The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-05-08
2OO,000,000 TONS
OF COAL WASTED
YEARLY IN U. S.
Mining System Is Blamed fol
Staggering Loss by Geo.
logical Survey.
ONE-HALF OF SUPPLY
Is LEFT UNDERGROUND
Say We Are Swimming Cream
of Natural Resources and
Urge Remedy.

WASHINGTON. May S.-Oficials OF
the United States Geological Survey
who are studying the fuel problem
made the statement that POO, 900, 900 tons
of coal. enough to supply the needs of
the country for six months. are being
wasted every year in the United States
through improper mining methods.
This waste represents a loss of more
than $500, 000, 900, for the coal is worth
at least 81 a ton.
In our Investigations we find that in
the mining operations of this country
nearly one-half of the total coal sup
ply is left underground said j. A.
Holmes, chief of the technologic
branch. This coal is left as pillars to
support the roof of the mine or because
1t is of inferior quality, only the best
part of the coal being removed from
many beds. The waste is also due to
the fact that the working out of the
lower beds of coal first, in some cases
breaks and renders -impracticable the
subsequent mining of the adjacent
higher coal beds.
we are Swimming the cream of the
natural resources of the country. We
are using the best and cheapest of our
supplies. Each of the succeeding gem
erations will obtain its needed general
supply. but each will pay higher prices
for the reason that owing to the in.
ereasing depth mining will be cons
t~inually more expensive and more LAM
gerous.
1T is believed that an increasingly
large part of this waste is preventable
In most European coal producing coun-
tries coal waste has been reduced I'd
a minimum by the Introduction of im-
proved methods of mining. In Van-
couver, British Columbia, I am told,
9S per cent. of the coal is mined"
The technologic branch of the geologi-
cal survey is now engaged in investi-
cations looking toward a reduction OF
the waste in mining operations, and
also to a better utilization of the coal
that is mined. The success of the gov
eminent in the latter field is told in a
bulletin just issued by the United
States Geological Survey on the work
of the United States Fuel testing plant,
which. until the early part of 1907, was
operated at st. Louis. Mo. Goals from
all over the country were tested in
the steam engine and gas engine in
order to determine their efficiency. The
results with the gas engine We're ex-
tremely gratifying. Fifty-six different
bituminous Goals were tested in the
steam boiler and engine and gas pro-
Queer and engine, and the figures show
that on an average it took nearly three
times as much coal to produce a horse
power in the steam engine as in the
gas engine. The actual figures for ths
average from all Goals were 1.57 pounds
90 ~-AI -w- ---
power for an hour in the gas engine,
and 445 pounds in the steam engine.
The best coal used produced a horse
power per hour in the gas engine for
less than n pound of coal, while the
steam engine used 2.41 pounds, or 2.43
times as much as the gas engine.
In five tests of lignites Can inferior
quality of coal found in the West) the
gas engine required 2.37 pounds of
coal to produce a horsepower for an
hour and 6.26 pounds of coal for the
steam engine. The best result was
LA POUNDS for the gas engine and 3.9
pounds for the steam engine.
Two remarkable tests were made on
what is termed bone coa1,' a coal that
is so high in impurities that it is now
being throw away by the mine opera
lOTS. as WOTllllGS6s III OIS lGSl Ol lli0
gas engine it took 2.15 pounds of this
supposed worthless coal to produce a
horsepower for an hour. This coal
had "A per cent. ash and would be con
sidered valueless as a producer OF
power in a steam engine. Another
sample of this coal produced a horse
power for 1.6S pounds, This coal o n
tanned 20 per cent. ash. Perhaps the
most encouraging feature of these
tests is that the low grade fuels, such
as Ignite and bone coal, produced
more power in the gas engine, ton for
ton, than did the best bituminous coal
in the steam engine. This would In
dictate vast commercial possibilities for
the western part of the country, where
the supply of high grade GAL is in
adequate and where there is a SUPER
abundance of the low grade fuel.