The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-29

The SUPPLY OF COAL,
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An Eminent Naturalist Says That
America Will 30 Exhausted
ID 1t2 Years.
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The Prospect Presented 70 Not
Regarded as Highly
Attractive.
In tho Distant Future Some Other Fuel
Must BE Provided by Natures
Great Laws.

Great Laws.
The duration Of the coal suTply has been
the delight Of geologists and atatistictans.
q great many e%atinates having been made
within the Last fifty years OF the probable
extent and thickness Of this coal mensu,es
in various countries, and tho expected dur
alton Of nnmined coal supplies at a given
rale Of consumption, says Bradstreets. Or
course, these estimates ale quite likely to
leave something to be desired-eyen when
most carefully prepared md backed by
what appear to be we'll established
and comprehensive data. But it has
always been entertaining to learn, on
being told by one who has given
the subject attention, that the coal meas
ures OF the United Kingdom, for instance,
will furnish supplies for, say, only 100 Or
l25 years longer at the pace at which the
English people havo been taking shs coal
out Of this ground there. It might not be
in impossible problem, too. snch a one as
that referred to with respect to u limited
area like tho United Kingdom; bat ths
problem assumes proportions almost be-
wildering when one contemplates its appli-
cation to a region 80 vast and not fully ex-
plored rs North America. Yet this il just
what waD lone one evening last week by
Gen. Isaac j.. Wistar, president Of the Phil
adelphin Academy of Natural Sciences.
Gen. Wistar il, with others, prominently
interested in coal lands, and has had unu-
Bual opportunities for observation and
study of coal formations and measures.
rho object of the paper rend BY the pres1-
dent Of the society named is reported TO
have been to attempt 70 calculate the e1-
listing quantity OF available coal in North
America, the present and prospective rate
OF is consumption, its probable duration
and come of the physical consequences OF
ats entiio combustion.
Thu census was drawn on for the state
ment that the carboniferous area Of the
United States, excluding beds Of the
Rocky mountain territory" ls 2l9,OsO
square miles, in which rocks of the carbon
iterous series come to the surface or are
within reach of mining operations. In
order to bring all coal-bearing North
America within the scope Of his paper Gen.
Wistar stated that, "after enjoying consld-
cradle opportunity Of personal observation
of the great coal fields OF this United States,
Nova Scotia and Brit sh Columbia" he
does mot believe that the entite carbonifef-
GUS exposures in North America contain
25O,O 600 square miles of actual coal beGS,
including all qualities and thicknessss.'
Tbs speaker admitted that data for cal
c~ulatinE the average thickness Of coal
strata in the assumed coal area given above
were not ample. but interested his hearers
with an extended discussion of varying
thickness OF coal seams, their formation,
etc, from which he felt warranted in gem
eralizing sufficiently to stpte that in his
opinion American biologists would prob
-I.I- --L ....-s - - ~ - -.~ Ar- - 49, n n &oE
the workable COIL seams OF tho country
whers tho latter spread out in q single bed
of uniform thickness over 2l9,0S0 square
square miles. On the contrary, he be-
lieved that HI average thickness Ct con-
sidsrably less than six feet would have
an admissible wo king estimate, and
assuming tho received quantity of 300
tons of 2,24O pounds each (about AZ per
cent? az that which is on the average mine
able per level acre Ter foot OF Thickness.
We should then, by q simple arithmetlcnl
square miles equals lao, 211, 200 acres. multi
piled by six feet (of thickness) and by 500,
the available tonnage @. foot of thickness
from each mere, which would give the ton
mage 673. O13. 900, 003 ons
1t was learned from the census that the
production, and therefore the consumption.
during 1889 was 141, 229, 513 shost 7 ms Of
1000 pounds each. equivalent to 12G. 097, 779
long tons Of 2,2Ao pounds each, and also
that the inc case of consumption has been
ut the rate of 1851, nearly 100 per cent. per
decade. "This rate of known actual in
cr.ase,' explained General Wistar, zap
Piled to. tho present consumption for thirty
years. then reduced to SO per cent. per
decade for the next forty years, and further
reduced to 1915 per cent. per decade for
another %forty-two years, would indicate the
entire consumption OF every accessible ton
Mt the end of liz years from the year re-
ported on, or say by A. D. COOL" It is
probable, Of course, that the rate Of annual
increase Of consumption would, during the
first half of the period, show a more rapid
acceleration, owing to increase of popula-
ton. expectation and the new applications
of steam power. During the last half of
tho period it would decline. in consequence
OF exhaustion of coal fields. growing
scarcity ana higher prices. But with any
reasonable rate Of increase the general re-
suit will be aLout the seme, viz: practical
exhaustion in little more than three genera
tions.''
Considerable attention was given, in CON-
%clusion, to the probable consequences ITO
air-breathing nnimnls' Of the entire con-
sumption of coal. 10 say the least. the
prospect as presented was not regarded as
highly attractive.