The Sentinel=record., 1912-09-01
MINERALS NE
 WASTE ANNUALLY
QUARTER OF A BILLION TONS OF COAL GOES TO WASTE ANNU-
 ALLY IN MINING.
More Natural Gas Burned to Waste Than Is Produced by Artifi-
 clal Factories.

| Washington Aug. 3t.-"During the last year, in producing half billion tons of coal we wasted or left under ground in such condition that 1t prob ably will not be recovered in the flu ture, quarter of billion tons of coal; we turned loose into the atmos- phere a quantity of natural gas larger than the totaf output of artificial gas during the same period in all the towns and cities of the United States; we also wasted or lost in the mining, preparation and treatment of other important metallifereus and non-met- alliferous minerals from 10 to 50 per cent of the years production of such minerals"
 The above is the startling manner in which Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, di- rector of the United States bureau of mines, describes some of the losses in the yearly production of two billion dollars worth of minerals in the Unit ed States.
 The words of the director are a gen. eral summing up of a statement just issued by the bureau in which an in yentory of the various mineral wastes are given and in which the bureau shows how millions and millions of dollars may be saved to the people of this country through the right sort of conservation of its resources.
 rfe hV Charles L. Parsons, chief mineral chemist of the bureau, contains the charge that many valuable mineral de posits are lying idle, while the prod- ucts are being imported from other countries. Mir. Parsons further de- clares that through wasteful use of certain of the minerals. the ultimate exhaustion and dissipation of some of the important useful minerals of to- day from the standpoint of the race and in the light of present knowledge, is in sight. He urges that many de pOsits of ores of such low grade that they cannot be mined today should be left in position so that they can be mined in the future, as many ores, for merly of too low grade to work with profit. are now sources of wealth. The wastes for the past are daily being converted into the dividends of the present, he declares.
 In referring to the waste in the mining and use of coal; MT. Parsons says, the wastes of carbon in our modern economy are almost incompre- hensible. In mining coal in this coun- try, probably one+hird of the Ditumi- onus coal and one-half of the anthra cite are left in the mine. Fully S0,- 000,000 tons of anthracite are left in the mine each year, and it is esti- mated that since mining began in this country fully two billion tons of an thraeite and three billion tons of bi- luminous coal have been left in the ground under conditions which make future recovery highly improbable.
 After coal is mined the losses by no means cease. although some of the culm that formerly went to waste by millions of tons is now being used. Probably not over Il per cent of the energy in coal is being effectively utilized The remainder of the en' ergy is lost through the inefficiency of the steam boiler. the steam engine and the electric dynamo,
 1t is estimated that the boiler scale in locomotives alone in this country means a loss of over 15,000,- 900 tons of coal annually. 1t has been shown that one-sixteenth of an inch of scale means 8 loss of 25 per cent in boiler efficiency. The scientific con trol of the combustion of coal under boilers is constantly increasing, but the losses of carbon that is still pour ing from our chimneys, detacing mon uments, buildings and landscapes are without valid reason
 MT. Parsons says that the losses in making of coke by the old-fashioned process wasted S40,000000 iR the United States last year He calls this an entirely needless and seemingly ruthless loss. He declares that these coke ovens. without taking into ac' count the value of the by-products that were possible. wasted more than one million horsepower in the year An this loss might be prevented by the use of modern methods. he says.
 "The dust from stacks and chim. neys Of all kinds, says Mir. Parsons
 sia often not only q great waste Of valuable material, but is one of the great evils ef modern civilization. Nak uahle metalllferous dusts are stfown broadcast from the stacks ot our smehers gases end poisonous solids
 destroy vegetable and animal life, and masses of black smoke pour from our ehimneys and settle in cloUds ever many of oar eiiles rendering N a Iff Al unslkhlk Even with presQat knoWl eaee practically sil dust nuisance are pretenlAbie. and legislation the country nseF Is diminishing the dust output tt0m smeltefs. cement pianta aud Ifpm smeklas ehmuets. often NI9h ghe result iAat lhe collection el dasi ieeiaeai la sHohe prevention he cones d a0dftt pf pollt