Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-22

scientist, Mir k. Price Williams, who read don on the subject. According to MT Williams. the Northumberland and Durham coal deposits will have been used in ninety-four years to an extent l that will make their further operation 1 impossible, considered from a commer- ciel standpoint. The same effect will | overtake part of the South Wales coal | fields in seventy-nine years, and another part in forty six years. The Lancashire and Cheshire coal fields are given a life Derbvshire and Nottinghamshire coal I fields ninety years the Warwickshire
 coal fields fftythree years the Denbig- shire and Flintshire coal fields 250 years; | the Scottish coal fields ninety-two years. | The average of commercial existence is eighty-seven years, but, as a matter of fact, averages in problems of this kind count for very little, for, if a consider
 able part of the English coal deposits. say those of Wales. became exhausted in half century from this time, the de-
 mand upon the other coal deposits would l become so far augmented as to greatly increase the price of fuel, probably to a point that would permit of it's importa- tion. When that point is reached Eng land will meet factor of industrial competition with which she has not here tofore had to reckon. The abundance and cheapness of their coal has been an
 enormous point of advantage to the Eng
 fish people in their industrial compe-
 tition with other nations. When the supply at the mines is seriously diminish ed and the inventabie advance in price supervenes the English people will be no better off than their foreign rivals. In- deed, they may be worse off in this re- spect than the people of our country
 cheaper fifty to a hundred years hence, l due to the discovery and development of
 new deposits, than 1t is at tie present time.
 It has been suggested, however. by a contemporary that in the interval new
 methods for the production of heat and power may be discovered that will be
 as much superior to coal. both in con- 1 venience and economy, as that fuel Is
 superior to wood. The manipulation f
 solar. energy. the possibility of gener- ating gases from the decomposition of water, and tine generation of electricity l by chemical action in the entire absenc5 | of heat have been broached as discov.
 cries that are likely to be utilized to over
 come the disadvantages that will arise
 when the coal deposits have become nearly or quite exhausted. In this coun try the consumption of coal has reached
 a point where it amounts to over eight million tons month, and it may wei 1 be feared that at such rate th2 country
 will sooner or later be confronted by the
 same danger that Mir Williams ha:
 called to En9land's attention. As oul population increases, our industrie:
 diversity and broaden, and all the various uses to which we now put coa
 increase and multiply, it is possible tha
 even the American people may yet in,
 themselves compelled to seek othe
 sources of fuel and power than thos,
 which lie in the black diamonds O
 mother earth. But as necessity is tla'
 mother of invention, we may easily bc
 lieve that the generation that is con
 fronted by a scarcity of coal iii Amerit
 will find a substitute equally seryiccab'' ) and equally cheap.