The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-05-03

insula is the greatest single copper
mine in the world. Nearly 500, 100000
is invested in copper mining In the
United States.
Lead production in the United states
has grown from 1900 short tons in
| 1926 to more than 100000 tons in the
present. This, because of a mixture
with silver and other metals, has
| distinct bearing upon the production
| of other minerals. Zinc, nickel and tin
| have been added to the mineral assets
| of the country and are included In
| the annual showings of wealth from
metals.
No gold excitement perhaps, ever
exceeded the stampede that followed
| the discovery of oil in the Drake well
| at Titusvillc, Pa, in 1859. Petroleum
| became the shrine OF adventures and
| the phrase struck oil' became a dis
| tinct Americanism. Following the
| Drake well the whole country was
| prospected for the dark, viscid, ILL
| smelling fluid. owners of worn-out,
| rocky farms became rich in Il night
| Fortunes were made and fortunes lost,
| for every state in the union was
searched for the black oil.
OHIO AND INDIANA OIL
| In 1885 an era was marked in oil de-
| velopment in the discovery of the
Trenton limestone and the develop
ment Of the Lima, Ohio, oil field.
| Within a year the Indiana field was
opened and the scenes that had been
enacted in Pennsylvania were duplicat-
ed in the middle West. At the present
the Lima field is the most productive in
the United States in total of $4,000
900 barrels a year.
Oil development in this period has
been scarcely more than the develop
ment of oil in a commercial sense. AS
compared to crude petroleum the
philosophers stone of the ancient is
nothing. 1t has been a mine in itself
to the chemist, yielding a score of by
products that are of great value to the
arts.
Natural gas as a discovery has been
scarcely second to oil i'm it's Importance
and in the rush that it occasioned. 1t
was first discovered at Frcdonia, y.
y, in 1921, and on the occasion of La
fayettes visit to America in 1924 FREE
donia received the French patriot with
an illumination from its gas well. In
1885 the F'redonia product aggregated
100000 cubic feet
In the Kanawha Valley in 1S41 VIII
liam Thompkins discovered a jet Of
gas escaping from the rocks above his
salt works. Using a hogshead as a
reservoir, he piped the gas to his
pans and made the first use of the fuel
in boiling down salt. The first pipe
line for gas was laid in Butler, Penn
sylvania. In 1883 gas was piped into
Pittsburg from the Murryville district
and the possibilities of the new fuel
were demonstrated. The development
of the Indiana gas field has been too re-
cent to call for more than passing men
ton. Its most striking feature has
been in the readiness with which an
agricultural country has been turned
into manufacturing as chief industry.
IMPROVEMENT IN METHODS.
Throughout this development which
has made the mineral resources of A
country one of its chief sources OF
wealth, inventor and skilled craftsman
have been busy. Mining methods
have been simplfied and cheapcned
from the taking of ores from the
ground to the finishing of the marker
product. The pipe line has widened the
geography of oil and gas deposits
RAPID and cheap transportation has
made coal a universal commodity. Mi
ming machines are doing the work of
picks and shovels, and mining machin-
cry has been perfected to remark
able degree. This machinery has made
ventilation possible in deep mines, an
today men are working nearly "A mile
below the surface. New processes
have enabled one OF the greatest gold
mines in the world to handle ore that
only a few years ago would have been
deemed worthless. In like manner
: ores low in other metals are worked
protitably and from veins that would
have been impossible before the advent
OF machines. Machine mining has
made the thinnest of coal veins profit
able. And so all along the line, until
in spite of the mining rushes that
spring up and die out economic pro-
ccsses and the perfection of machin-
. cry seem to promise to the world a
steady stream of mineral wealth flow
ing into her lap. The eXtrava gance OF
mining has been the example set in tho
, new gold fields of the earth: the econ
, omy of mining has resulted from that
? eNcess. In This economy has come
the sober, steady pace of method which
, is promising to the new century that
the earth has not been despoied OF
riches that lie to the hand of the miner
, 1t is only that the last century has
put the stamp of business upon an in.
dustry that once was scarcely more
. than a gamblers chance.
THE REAL AGUINALDo.