The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-14

States entered upon its unexampied career the extent and value or our deposits of iron and coal were uf- rowth t was only through fns D, knowledge, and invention. that they gained such value as to render their quantity an important public ques-
 Iron sme1ting began with charcoal made in neighboring forests. Electric al snelting by means of water-power has has only recently bean tried; T0day ufacture of iron practically rest upon the extent and availability of our coal
 When the Republic was founded sstimates' s ws.e; approrimateiS aeros %
 900 tons of coal in the territory nov forming the Uuited States. Practically none of this supply. was used for over a quarter-century; but during the sew enty-five years from 1920 to 1895 near j ly 1000 900, GOO tons were mined by methods so wasteful that some s,000, 000. .o00 tons were either destroyed or allowed to remain in the ground, for years from Isss to 1908 as much was produced as during the preceding sev- o0a,0oo .o00 tons were destroyed or left in the ground beyond reach of future use. To date the actual consumption of coal has been oyer Sr,,D T;seS,oSo.cee % ,s. neighborhood of 9.000,0o,000 tons. IL mining were perfected from now for. ward, we might reckon that consider ably less than one per cent of our orfe . inai stock has been consumed; but es- timating on the basis of the swasteful methods hitherto pursued nearly two per cents~of our ayaissble supply is
 Coal consumption is increasing at an astonishing rate. During the pe- riod for which statistics have been gathered, 1t has doubled during each af lof fa hna bo about 45o,oo0.o GOO tons. At the pfesent rate of increase the production in 1917 100000 tons. and in 1887 over $500. .Soo,- 900 tons, or an amount in that year alone equal to the production of the seventy five years ending in 1895; and methods of mining. the consumption and destruction together during that one year would equal our total useful production up to the present date. And at that time--which many of us will live to see--more than an eighth of our estimated original supply will have been consumed ox destroyed.
 Estimates for Future.
 "All estimates of future consumption and destruction of coal are liable to error; yet making all reasonable a1- lowance. unless there be careful hus- or some industrial revolution comes which can not now be foreseen. the greater part of that estimated 2.50O,- 100000 tons of coal forming our orig inai heritage will be gone before the end of the next century. say 200 years
 'To each generation the ultimate disappearance of coal is of less con- cern than current fields, plants and transportation facilities are removed or abandoned, and other losses are in- cured; and the cost of these in the end increases prices. Already this is felt; it is estimated that by reason of the progressive exhaustion of American fields, coal consumers are today paying on an average 10 per cent, or IS per cent more than would be necessary if the supply were unlimited--and the advance must continue with each de- cade as the supply lessens.
 Still more wasteful than our pro- cesses of mining are our methods of consuming coal Of all the coal burn cd in the power plants of the country. not more than from 5 per cent. to 10 per cent of the potential energy is actually used; the remaining 90 per rendering the smaller fraction avail able in actual work. In direct heating the loss is less, but in electric heating and lighting 1t is much more-indeed in ordinary electric-light plants hardly one-fifth of 1 per cent one ive-hun- dredth part, of the energy Of the coal Is actua1ly utilized. There rs at preS- ent no known remedy for this. These wastes are not increa%ing; Fortunately. through the development of gas-pro- ducers, internal combustion engines and steam turbines they are constantly decreasing; yet not so rapidly as to affect seriously the estimates of in- crease in coal consumption. We are not without hope. however. of discov- cries that may yet enable man to con- vert potential into mechanical energy direct. avoiding this fearful waste. If