Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-07

sary to produce the required heat but by far the
larger part of the coal is driven off into the air
volatile state If this volatile matter utilized
instead of being allowed to escape. it would produce
twenty pounds of sulphate of ammonia, and forty
five hundred cubic feet of illuminating gas.
Since 1880 when the first statistics of coke
making were kept. four hundred and fifty-six million
tons of coal have been converted into coke and the
amount of loss is approximately one hundred million
tons: that is, one hundred million tons of coal has
been burned without any return.
In the long list of extravagances here enumerated.
it is pleasure to note the introduction of the by
product coke oven and the great saving it has eff
fected BY using such ovens the quality of the coke
is unimpaired, and at the time large percent
age of the volatile constituents of the coal saved.
This kind of introduced in this country
in 1903 and grew steadily until III 1904 about
three thousand were in use. In that year nearly
three million tons of coke were produced, and
responding amount of the byproducts were saved.
Another source of loss has been the failure to
devise ways and of utilizing the fine and dirty
coal usually known slack. Great changes have
taken place in this branch of fuel utilization in the
the market and is consumed but in the earlier days
could it proftably and it dumped
out beside the mine forming unsightly heaps OF
waste that in the btuminous and Ignite fields soon
took fire and were consumed, but in the anthracite
regions remained monuments to our stupidity.
In many places in Pennsylvania anthracite cul1n
dumped into the rivers to get it out ofthe way.
In recent years it has been found that culrn
could be washed and screened successfully. pro-
ducing several grades of merchantable coal. 1t
also discovered that the culm dumped into
the could be saved and of the curosities
to be at Harrisburg is the dredging of fine coal
from the river seventy-fve eighty miles below
the point where it dumped into the stream. In
this case Nature has done the work of washing and
sorting and good grade of fuel is secured.
Development of Mining
TURNING now from the misuse of coal, it is
interesting to note the development in this
try of the coal mining industry. Coal mining was first
done in the vicinity of Richmond Virginia. about
1880 Soon after this a little of the Pennsylvania
anthracite began to reach the market and then min
ing started in various parts of the Appalachian
coal basin From this early beginning the industry
has spread, until now coal is mined on a commercial
scale in twenty nine States and Territories and the
product in 1904 three hundred and fifty-two
million tons. The total amount mined in the
United States has been five thousand five hundred
and seventy-seven million tons, enough to make
a cubical block and one-tenth miles in height
In making estimate of the coal reserves of the
country, all beds two feet in thickness
garded as available for the future, and it is also
assumed that coal will be mined to depth of at
least three thousand feet below the surface. 1t
probable that in the future coal will not be
hauled to the customer, is done to-day, but will
be converted into gas electricity and these power