Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-02
PLAN TO SELL ELECTRICITY.
Coal Companies in Pennsylvania May
Build Big Plants.

HAZLETON, Pa, January 2.-Application
will be made today for charter for an
electrical corporation, to be known as the
HARDWOOD Transmission Company. This con-
Germ will manufacture electricity and fur
nlsh 1t for the purposes of light, heat and
power to the counties of Luzerne, Column
bia, Schuylkin, Berks, Lehigh and North
cumberland.
The principal incorporation of the COM
pany is Calvin Pardee, ST., of Philadelphia.
The other stockholders are Alfred -Pardee,
Ario Pardee, Calvin Pardee, jr., and A. w.
Drake, general superintendent of the Latti-
mer and Harwood coal mines.
ehind this innocent-appearing scheme Is
an experiment that may be far-reaching in
its effect. and it may in d measure tend to
revOlutionize the sale and transmission of
electricity to points within one hundred
miles or so of the coal mines. The coal
operators have conceived the idea of manu-
featuring electricity at the mines, where
fuel is cheap, and then marketing it to all
the country for miles around. big power
plant is being erected at Harwood and
lines of wires will reach from the mines to
Reading, Allentown, Sunbury, Mauch
Chunk, Pottsvile, Shamokin, Bloomsbury
and all the towns and hamlets where cleo
tricity can be used.
The idea of the coal operators is that
they can manufacture and develop electric
ity at such trifiing cost that they can
undersell any one else in the market. The
main article so essential in the production
of electricity, COAL is here in abundance.
The men in this enterprise propose to utilize
the vast banks of culm and rice coal that
have accumulated during the last half GEN.
fury for producing steam with which to run
the electrical works
There are millions of tons of coal in the
anthracite region that it does not pay to
ship to market. 1t is the size known as
rice" which is SO small that there is hard
ly any sale for it. 1t is used principally at
present al the boiler plants of the coal COM
panies. 1t contains from 30 to 40 per cent
slate, but makes desirable fuel for large
plants where no cost of transportation Is
involved.
The projectors of the Harwood Transmits
sion Company are confident that the cost
of electricity, taking into account mainte-
nance of poles and wires and interest on
the investment, can be considerably reduced
by locating the power plants at the mines,
thus saving the freight on the coal-s1.75 a
ton to Philadelphia and $50 to New York
and the cost of its handling in the manu-
featuring centers where 1t is used now In
generating electricity. For the present the
projectors of the company do not care to
give out any figures as to the probable per-
centage of reduction in the cost under the
method they have in view.
Rice coal is not the only available fuel
for use at the mines. There are huge slate
banks at every breaker in the anthracite
field. These banks in some cases are half
a mile long and from fifty to one hundred
feet high ." "'fA
It is no doubt the intention of the projec-
tors of this electrical scheme to transmit
their product to Philadelphia and New York
and dispose of it to companies in those
cities for power, heat and light. Their first
plan will be to invite manufacturers to 10
cate in the coal regions where they can get
power at prices SO far below what is paid
in the big cities as to make it an object for
them to try the experiment.