Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-04-23
"SRoF. GEORGE F. KAY GAVE SUR
SURPRISING STATISTICS At
MEETING LAST NIGHT
SAYS THEY WILL NOT
GeoIoaist Declares That Under one
Condition, Less Than TWO Gen.
turtles Would Eat UP
The Supply.

0uSCr1al WORTH anu piotiAi
mand greater investigation is, IN one
hrief sentence, How long will the coal
supply of the United States last!
An uontimistic and pessimistic side
~ this question was given by Prof'
George F. Kay. The optimlstlc vle" 40
that It will take 5000 years to use up
oil The coal in the United States. The
nessimistic declaration Is that only LOU
years will pass before all coal lanas %,
the United States will have oeen
worked out.
PROT. KAY, who is head Of the geo
logical department OF the iowa ota a.e
university and director OF the slate
geological survey, delivered very OK,
cellent argument on the coal QUESTION
at the rooms Of the Ottumwa Con,msa,
cial association Friday. A large
orowd NJ business men and citizens
found it their privilege to listen 70
him. Prof. Kay clearly demonstrates
that he had made the geology OIL ,ne
coal industry a great study. ne eliln'
mated entirely the theoretical Phase
confirming himself to facts and present.
,jng an array of statistics and 1nforma-
stion by means of lantern shues' ms
figures for the most part were com
piled by the government ana seculeu
from government figures. Prof. Kay
sent his audience home win inc iee,
ing that they knew great deal OF
cna1 conditions in the United States.
The eeologist is making these lectures
for he education of the people, de-
.ir;ng tn give them information that
thev must have in order to take such
economical measures as will be neces-
sary in few years.
Revolution is Eminent
Prof. Kav declared in his lecture
last night that great revolution IS az
hand, namely, complete overturnlng
Of the present method of mining coal
and in the making and generating OF
industrial power. This revolution IS
slowly but surely coming to head
and will break in the near future.
Tests are now being conducted by the
United States government at an ex-
nenditure of thousands of dollars that
nromise to disclose vital discoveries.
This revolution is going to reduce the
ever increasing consumption OF coal.
The optimistic view of the coal s1tua-
tion is going to be forced on the people
nv the presence Of the pessimistic, to
the retirement Of industry and OF the
country.
The Cause of "Worry."
Statistics thrown on the screen oy
Prof. Kay last night clearly showed
the cause Of the pessimtstic view
that the coal of the United States
would be consumed in $50 years. Ac.
cording to the geologist the United
States has doubled it's production OF
coal every ten years since the year
of 1914 These are startling f1gures,
but are nevertheless true. Years ago
/, people began to say that the country
had reached it's zenith IN coal con-
sumption, but every ten years give
forth statistics that disclose the
doubling of production. To begin with,
said Prof. Kay. the United States had
before ton Of coal was taken from
it's lands. approximately 3,000,000,OO0,-
900 tons Of coal. OF this amount 1.0oo,-
900, 600, 900 is almost inaccessible,
leaving 100000, 100000 tons available
at the beginning" One-half OF this
amount is high grade coal, that Is.
bituminous and anthracite.
The average yearly output OF coal
for the past five years has been 45o,-
100000 tons Disregarding the
doubling of the production every ten
3
output of 45o.0O0.O00 will continue
from now on. it will take 5000 years
To deplete the coal fields OF the
United States of its easily accessible
coal. This is the optimistic view, says
Prof. Kay.
Now the pessimistic view Taking 1t
for granted that the production will
continue to double itself every ten
wears. as it has for the past hundred
years, these 1000 900, 100000 tons will
disappear in less than $50 years.
These estimations have been made
by the government after deep re-
search, said Prof. Kay, and are sub
stantially correct.
Why He is Optimistic.
Prof. Kay then told his audience
why the optimistic view should be TAX
or. His reasons were numerous. The
speaker said within a few years the
doubling Of production every ten years
will be greatly reduced. One Of the
most important factors given by the
geologist in this reduction of produc-
ton is already beyond the experiment
tai stage. Low grade coal Is now
going to waste. Within the past ten
years the government has made tests
that show that this low grade coal
If used in the production of gas for
burning in engines for motive power
will give more energy than the high
grade Goals under steam boilers. Here
will be q great saving. Prof. Kay ex-
poets some day to see all locomotives
use gas made from low grade coal..S
This waste at present is going to be
saved in the future and thus decrease
the enormous use Of high grade Goals,
bituminous and anthracite
Another important factor. says Mr.
Kay, will be the Harvesting Of the
water of the country for the genera
ton of electricity. There are 80
600 900 horsepower of electrical en-
ergy in the streams of the United
States, very minute portion of which
is now being used. The rest is going
to waste Water power, then, is go
ing to reduce coal production and thus
cause the conservation of the fuel for
purposes absolutely necessary.
Mining methods are also going to