The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-01-12
BUSINESS MEN HAD
ENJOYABLE BANQUET
Continued from first page)

haul coal with wagons and horses to
Philadelphia. He succeeded in delivering
nine wagonloads of anthracite, and was
regarded as an imposter for attempting
to sell black stones under the name OF
coal OF the nine wagonloads two were
sold and the other seven loads given
away. 1t was merely an accident that
someone discovered Col. Shoemaker's coal
would burn. After working all night in
an attempt to use ii in furnace the
men left for their homes in disgust but
! fortunately left the door of the furnace
closed. On their return some time later
they found the coal burning briskly and
everything red hot.
"In 1923 the first cargo of coal came
around Cape Cod, consigned to the Bos-
ton Iron Works. In 1912 we have our
| first authentic record of coal being moved
| by rail. when at Leeds, England, an en-
CINE hauled 33 coal wagons on a railroad
at a speed of three and three-fourths
miles per hour. 1t was not until 1929
| that any attempt was made to use steam
in coal transportation in America. At
that time Horatio Allen, at Honesdale,
with an engine called the 'Stourbridge
Lion Imported from England and weigh
ing seven and e-half tons), moved some
coal for the Delaware & Hudson Canal
company at the rate of 10 miles per
hour. In 1880 there was only about 40
miles of railroad in this country; to-day
there are over two hundred and forty
thousand (240,000). 1t was at about this
period that Stephen Girard began to pur
chase lands in the anthracite coal re-
gions The fortune thus founded was
used to endow the college in Philadelphia |
bearing his name, which receives the |
major part of its income from royalties |
paid by the concerns mining on the land |
so purchased ItWis understood that !
there are descendants of the original |
farmer families of the region who re-
ceiye rs much as Is cents per ton. The
truth of this | cannot vouch for
'One of the stories current in the
trade relative to the discovery of anthra-
cite coal is that a hunter in the noun
tains of Pennsylvania brought home
some black stones to his wife and told
her that they would burn. She refused
to even try it and taxed him with simply
endeavoring to be relieved of the job OF
chopping wood.
$50 much for the early history of an
coal, The growth OF this tire
mendous business was slow. In 1870
only about fourteen million tl4000000l
tons were produced; whereas about nine
ty million (90,000,000l tons were pro-
luced in 1914. OF the seventy million
l70,000,000l tons shipped to market, the
of sizes is as follows:
lump 0.5l, broken 1872, egg 1880,
'toye 1888, chestnut 240S. pea ll.5l, No.
buckwheat 1898, No. 2 100, No SIT,
screenings 0.46, 40 per cent smaller than
hestnut, II per cent is pea. /
"The entire area from which this an !
hracite coal is secured amounts to only 9
bout 4s4 square miless--all in the state 9
II Pennsylvania. There is a small G
mount of anthracite coal in Colorado G
nd New Mexico: and we have the Rhode :
sland product. The Pennsylvania re-
ion is divided into three tracts or re- q
ions, viz; Wyoming tl76 square miles, 7
.ehigh (45 square miles, Schuylkill 1858
quare miles,. Connecticut settlers first n
this region, in fact, this part z
t Pennsylvania was part of Connect
ut at one time. y
How Coal Is Mined W
There are three ways of securing this al
iaterial. Stripping, which is merely et
aking the earthly covering off the coal CT
ems, and then mining the coal as you W
'ould quarry rock. Slope mining al
hich is driving a tunnel into the side in
( the hill following the vein: and the W
haft minng,' or that method by nj
hich coal is brought up through verti- Ell
II hole in the ground, in which are run HI
hat we may call elevators, or which in CO
lie trade are known as cages, Tunnels of
re then run in from the shafts, follow h,
z the veins. There are nine thousand as
}, 000) miles of these tunnels in Penn sh
'lvania anthracite coal fields. 1t may I'll
, of interest to you to know that for si
'ery ton of anthracite coal raised to the til
Irface in the anthracite coal fields, there ca
something like IL tons of water ne
imped to the surface, and this water in
absolutely no value, and cannot be ia
ed for any purpose around the works
cause of its impurities. pr
Goal mining is carried to-day TO the on
pth, in some instances, of sixteen hun SC,
ed feet q ,600) the average depth at tn
lich mining is carried on is six hundred ma
00l To eight hundred (S00l feet with eal
c consequent increase in expense. Tim a
r is getting more scarce each year as on
N all know, and one of the greatest Ar
estions of expense to the mines is what be,
use for holding up the roofs of the wi
mes. All through these hundreds of tin
les of underground workings there are phi
ilroad tracks on which is transported ap7
e crude coal, either by man power, oh,
lie power, or electricity. Mules are str
? only animals used, and the care the agi
npanies give them is the very best. be
mules are kept underground by
IN one season of the year to another 40
ey seem to thrive under their work of
understand that electric railways are thr
safe because of sparks in mines that day
inclined to be gassy.
Anthracite coal when it first comes to the
surface has very little resemblance cur
the coal you see in your city, except tiol
ere you look at a pile Of bituminous Idl,
some factory yard. The minen that is hol
say, the sub-eontractor who really moi
les the coal, breaks II down and loads -
into small cars. This car, with the
ler's number attached, goes 20 the "a
I of the shaft and Is taken to the III