The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1906-01-05

lars a year supporting the nfty-one ex-
perimental stations. In dollars anil
cents this investment is worth a hun
dred times its actual cost. The indi-
rect value in the improvement Of the
agricultural interests is beyond compu-
tation. The mining industry can learn
an important lesson from this work. In
the minds of many of us there shoull
be a distinct recognition at Washington
of the mining industry, but that, as
Rudyard Kipling says, sis another
story" The United States geological
survey has done a great service to the
coal industry through the operation of
its coal testing plant at the Louisiana
purchase exposition, the work of which
has, since the close of the exposition,
been enlarged and continued. Besides
the ordinary chemical analysis there
was undertaken coking tests, steam
tests using both washed and unwashed
coal, gas producer tests and briquetting
tests. 1t was convincingly shown that
the steam-producing power of many
Goals is considerably improved by
washing. Altogether it is an example
of the beneficial effects of cooperation
on the part Of congress appropriating
funds for necessary expenses, oil the
part of the United States geological
survey in conducting the Investigations
and supplying the experts, on the part
Of commercial firms in donating much
of the needed equipment, and on the
part of mine owners who donated the
coal to be tested. In the same way,
that is by active cooperation, much
good can come to the mining industry
through the united efforts of the School
of Mines and the mining bureaus.
In order to bring about such coop
GRAFTON the bureau should be supported
in its work by ample appropriations;
it should be in close touch with the
practical side of mining; it should rec
ognize the value of careful scientific
investigations and should be in SYM
pathy with the scientific spirit as APP
piled to mining and metallurgy. 1t
should not %confine itself merely to the
routine work of gathering data AMI
collecting specimens. 1t should be the
central and vivifying force for the an
vancement of the industry. 1t should
recognize that the researches of science
are just as applicable to mining and
metalurgy as to any of the other in
dustries. 1t should always be on the
watch, as it were, to make the work
of the mining engineer and the metal
lurgist more efficient. To accomplish
all this it should have a means by
which it can receive assistance in the
solution of its technical problems. No
better ally exists than the state school
of mines, to which it should turn AMI
from which it should receive unstintc1
aid.
In order to do its part the school
nut go beyond the stage of mere in
struction and must enter the field Of
research. There is not at this time, to
my knowledge, anything in this coun-
try a mining school which has a de-
partment of research in good working
order. That such a department in d
school of mines could be valuable to
the mining industry far. beyond its
cost is a matter beyond dispute.
The future of the mining and metal
lurgical industry will depend upon the
careful observance of a few well de-
fined principles: Prevention of waste,
in time of operation, in labor employed
and in capital invested; correst bust
ness principles; the application of the
latest and best technical skill and
knowledge, and an appreciation of the
value of scientific research. The idea
of the conservation of values should
ever be uppermost in the mind of the
mining engineer. We are now and for
many years shall be living on the
waste of the past. Values that could
not her be recovered can now thanks
to increased scientific knowledge, be
easily recovered.
The value of scientific investigation
to industrial pursuits is beyond ques-
ton. The support given by Germany
and Switzerland to original research,
to experimentation to every phase of
scientific activity is the secret of their
industrial success in recent years. The
competition between nations in the flu
ture is a competition of brains. The
struggle of the mining man and the
metallurgist with nature is a struggle
to wrest her treasures from the earth.
To do this they must know the secrets
Of the earth. BY active cooperation
of the agencies now at work like the
state bureaus of mining and the state