Milford chronicle., 1928-08-10
Natures Riches in the South


MARYLAND. Missouri, Oklahoma
Tennessee, Virginia and West Vir
ginia mine immense quantities o
coal In 1927, according to the pre-
liminary estimates of the United
states Bureau of Mines, Kentucky
with an output of 72,626,000 tons
ranked third among all the States
of the Union, and West Virginia
with over 151 100000 tons, ranked
second only to Pennsylvania. II
production of bituminous coal West
/ Virginia ranked first. For getting
out this huge quantity of cal three
kinds of explosives are used-per-
missible explosives, which take theii
name from having been tested by
the United States Bureau of Mines
and approved for use in gaseous ano
dusty coal mines; black blasting
powder. which is the oldest explos-
i've known, and pellet powder, which
is a recently introduced compressed
form of blasting powder that Is
rapidly taking the place of the
granular powder because of its nu-
merous advantages as regards sa-
fety, efficiency, economy and con-
venience. The development of per-
missible explosives for gaseous and
dusty mines and of pellet powder
for mines that are not gaseous and
dusty has done much to reduce the
hazards of coal mining and thus to
contribute to the security and happi-
ness of coal mining communities. In
the year 1927 the States south of
the Mason and Dixon line used 1922
1888 pounds of such explosives,
or 80 per cent of the total consump-
ton of the country.
Whenever a region contains not
only coal deposits but also deposits
of iron ore, it's development as an
iron and steel producing center is
assured. That is the case in Alsace-
Lorraine, whose riches in iron and
coal are responsible for the critical
part these provinces have played in
Franco-German history, and that is
1.-THE case in the State of Alabama.
In production of iron ore, Alabama
is second only to Minnesota. More
over, Alabama has large deposits of
limestone so that all the basic ma
terials for the manufacture of steel
are at hand without the cost of a
long freight haul for any of them.
The result is iron furnaces and
steel mills stretching in an I'M
broken line for eight miles adjacent
to the great Industrial city of Biz
mingham, which has hgrown with
the growth of the mines and the
mills. In this development, explos-
ives have been an essential factor
for with them the iron as well as
the coal is mined and the limestone
for fiux is quarried. The explosives
generally used in the ore mines and
stone quarries are gelatin and am
monium nitrate dynamites. Within
the past year there has been intro
duced in some of the iron mines a
new type of ammonium nitrate dy-
Mantle, exceptionally low in density,
which reduces considerably the cost
of blasting.
The, quarrying of stone in the
South does not stop with supplying
huX for Alabama blast furnaces.
From half a dozen States hundreds
of thousands of tons of stone are
uuarried for other purposes-for the
of lime and cement, for
the ballasting of railroads and for
the surfacing of highways-and for
each ton of stone quarried approx
mately one-third of pound of ex-
plosives is required.
Explosives also are required in
great quantities for working the
varied other mineral resources of
the southern States-cOpper in
Tennessee, lead and zinc in Missouri
and Oklahoma, sulphur in Texas,
Dauxite in Arkansas, salt in LOuisi-
ana, feldspar in North Carolina,
phosphate rock in. Florida, clay and
gypsum in numerous states.