Evening star., 1934-08-21
BY PAUL. JARRETT KELLY.

BY PAUL. JARRETT KELLY.
1884. Thirty years ago!
The other day a friend of mine,
strolling through one of our ultra
modern museums of this year of 1864,
chanced upon an odd exhibit.
At the left stood an Egyptian
mummy case, replete with its faded
and crumbling wrappings, its wizened
occupant, its faint odor of ancient
spices. A placard: Egyptian mummy
-rare!"
At the right stood a dilapidated old
American stove, once known as a
cannon ball" and an equally antique
coal-hod and shovel. A placard:
American stove-very rare!"
And of truth, it was. Rarer per-
haps than the mummy-for we have
had reason to preserve our mummies.
In this day, with our automatic,
thermostatic- controlled electric heat
ers, humidifiers, refrigerators, con-
ditioners, keeping our homes, fac
tories, office buildings at constant
temperatures, we hate to be reminded
of our stove-bound days of old.
Era Of Burning Coal.
Yet that piece of bedraggled, rusty
metal symbolizes for as an epoch in
civilization; a progress so gradual as
to be unheeded save perhaps wien
such reminder is brought to us. 1t
was the era of the burning of raw
coal 1t was likewise an era of ex-
ceeding ignorance, of unparalleled
waste, of prof1igate squandering of
the greatest birthright given to us
by Mother Nature.
Ever since the early savage first
built his campfire on coal seam,
later to dash screaming and terrified
he had set fire to the earth, we have
known coal. Perhaps not SO much
throughout the world in those bar
baric years, but that was because
10 per cent of the worlds coal re-
sources lay in the United States.
History records many peculiar hap
penings in which coal played major
part. Henry the Third legalized it for
use in England, but so much fuss was
raised about it that he promptly re-
voked his order and banned it from
the empire, thus creating the coal
industry's first depression-at New
castle.
Under Edward II, this fuel again
found its way into crude English
fireplaces. Queen Elizabeth next took
cognizance of it, banning its use in
London while Parliament was in ses-
sion probably on the ground that there
was enough smoke and hot air Being
spread around. (And combination
of London smoke and London fog
might have proven a real obstacle to
medieval traff1c.)
Coal Made Britain Mistress.
With the advent of the steamboat,
British commerce became interested in
COAL. it was coal which made Britain
mistress of the sea-" Its use spread
castle became a household word in
score of nations; the foundation of
British world trade at one time rested
upon it.
Early Americans soon discovered
that they had vast resources of this
precious product. They devised all
sorts of containers to hold the dull
glow of its flame. They extracted heat
from it, It's true; and a sort of COM
fort, but most of the value of that
coal went up the chimney.
Skipping over the pages of history,
we find that even as late as 40 years
ago we knew little of the proper treat
ment of coal. We had burned untold
billions of tons of it, but even then,
when science first became seriously
interested in the potential possibilities
Of its development, we only were get
ting the use of 20 per cent of its
energy. And even now, in this year
Of 1864, We have not as yet learned
to extract all of its value-but we've
moved up to the point where we are
utilizing more than go per cent of
its latent energy.
Thirty years ago, 1884, half a bill
lion tons of coal was being used each
year. The loss to us-eXpressed in the
monetary terms of today, was in ex-
cess of $4,000, ,000,0 900 annually. One
billion dollars of this can be attributed
to mining and to transportation of
the coal to the hundreds of thousands
Of CRATES, large and small, which made
up the market. A third of our Ma
tion's freight transportation was coal.
Today, as We will show you presently,
we have effected great savings in
transportation cost, eliminated smoke
entirely, and consumers costs have
reached a minimum unpredictable in
1884.
Under this wasteful program, it is
estimated today that we lost at least
1,o00, 100000 gallons of benzol yearly
(an annual value of $500 900, ,00O) be-
cause we didn't know enough to ex-
tract it before we burned the coal;
and an additional hundred millions
of dollars from by-products of coal
tar, and in this the giant power"
program has played a part.
What we call giant power" ac-
cording to the writings of DR.. Morris
Llewellyn Cooke, one of its early ad-
vocates, had its origin in the World
War.
Robert w. Wooley, then member
Of the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion," he writes, ''in a series of force
full and far-visioned memoranda ad-
dressed to President Wilson and other
Government officials, called attention
to the great economies which might
result in unif1cation of the railroad
and power fuel supply with the almost
feveriSh by-product activity occasioned