Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-17


| written by King Solomon in 1915 &c,
! is the first historical mention of coal,
and would seem to indicate that the
word coal was at least suggestive OF
trouble even in the days of antiquity.
| OF course, coal IN the quotation
| may refer to wood, charcoal or other
| substances used as fuel, but most au
| thorities take 1t to mean the actual
! bituminous mineral with which we
are familiar today. Solomon is there
! fore supposed to have been the chief
| opera tor" of the worlds origina
/ coal mines. which were near Beirut
| Syria, and which, by the way, are
still productive.
! Moreover, it is probably safe To say
| that solomon in all his glory was no!
! so fair as lie might have been in the
| opinion of many of his miners. How
ever, as the S-hour day, labor unions
! the check-off system and other i'll
tricacies Of modern mining had no
| vet been invented" the wise ruler.
| problems in regard to coal must have
been relatively simple.
Edwin +. Hill, Information manager
| of a large corporation, who through
years of association with the citizen
of the coal communities of West Vir
einia has come to know the subject
| from many angles, explains some OF
! the difficulties of the first coal man:
Solomon, with a. thousand wives
| 10 provide for, must have had sweet
! time keeping the coal bins filled and
! providing warmth for his many house
! holds. He, no doubt, experienced the
! same troubles in having an adequate
! supply of fuel on hand during the sea
sons of the year when heat was re-
| quired that people do today, for un-
doubtedly the methods OF transpOrta-
! ton in those days were limited, and
coal could only be transported from
N place to another in small quaint
| ties.
Then. also, the problem of com
munIca ion was a difficult one, for in
that day ard time messages were
sent bv hearers. and usually a whole
delegation went = iong to carry pres
ents OF wines, silks and incense to
put the recipient in good frame Of
mind 20 receive the aCsua! message.
and OF course this required much time
and delay
While Solomon was the first TO
write of coal in the Bible, there are
numerous other Scriptural passages of
later date referring to the fuel. EX-
amples worth citing are Isaiah. liv.16:
I have created the smith that
b.oweth the Goals in the fire." and
llmentation, Tvs: Their visage is
blacker than a coal"
THE use OF coal also antedates the
i Christian era in other parts of
Asia, especially in China. and was
noted. centuries later, by Marco Polo
in his travels. Concerning it he
wrote: 1T is a fact that all over the
! COUNTRY of Cathay there is a kind of
| black stone existing in beds in the
mountains, which they dig out and
Z l. to 1.
: have plenty of wood also. but they
do not burn it. because those stones
! burn better and cost less" Marcos
fellow countrymen back in Venice
thought the wines of the strange land
had affected his Imagination.
Charles T.. krebs, mining engineer
and geoiogist, cites the writings Of
the Greek author. Theophrastus, as
evidence of the early use Of coal. Es-
pecially worthy of attention is the par
aeraph written about 334 Be, which
declares:
! Those substances that are called
Goals and are broken for use are
earthly, but they kindle and burn like
wooden Goals. They are found in
Lyguria. where there is amber. and
! in Ellis, over the mountains towards
Olympias. They are used by the
smiths"
Excavations near the Roman wall
in England disclosed tools and coal
cinders which lead to the belief that
the RritonS were familiar with the
flaming mineral prior to the Roman
invasion of "a BIC.
a receipt for IL carloads Of coal
given by the Abbott of Petersboro in
$50 constitutes the first actual record
of coal transaction. The monks of
Belgium began mining the earth
fuel about that time and used it for
manufacturing purposes.
The books of the Bishop CT Dur
ham, England for the year 1880 dis
close the first record of actual mining
operations. The far-famed fields of
Newcastle date their coal history from
the year 1899. when King Henry III
granted the men of that district the
privilege" of working mines. Just
how much of a privilege" it turned
out to be can be gathered from an
early account: g,
"One merchant imployeth 500 or a
900 in his works CT coale; yet for all
his labour, care and cost, can scarce
ly live by his trade; nay. many of
them both consumed and spent great
estates and dyed beggars. 1 can re
member one, of many, that raysed his
estate by coale trade: many l remem-
Der that hath wasted great estates
Some South gentlemen have. upon
great hope of benefit, come into this
country to hazard their monies in
coale- pits Master Beaumont, n gen
tleman of great Ingenuity and rare
parts, adventured into our mines with
80 900 pounds; who brought with him
many rare engines. not known then in
these parts-as, the art to bOore with
iron rodds, to try the deepnesse and
the thicknesse of the coale, rare en-
gines to draw the water out of the
pits. and wagons with one horse to
carry down Coales from the pits to the
river. In a few years he con-
sumed all his money. and rode home
upon his Lighthouse"
SUPPORTERS Of the coal industry
~ at first experienced the same diff
cillties in putting their product across
10 the public that has characterized
the introduction of every new thing,
he it mechanical invention, political
theory, or scientific process, through
out the ages. After regular coal ship
ments to London had been started in
1910 proclamationS We're issued pro-
hibiting the use of the new fuel dur
ing the sessions of Parliament for fear
If would prove injurious to the health
of the knights of the realm. Again in
1916 the Houses of Parliament petit
toned their monarch. Edward III
this time, to prohibit the burn
ing of the ''black diamonds" and the
sovereign complied, with the custom
airy proclamation. The laws Of supply
and demand, however, proved more
potent than the edictS of the King Of
England, and when wood became so
scarce its price was almost prohibit
tive, the use of coal gradually became
general throughout London.
Similar superstitious ignorance was
x.-bao tho effort ,,,o1a