The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-01-31

and manager Of tho Loup Creek Colliery
| Company, West Virginia, writing In the
Engineering and Mining Journal for
| January, says:
In Professor William b. Rogerss first
reports on Virginia, about 1886, he at
tached little Importance to the Goals IN
| his mo. XII, or the Pottsville Conglom-
crates" referring to them as barren
| measures" He was inclined to place
| this series in tho observation-disclosures,
along with the underlying Mauch Chunk,
or Umbral shales; and, even when the
| Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was first
connected from tidewater to the Ohio
River In 1873. no value was attached to
these Goals; they were not then consd-
| cred as n future asset In Its transporth-
ton; the sixty miles through this for
| nation, from Hinton to Kanawha Falls.
being regarded as absolutely barren
territory.
In the latter part OF 1873, John Nuttall
and Joseph l.. Beury, two pioneers with
large coal experience. first began to
prospest along the New River canon.
where the one hit upon the Sewell or
Nuttall seam, ut Nuttallburg. while the
either opened the Fire Creek seam Mt
Quinnimont. For many years thereafter
little Importance was attached to these
| finds, as the seams were thought to be
too thin for economical mining and the
coal too soft for tho fre-boxes and boil
ers then In vogue, the rapid combustion
in which required lump: in consequence
of this there was little or no demand
for slack, or fine coal. which was charged
with stopping the lues, and wastage
through the stack.
At the time, only two mines in the
Iianawha District, Cannelton and Coal
burg were prepared to ship by rail;
these had been running boats in high
water, down the Kanawha to the Ohio
for number OF years. About 1874.
however, several new mines were started
in this district, as the coal was lumpy
and easily marketed, but for years the
slack was wasted. No attempt had been
made to correlate the different seams,
and little was known OF the Goals, far
Their than the fact that they were OF
different varieties, the Coalburg being
block, or splnt; the Cannelton. an ex-
cellent camel; while the Nuttallburg
and Quinnimont Goals were recognized
as an unusually pure, high-carbon. low
volatile. caking variety, though difficult
to market. When Professor David
Thomas Ansted stated (about this tine)
that these. were to be the standard
steam Goals of the future. there were few
converts to his theory, which has since
been so we'll verified In their adoption
as standard fuel by the United States
navy. and the principal maritime powers
of the world. ~
Since the improvements in boilers, by
the enlargement of heating surfaces and
slower combustion, 1t has been found
that the fine coal is less Objectionable
than the lump from other hIgh-volatile
Goals. as the smoke bears a direct rela-
ton to the hydro carbons; as rule.
the higher these are in the bitumnous
varieties, the harder and lunpier is the
coal, and, under modern practice, the
.high-carbon GOALS though fine. give the
best results III steam. with less smoke.
The total production of West Virginia
in 1878 has been estimated at 100000
net tons; the output did not reach 2.00o.-
O00 tons until 1882. Within these nine
years the market WAS restricted to the
fuel requirements of the Baltimore and
Ohio, of the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail-
ways and of local blast-furnace con-
sumption In Virginia; there We're also
limited, but growing river consignments
to Cincinnati. Within the next ten
years the annual increase was nearly
1000. 900 tons. the output for 1894 being
11,627,5T5 tons. The greater part OF this
remarkable increase was due to devel-
opments in the Pottsville Goals by the
extension of the Norfolk and Western
Railway into the Pocahontas field. and
to great activity along the Chesapeake
and Ohio in both the New River and
Kanawha districts. Thus the value OF
these smokeess steam Goals began to
be appreciated as the markets extended
over a wider field. covering the Atlantic
seaboard as far north as Portland.
In 1904 the production was 32,602,S19
tons, gain of nearly 100000 tons In
ten years. or more than 100000 tons
annually; the output for 1905 will APP
proximate 35,000,0o0 tons. making West
Virginia very nearly even with Illinois,
and second only to Pennsylvania The
average annual bituminous increase OF
the United States for the last ten years
has been a little in excess of 16.00O000
tons, or nearly half the production OF
any single State with the exception of
Pennsylvania. The northern part OF
the State, covering the Potomac and
Monongahela mining districts, has not
been idle; the former producing nearly
100000 tons In 1904 and the latter
ranking third; the Kanawha- New River
district being first, with the Norfolk and
Western district as second. the State
is divided into five districts. known in
ordering as the Potomac. Monongahela
Wheeling. kanawha River and the
Norfolk and Western.
Up to the present the geological sur
vey has correlated at least eighteen sep
arate workable measures, varying in
thickness from three feet to fourteen
feet, with an aggregate thickness ex-
ceeding seventy feet. Five of these are
in the Pottsville series. from which about
one-half the output of the State is now
being drawn. Beginning from the bot
tom. the seams have been classified as
follows Pocahontas No. 3. Pocahontas
No. A. Fire Creek. Beckley and Sewell
of the Pottsville. Continuing upward
through the Kanawha, Allegheny, Cone
maugh, Monongahela and Dunkard SERIES
and using Pennsylvania nomenclature,
the seams have been identified as the
Clarion. the Lower, Middle and Upper
Kittanning, Lower and Upper Freeport,
Mahoning, Pittsburg. Red Stone, Sc
| wlckley, Waynesburg. Washington and
Dunkard. While the area of the Potts.
vile measures above water level is less
| than .one-fourth the total coal area of
L