The Wichita daily eagle., 1895-04-18
GOING AFTER COAL
MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL ABOUT
READY TO PROSPECT.
Appointed by the Council are
Inclined to Favor Mr. Ausfin's PROPOSE
tion--CounciIman AIiiner Makes Few
Figures Which. Taken From a Busi-
ness Standpoint Appear Very Reason
abie--Contractors Want $500 for
What the Council Can DO for Si,s25-
We Had Better Do Our Own Work.

4
| The city council have now gone TO
| work in earnest to find out whether
there is any coal in this section. They
have acted cautiously and instead of
! jumping in and giving the $4,000 voted
| by the people 10 the first company that
came along and offered to sink an au-
| gor :, 200 feet into the earth the mayor
| and council have consulted the city
! engineer and il now begins TO look as
/ if the city Will be benefited by their
caution.
1t now appears that the proposition
/ Of Mr.. Austin is the best yet received
| in regard to boring for coal No GER
| tain calculations can be made of the
/ cost of sinking a well 2,o0o feet for the
reason that nobody knows just what
| obstacles will have to be encountered.
| In ordinary soap stone or slate the
machinery usually used in boring for
1 coal can be put down forty to eighty
| feet a day, then again stratas may be
struck where it will be impossible TO
make to exceed eight feet day, so
| the sinking of a hole in the latter
strata would cost five to ten times more
| than the former.
The mayor, council and engineer fig
ured on all these chances and they soon
became aware of the fact that no COM
pdny would take contract for sink
ing an auger say 1000 feet without
providing in the contract for all the
| chance of having 10 bore through the
most difficult strataS. The contract
could only be let in such way that the
parties taking it would be perfectly
safe if they should encounter a diff
cult task and would have a snap if
easy boring was found.
Taking this view of the case no con-
tracts We're let and when Mr.. Austin
went before the council and offered to
furnish all the necessary machinery
and bear all expenses of running it for
S11-50 day, the proposition struck the
myor and council favorably and Oliver
Throckmorton and Burton We're ap-
pointed to consider Mr.. Austin's offer
and to confer further with him. Since
the committee was appointed they have
talked with Mr.. Austin and il is very
probable that his proposition will be
accepted.
Mr.. Oliver said yesterday that the
more they considered Mr.. Austin's prop
osition the more they became convinc-
ed that its adoption would be the best
for the city as it would leave the mayor
and city council in control of the job
and they could go as deep as they desr-
ed and quit when they found it was
costing too much money.
The best bid we have had ever had"
said Mr.. Oliver. "to let the contract for
sinking 2,100 feet was $500 Mr.. Aus
tin has sunk a good many wells and |
am satisfied that he will make an aver
age of forty TO sixty feet a day. The
lowest average that he thinks possible
is thirty feet.
We'll now let us suppose that he
averages thirty feet a day and we pay
him seventeen dollars and fifty cents
a day. At that rate it would require
seventy days to go down 2100- feet |
Seventy times $3.50 are 81 .225. In case
we should have to put down casing that
would cost something. but it cannot |
cost TO exceed $500 and that would make |
S1725
Then in case we fail to find coal at |
the first trial and want to pull up and /
try in another place. why, this casing |
can be taken up and used again and We /
would save that much the next time !
This very plainly seems 10 me to be a
case where we can make money to do I
our own work instead of paying some
body else a big premium TO do il for US
The great tower of Philadelphia's
new city hall is eXcelled in height in !
America only by the Washington Monu-
ment. In the altitude of it's excellence
DIR. Prices Baking Powder looks down