Year: 1860

The GUAL RUW En- UF IdE WOhLO'


In the last number of the Edinburgh
Rerieac. is very interesting article on the
Coal Fields of North America and Great
Britain. The history of coal affects, in the
highest degree, the entire social condition
of our species and but reflects the wonder
ful services which this mineral renders to
civilization. The writer in the Edinburgh
cloquently remarks: "In those seams of
combustive matter, which the industry and
ingenuity of man have discovered and work.
ed in various parts of the globe, lies the
latent force which gives life to the steam
engine. Heat, motion, power, and that
wonderful energy which propels in thOus-
and forms the mechanism Of modern socie-
ty, arc all concentrated here; and the geol-
ogieal revolutions which reduced the pri-
meval forests and morasses of the globe to
this condition, were preparing. in the In
calculable distance of past ages, that new
clement which was one day to make man
the master of earth, or water, and Of fire.
To our mind there is nothing more indica-
tive of the eternal forethought which franz
ed the structure of the world, than the fact,
that perishable organizations, which -four
ished thousands of years before the exis-
ence of man, should have become subseryi-
ent to the latest applications of human
skill The power of calculation can hard
ly sound the stupendOus addition made by
this force to the dynamic power of man.


Each acre of a coal seam, four feet in
thickness, and yielding one yard net of pure
coal, is equivalent to about 5000 tons; and
possesses, therefore, a reserve of mechanic
al strength its fuel equal to the life labor
of more than 1,G00 men. Each square
mile of one such single coal bed contains
three millions tons of fuel, equivalent to
one million of men laboring through seven
ty years of their ripe strength. Assuming
for calculation, that ten millions Of tons,
out of the annual produce of British coal
mines, are applied to the production of me-
chanical power, then England annually
summons to her aid the equivalent of g.
100000 fresh men pledged to exert theiI
fullest strengh twenty years. Reducing
this to one year, we find that England's
actual expenditure of power generated by
coal is represented by that Of 66.o0o,oo0
of able bodied laborers. This is repre-
sentation of what really exists in another
form, but if we proceed so far as to convert
the entire latent strength resident in tho
whole annual produce of our coal mines in,
to its equivalent in human labor, then, by
the same process of calculation, We shall
find it to be more than the labor of 400,-
100000 of strong men, or more than doub-
le the number of adult males now upon the
globe!


An element in the above calculation is
one of the most humiliating comparisons
that can be drawn between human and
mechanical power. If we estimate life
time Cf hard human work at twenty years,
giving to each year 800 working days, then
we have for mans total dynamic efforts
( 5000 days. In coal, this is represented
by three tons; so that man may stand at
his own door while an ordinary quantity
of Goals is being delivered, and say to him.
self: There, in that wagon, lies the min
eral representative of my whole working
life's strength But immense as is the
coal power of England, it is but trihc
compared with what this country possesses
When the coal power of the Old World Is
exhausted, the United States viii have used
up only fraction of its coal power. In
presence of this impressive fact, the Recie't
to which we have referred, says: No char
acteristic of the northern continent Of
America is more remarkable than the un
bounded fields of coal which it possesses
Nearly 100000 square miles of coal field;
can scarcely be grasped at first thought
and if we should 60 back to the growth
and accumulation of yegeta bic matter ne
ccssary to their formation, can anything
that we now behold on the surface of tht
glObs, afford us parallel in an equal space:
Our own coal fields in the aggregate, would
form but black speck beside them on any
map The possession of such an amazin:
deposit leads US to forecast future of al
most bOundless enterprise and production
for that wonderful country.