Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-19


81, ,OO0,O 600 tons. In 1884, Pittsburg had mined
u, 900 acres.
When Pittsburg began to use natural gas
for fuel, her consumption of coal was 10000
tons day, or about $4,000 bushels. 1t
would be difficult to say how much would be
required to-day were gas to fail, as the city
has grown enormously since.
VALUABLE COAL FIGURES.
In this connection some figures from the
Coal Trade Journal of 1890 are of interest, ow.
ing to the liklihood.that this section will
before long compete with England in the
furnishing of gas coal and coal for steam
shin service. While England sends some
coal to this country we also export in q
small way. The figures are for 1859 in tons:
Exports of bituminous.. 943, BOY
Exports of anthracite........ e4i,19e
This is a beggarly show compared with
Great Britain. which exported the same
wear 2s,g74, ,l2e tons, nearly 20times as much.
To South America she ships yearly ,54l,64
tons of coal; S l6sl of coke and lSO 3lS tons OF
"patent fuel" Aside from "patent fuel she
gets from the South Americans S25, QUO OOO per
year or more, and as was shown In IHE DIS
PArCH some DAYS ago, this ought all to go
from Pittsburg and much more also, 1or Ine
British get three times as much IN Mo
Janiere for coal as we do in New orleans,
and, as has been demonstrated, whaieoacks 5
can carry it to the former point at a
tI1fiing advance ON the cost OF shipment to
New Orleans and were they TO go out from
this city laden at high water and reshtpment
at the Gulf avoided the cost to the further
point would be but little above what it is to
the nearer. AS there are known to exist
outside of the American continent anu Ireat
Britain over 600 900 square miles OF coal ana
as the deposits in South America are prac-
tically inexhaustible, it is not at all pr OBJ
able that the worlds supply of fuel viii ever
fail, but the problem is how to realize as
much as possible out of our resources before
- a,,F4 Cnr,fl hnTnIlnhprQ
veloped.
WILL NARROW THE FIELD.
When the temperate regions of South
America are once peopled by the same
stock that dominates the United States our
field will be narrowed, but as we can develop
an immense trade there meantime without
impairing our resources, why not procee9 70
get about it? At present England would be
our only competitor and her coal costs de-
livered to consumers at home in the Cleve-
land district from % 16 to - Us per ton, the
latter price being for II quality we delivered
This wear at New Orleans for So 40 and last
year for 81 40 a ton. Surely only a lack OF
enterprise will prevent our taking the South
American market from John Bull, especi-
ally, as in a few days from now we can
trade free with our Southern neighbors, and
vet we allowed outsiders to underb1d us TO
such an extent that in 1885 we imported ST.
J0I and in 1899 i, ,l55 S29 tons. As we have IN a
considerable measure lost our coal market
in the Southern States it behooves us to
hump ourselves and get that Ohio river and
Lake Erie Canal dug and kill two birds with
one stone-take coal out and instead of tow
ing back "empties" bring back ore and ag-
ricultural pI oducts. The total coal output
of the world is close to 500, 600 900 tons year,
aud considering our wealth and resources
we are not doing our share of hustling, vide
the project of establishing yard at Tacoma
for the building of whaleback ships. They
ought to be built here and we should have
heard of a move in this direction ere this
time.
Professor Lesley seemed to think the pos
Sibilities of Pittsburg coal are limitless. He
said: 1.-The exhaustion of the mineral coal
of the region is a practicable 1mposs1b1l1ty.
Every cubic yard of coal may be taken as
ton; every square mile of horizontal coal
bed may be said to yield million tons to
every foot of coal bed. That is for ten
foot bed 1O,0GO,0OO tons, or allowing one-half
for waste, 5000 900 tons. The Pittsburg re-
sion has an outspread of this coal bed so
miles long by so miles wide within the limits
Of the State. In the northwestern part of
this State the bed is two or three feet thick,
east and south to six of good
coal a t Pittsburg, ten up the Monongahela,
and II up the IOughiogheny, and it main
tains its thickness under the uplands of
and Greene"
PROF. LEsLEY's ALLOWANCES.
Prof Lesley allows an average of eight
feet to the whole region, 5000 900 tons to the
suuare mile and there are 2, $40 square miles,
He allows one-half of the area to be interval,
outcrops, and this leaves 10, 000-
BOO, ,005 tons remaining in this one coal bed.
loss of half for pillars, bad mining
and waste OF all kinds, leaves available for
market 200 OO0, 900 tons
THE Pittsburg bed was mined in 1884 to
the extent of about II, ,000, 900 tons, At this
rate the bed would last nearly 5000 years.
But of course the rate will rise steadily.
The output of the Monongahela slackwater
IN 1883 was double what it was 10 years be-
fore. If it goes on doubling every 10 years
The output of the Pittsburg bed will reach
the rate of the British coal trade, 200 100000,
IN about 40 years from now, and were the
by the rate to go on still the bed
would be exhausted in about SO years from
iow. But such calculations are evidently
riciculous, especially in view of the growing
OF other coal beds and other
,oal regions of the United States. No rate
Of increase in the output of coal from the
bed will exhaust 1T in less time
ha many centuries; OF this we may be per
ectly sure.
"There seems to be no limit to the devel-
,pment of every kind of human life in the
region, and while the population of the
ienSer centers must continue to double in
numbers every quarter of century, the
rast outspread of upland will always insure
t comfortable sustenanCe and become one
IF the gardens of the world, populous, pros
porous and beautiful to every eye; depend
INT, yet independent; region of rural
dotted with towns and villages,
With their own appliances of advanced CIV
lization; while gradually, as the centuries
elapse, collieries with deep shafts will be
in all parts OF it, and the stories
Of Manchester Sheffield and Coventry in
England. will be repeated at their full value.
ISEXHAUSTIBLE WEALTH OF COAL.
ats incalculable wealth of coal, abso-
utely ineNhaustiblc for several thousand
years, has made Pittsburg the envy of the
business world, and is sufficient guaranty
for a destiny of inimitable magnificence in
not distant future. This region will be an
empire of itself, as wealthy, as powerful
Is England, substituting all other countries
for its own uses, and unassailable from all
quarters of the compass"
And Prof. Lesley had not heard nor even
dreamed of the whaleback ship which in
'uture will carry gas coal not only to Cow
Island, 1900 miles distant up the Missouri,
put around Cape Horn and possibly to New
,astle, and with profit, too. Between the pessi-
nism of Mr.. Garrison and the optimism of
Prof. Leslie there seems to be sufficient mar
5in-a middle ground wide enough to afford
employment for our children, grandchil-
iren, etc, until the year 600 A. D., at least
But it is the coal Immediately avail
IDle for market on which business
men make their calculations. and it would
eem that no mattec what the development
nay be the partially developed seams with
n n radius of 80 miles are good for all pur-
)oses for the next thousand years at least
nd the mos solicitous parent is not allow
ng his philoprogenitiveness to extend be-
-ond that time. Nor does he care tor syn
linal or anti-clinal lines further than to
lnow their significance in q commercial
,oint of view.
At present nearness to Pittsburg is great
actor in the value of coal, but it is nol so
important as it WAS in the days when ten
ons was considered carload. Now cars
AIRY 80 tons, and it is possible for 6O-car
rain on the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Rail-
vay to take l. 500 tons or more from the mines |
o Lake Erie \ single engine can haul l,2O0
ons and if it be not advisable to increase |
he size of locomotives, the double-header
ystem can be used.
THE RESULTS OF NO GAS.