The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-08

TIT underground, partly as pillars to sup port the roof partly as coal of inferior quality, only the best part of the coal from the beds being removed in many cases, and partly due to the fact that the working out of lower beds of coal first frequently breaks and renders inn practicable the subsequent mining of the adjacent higher coal beds. Of the coal actually used for power development, usually not more than per cent Is con- verted into actual work, the remainder being consumed in the making of steam and smoke, and in overcoming the fric- tion and inertia of the engine, shafting, etc. Of the coal used in railway opera tions-which includes nearly one-third of the total supply of the country-not more than per cent is transformed into the actual work of pulling the trains. Of the coal used In the development of electric lights, usually less than one-fiifth of per cent is actually converted into light; the remaining 99 4-5 per cent being con- stunned in the various preliminary forma- tions of energy. This waste Is appalling and every possible means should be adopt ed for reducing 1t to an absolute mini mum, in order that our fuel resources may suffice for the future as well as for the present needs of the nation
 Tn the plant life of the earth our coal fields represent vast areas of vegetable matter, accumulated during past periods in the earth's history. later and gradually transformed into coal. Every foot of the thickness of this coal may be considered the equivalent of many times that thick ness of the original vegetation. Of the suns light and heat our coal repre- sents- enormous quantities transformed and stored in this vegetation. and further k1I t..4 4l.o great storage battery of solar energy. In time this coal represents the unmeas- ured ages of the past, the thousands and millions of years before man came into existence, during which this solar energy was being stored and concentrated in diff ferent parts of the earth's crust. In the nations welfare it represents the basis of the heat. power and light upon which the nations comfort and the nations in- dustries depend
 Use of Coal Increasing.
 During the past year the country used considerably more than 4000O0,0O0 tons of coal, during the 10 years preceding this, consumption was nearly 5000, GOO GOO tons, which approximates the aggregate con- sumption of the 70 years preceding. This rapidly increasing consumption is normal and proportional to the countrys develop ment. and there Is no reasonable ground for doubting its continuance except as we may find ways of using our coal more efficiently. If this increasing rate of con- sumption does continue. the nation will have used the largest part of its coal sup ply before the end of the present century. In considering the possibilities of extend- ing the life of our coal supplies, as to meet the needs of the future as we'll as those of the present we must therefore reckon with the continuance of these rap- idly growing needs of the country and our possibilities of success be along the fol- lowing lines:
 'The coal left in the mines as pillars to support the roof, together with that left under ground because of its being in- ferior in quality will range from less than 10 to more than 80 per cent of the total, these extreme figures representing unusual conditions. Add to these the loss arising from the breaking up of higher beds of coal owing to the previous re- moval of the lower beds and the caving in of the overlying strata, and we have total waste which will aggregate but lit tie if any less than 30 per cent of the possible total available supply. It Is be- lleved that an increasingly large part of this waste will be found preventable
 "The small percentage of the heat units in coal that are actually converted into work or light. as stated above, indicate the urgent neeQ or improvement along these lines. The investigation now being conducted by the technologic branch of the United States geological survey indi- cates the possibility of increasing these fuel efficiencies by tw9 or three fold, and suggest still gre5ter possibilities which will soon be tested. The future Is full of promise, but the solution of these problems calls for extending further in- vestigation. These Investigations should bo tad htrf ha fala ,apt for the reason that the problem is a na- tional one. and its solution is of import ance to all the people in all parts of the country.
 Substitute for Coal.
 ''As to possible substitutes for coal, there will be in the near future a larger use of running waters for power and light development There will also con- tlnue a diminishing development of heat and power through the use of wood. In the New England Atlantic and some of the middle northern states there will be some utilization, of the peat beds for sim liar purposes. A limited future use of alcohol made from wood and barn prod ucts, for heat and power purposes, Is probable, but not certain. Petroleum and natural gas will long continue as large local, but in measure temporary con- tributors to the comforts and industries of the nation And it Is occasionally suggested that ohe heat of the sun may be stored from day to day in sufficient quantity for continuous power develop ment: but the suggestion has, as yet, too indefinite basis to permit of it's serious consideration in the present con- nection. Indeed. the sum of all these possible substitutes in the nations sup ply of heat and power and light can not now be expected to seriously lessen the