The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-05
WASTEFUL MINING.
Methods Employed In Taking II Out
and Preparing II Leave Much
to BE Desired.

Attention is every now and again
called to the fact that there is much
avoidable waste in the mining OF coal,
not in this country alone, but through
out all coal mining centres, both at
home and abroad" says the Iron and
Coal Trades Review. TT has been es-
timated that during the last fifty years
not more than 80 per cent. of the coal
in the measures mined has reached the
place of consumption. Much of this
waste is generally admitted to he due
to the methods employed, and the
friends and promoters of coal cutting
machinery are usually agreed that the
more general adoption of coal cutters
would tend to reduce the waste Incl
dental to hand labor. We are now
publishing what we believe to be the
most comprehensive series of articles
on coal cutting machinery hitherto pub
lished, and we venture to hope that the
information SO communicated may be
helpful in this direction. Besides,
however, the imperfect work of the
miner, the waste of ccal in working is.
no doubt, lar gely attributable to-:
81. Miscalcuations as to the amount
OF Goa, that must be left for the pill
| lars, etc.
"2. The leaving of large amounts of
| coal unmined in vein.
The loss of coal from miscalcula-
| tions or bad engineering Of the mine
is understood to he enormous. Pillars
may be too large and tho coal wasted,
or too small and the pillars crush and
shut off the coal beyond. 1t is not un-
usual to leave unmined a part Of a
vein that is either under or above a
slate, and which may not be quite so
pure as that mined. The waste from
| this source is large. There are coal
mines where, with 71R inches of coal,
but 80 inches of clean coal and the
bearinC-in coal of inches are mined
Sc inches out of 71ia inches. The rest
| is left untouched and means g, loss of
351s inches; or, put in another way.
practically one-half of the coal is lef.
| in the mine, besides the waste of min
| ing. There Is in connection with the
preparation of anthracite a specially
large amount of loss. This is not per-
haps so great with bituminous coal, but
there are culm and slack heaps about
bituminous as well as at anthracite
mines. The amount of coal sent to the
culm bank in the anthracite region OF
Pennsylvania since mining began has
been estimated at 25 per cent. of the
total production, or up to a recent
| date, 3l5. 900 tons At certain col
lieries, from the year 1920 to 1889, 20 pei
| cent more coal went to the dirt banks
than was marketed, and il was moi
unusual for an amount equal to 80 &c
Is per cent of total shipments to go tc
dirt banks.
"A recent writer on the subject ha:
pointed out that the loss from this so
called unavoidable waste in mining a
the present time is difficult to ascer'
tain. In some instances it is not 10 pei
cent, in others as high as 30 per cent
or more. This computation refers Il
the veins actually worked and to thos'
portions that are worked, and not t.
those that are in whole or in part re
garded as not workable, If this un
avoidable waste averaged 90 per cent
of the amount of coal produced, th'
loss from this source in the United
Kingdom would be about $44, ,O0
tons annually. If tile waste for fift!
years is considered. the amount woulC
be enormous. This very serious vast
can be reduced. 1t is being reduced "a
the results of the application of en-
gineering skill. When the day comes
that the near exhaustion of coal vii
be a thing of tomorrow. and not of |
century, it will be found that the vast
that is now called unavoidable vii
then be termed criminal. One of tn
chief aims of engineering science is t.
reduce this avoidable waste still
further The adoption of better sys
TENS of working should help i'm recov
ering coal from other sources of actua
or threatened waste. The chief OBJ
stacle in the way of immediate econ
omy is the fact that the present gener
alton rarely deems II to be any part o
its duty to look after the future. In
deed, a well-known coal owner recent,
stated that there is plenty of coal left
so that we can afford to lose about 3
per cent. and we are not going to pro
vide for future generations, so long a
We can mine coal at low margin
The moral here laid down is one of ex
pedIency for which future generation
will unquestionably have to pay
heavy penalty"
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