Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-26
THE AMERICAN MINING CONGRESS.
By FREDERIC J. FIASKIN.

600 miners employed, and the total an
nual product aggregates $3.50 .OOO. 600.
Steel, coal and steam have worked hand
finland for the welfare of humanity and
have made themselves the great trium-
vfrate which has moved the industry
and commerce of the world. The steel is
used to confine the steam that lifts the
coal that makes the steam. so that we
have in the three modern house that
Jack built. Some idea of the importance
of the coal industry may be gathered
from the recent announcement that sim
gle coal company has contracted with
single steel company to deliver during
a twenty-year period $16.OOO,OOO worth of
coal at the steel works. This is the
largest single mineral contract ever
made.
At a coal-drilling contest in Calu
met, Mich, few weeks ago team or
Butte miners won the $1,000 Ryan prize
by drilling a hole in granite 5311 inches
deep in fifteen minutes. This surpasses
by 81 inches the former worlds record
for double-hand drilling made in 1904 at
Ell Paso, Tex.
In the recent Ballinger- Pinchot investi-
cation it was testified by A. H. Brooke Of
the United States
Value OF Coal geological survey
=; A ri, that the impor-
of Alaska were worth one-half cent ton
in the ground Such a price impresses the
uninitiated as being almost nothing, and
many an editorial writer was constrained
to comment upon the low price put upon
Alaskan coal in place by the geologi-
cal survey. AS matter of fact, how
ever, this is a price relatively higher
than is paid for bituminous coal in the
Pennsylvania and West Virginia fields.
The calculations Of the survey show that
one-half cent ton means from $50
to $500 per acre for the land under
laid with coal in Alaska. Land in the
eastern part of the United States re-
Gently was sold for as little as one-thir-
teenth of one cent per ton for the coal
underlying it.
During the past year there has been
much discussion among mining engineers
as to the ultimate source of the mineral
deposits of the earth. Some have believed
that minerals are of deep-seated origin,
gradually working themselves toward the
surface In the evolution wrought by time
Others have contended that they have
come from the rocks by a sort of leech- |
ing process. Still others have claimed that
they come directly from the sea- The |
most recent view seems to be that the |
majority of minerals are of celestial ORR |
gin rather than terrestrial. It is pointed |
out that the earth is constantly travelling
through great masses of star dust, which, |
though invisible to the human eye, is per-
petuafly falling to the earth We see the |
big meteorites, but the amount of min |
eral brought down by them is small in |
comparison to the constant showers of |
dust that falls. Sometimes |
we are aware of the presence of this dust |
when it forms the nucleus of hailstones.
1t is claimed by some authorities that |
in every rain drop there is tiny bit OF |
dust, around which the water has been |
able to gather.
AA
The celestial origin of minerals is
melting arctic
Hold Theory of SHOWS there
Mineral in Meteors. 49, aae .o y. l,o ue
ell. iron, cobalt, copper and other min
erals. The banded appearance Of glaciers
in northern regions is another cOrrobora-
ton of the stellar hypothesis of mineral
origin. In desert regions and on high
peaks, where a rarefed at
mosphere is found, meteoric showers are
witnessed almost any night. 1t Is assumed
that those showers occur as frequently
in other regions. but that they merely
escape attention. Likewise the great fire.
VI u0tcOIltcS III OeSeTC TeSlOuS Is |
explained by the fact that the conditions
are not favorable to their disintegration
1t is concluded that equally as many
fall in other regions, but they
do not retain their identity for sucn
great periods of time. 1t was estimated
not long ago by one of the leading as
tronomers that from fifteen to twenty
million meteorites enter our atmosphere
every day. and that this rate kept up
through long centuries of time would &C
count for the known areas of minerals in
the earth.
One scarcely can find the earliest date
at which metals of one kind or another
were first used by man. Our first glimpse
Of the race gives a picture of the
stone age, when man was indeed little
more than brother to the OK Then
we come to the copper age, which was
succeeded by the bronze age, and this in
turn by the iron age. The bronze age /
was made possible by the discovery of
tin, and the bronze-equipped warrior
easily triumphed over him who carried
weapons of stone. Later the warrior
with implements Of iron easily put down
the one with the bronze weapon and re-
manned supreme until some one invented
and thereby ushered in the
modern age of steel.
TOmOrrOw-LAWNT TENNIS.