i'll that direction
have scarcely more than begun. That the
invisiblcye aIlpowerful fluid is destined to
superse de steam TO greater extent than
the latter has horseiesh, is a statement
easy Of belief, especially when right here
in Salt Lake city we can see the beginning
of what may prove the end of mechanical
mott { -uroe, in the street cars which are
now ~alIing their re gular trips. This
would be contamination greatly to be
wished, for several reasons, prominent
among which is cheapness. When we
come to reflect that one of the ocean grey
hounds" TO speak popularity of the great
and swift vessels which ply or
the Atlantic, consumes from two
hundred to three hundred tons CT
coal day, and that an or
binary freight locomotive will consume
fully tenth OF that amount within cor
responding time, W. can readily compre-
bend what an enormous draft against the
resources of nature is going on every
twenty four hours from just one steamer
and one locomotive; but when we
multiply the sum total thus obtained by
several thousands, and even hundreds Of
thousands, the problem becomes too pro
found for mental scope; we cannot even
guess at it But we do know that the full
supply of the earth is being heavily taxed,
and that every pound taken out is so much
gone forever, as it cannot reproduce itself
or be reproduced. OF course there is moth
ing Immediately alarming in the situation
certainly not so far as the present or
no nawf I
Perhaps there is no cause for
alarm for any of the generations to come. |
since, as has partly been shown herein, |
circumstances adapted to exigeucies arise |
as we go along.
In Utah the coal measures have only been |
skinned, SO to speak. Their depth. |
breadth, thickness and extent are SO far |
unknown quantities. And this only refers |
TO those which have been drawn from at |
AL, amounting 70 a very trifing percentage |
of the whole In Sanpete county, for in
stance, whose sub-stratum seems to be one
vast and perhaps inexhaustible field of |
bitumen, the amount so far mined is
trifing indeed. A very few families use
It the principal source OF consumption |
being the small quantity required by the
little railroad, which mskes six trips a week
a portion OF the way into the interior
Of the county. In the eastern portion of
Sanpete are some OF the greatest coal |
deposits in the world, judging from exterior
indications; for, as previously suggested,
there are no developments yet worth speak
ing Of In Weber and Uintah counties,
whose qualities as coal producers are some
what better known, we can form more
substantial idea OF what the harvest will
be-, although even in them there are more
indications Of continued and continuous
supply than of any diminution. They all
60 TO show the existence of a mighty coal
bed on the eastern side of Utah-a bed
whose quantity, If not quality, will rival
that Of Pennsylvania, perhaps Newcastle
itself But all this will some day be
needed for purposes Of warming mankind
in the cooler seasons and preparing his food
at all times. Even If the electric fluid
should invade these circles and simplify
and cheaper the methods by which warmth
and. vicsuals are secured, it would stin
fo,seElEss we could not or would not en-
i5i'ely discard ordinary fuel, because Of its
sssct,s sc,uveniezce aud genislity even if
toere were no other reasons; and it is
gfNast,s To 6e desired that coal be made
cl.espeF. I4-Es5cnlaSiy when we consider :