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26 C O A L A N D T I M B E R May, 1905
PROSPECTING FOR
Prospecting
COAL.
for coal is an art of great
nicety and one which requires the very best
of appliances as well as experienced operators.
The work of determining the location,
depth and quality of coal veins which
underly the surface in level or rolling countries
and districts may be arrived at in no
other way than by drilling through the
various over-laying strata of rock until the
coal has been reached.
Here the work of the coal prospector
really begins, for anyone can simply drili n
hole into the surface of the earth, but the
examination of the different strata through
which the drill may pass is an entirely different
matter. The Keystone Driller Co., of
Beaver Falls, Pa., has gathered together MI
fund of information beyond all doubt of the
greatest value to coal prospectors. This
company, which manufacturers the famous
"Keystone Drill," especially designed and
adapted to this very sort of work, has, during
its existence, made prospecting a practical
study. The thoroughness of the prospecting
drill was not attained by reasoning
and abstract inventive genius, but was fashioned
as the result of years of study and experience
learned from practical work.
In prospecting for coal the operator will
desire and must have absolutely accurate
information on three points. First, the nature
of the roof of rock between which surmounts,
or overlies, the coal vein. An exact
record is, therefor, kept of the thickness and
character of all formations through which
the drill pasess on its way downward to the
coal. This information will be found invaluable
if a shaft is afterwards sunk. Second,
the thickness of the coal vein must be
exactly ascertained or gross and costly miscalculation
might follow. When approaching
the coal measure the driller operates
the machinery very slowly, keeping his hand
constantly on the cable. Coal is very easily
cut and an experienced operator will know
the exact stroke which passes from the hard
slate into the soft coal and, at once, withdraw
his tools. The sand pump will then
verify his conclusions. Careful measurements
must be made of the depth of the hole
to the top of the coal. A center bit, thre :
inches in diameter and eight feet long,
is then put on and, when the bottom of the
vein is reached, the hole is again cleaned out
and measured. The difference between tlie
former and latter measurements is tlie thickness
of the vein. This method has been
tested repeatedly and found to be absolutely
accurate.
A third desideratum is the determination
of the quality of the coal. The "shearing
bit" is then adjusted and the operator
proceeds to "shear" down the sides of the
three-inch hole, drilling about six inches
at a time and using the vacuum sand pump
to get out the drilling. In this way the
coal will be easily got out of the hole in
comparatively large chunks, or cubes, from
one inch to one and a half inches in diameter.
These specimens will be ample for
the making of exhaustive and thorough
tests of the character of the coal vein which
has been pierced. These samples will
show the texture and laminations of th •
co;il. That the test may be exact in every
particular, it is best to save all of the drillings
taken cmt from the time the coal was
Keystone Drilling Machine.
first encountered until the bottom of the
vein has been reached. If this is done, the
result will be an almost perfect test.
These practical rules for the perfect testing
lor coal and measuring it and analyzing
the product have been verified by the Keystone
Driller Co., with its own tools and
with the most competent drillers.
PITTSBURG.
True Strength of the World's Great
Workshop.
Tonnage figures of Pittsburg are startling
in comparison with those of cities
many times more extensive. It is estimated
that during 1903 the railroads carried
into and out of the Pittsburg district
79,750,000 tons of freight, necessitating the
use of more than 2,500,000 cars. In the same
time, there were hauled out over the Monongahela,
Allegheny and Ohio rivers
10.000,000 tons more, principally coal, making
the total tonnage of the district for the
year practically 90,000.000 tons. During 1904
these figures will not have been equaled because
of the business depression, although
they are not considered exceptional, inasmuch
;is Pittsburg's tonnage in 1892 was
86,636,680 tons.
Pittsburgh has for many years justly enjoyed
tin- honor of being "The Workshop
of the World," but few outside of the
boundaries of Allegheny county have any
conception that this meant anything beyond
the lucre fact tluit she made enormous
quantities of iron and steel, mined
appalling quantities of coal, and produced
a great deal of smoke and soot, and boasted
much in doing it. The industrial revolution,
which had its beginning in the early hours
of the new century in mergers and combinations
spreading throughout almost
every branch of manufacturing, brought
about an awakening among the people of
the world. Pittsburg stood forth as a
power of no mean moment, industrially
and financially. The existence of cheap
fuel in the shape of exhaustless beds of
finest coal and of labor of the highest skill
have brought about manufacturing economies
and possibilities which have enabled
the building in Pittsburgh of industrial
establishments, other than those directly of
iron and steel, which lead the world.
Census figures as to the population do
not tell the true story of Pittsburg's splendid
growth. The city's apparent population
is 359,250 people. A municipality of
675,000 souls more truly pictures its size.
Growth of business demanding expansion
of mill facilities has forced many plants
out beyond the confines of the city proper,
where
sufficiently large sites are available.
The result is that year by year manufacturing
centers of no mean size have clustered
about the old boundaries until one
compact
city is virtually the result.
ANTHRACITE TO BURN.
Over Four Million Tons of Unmined
Anthracite.
Tlie mineral products of the United States
are far more valuable than those of any
other country in the world, coal heading the
list with iron ore second. The increase in
production and consumption of coal within
recent years constitutes a remarkable feature
in economic history. Coal fielc's are
continually being discovered, and the supply
of this mineral is regarded as practically
inexhaustible.
In the United States, although its pioduction
of coal is one-fourth that of the world,
nothing reliable in the way of a standard
price can be given. Owing to frequent labor
troubles among miners ' the price of coal
has fluctuated greatly from year to year.
Alining has reached such a point that it
is said that a carload of coal in the pri icipal
milling districts of the United States can
now be mined, hoisted, screened, cleaned
and loaded in one-half the time it required
10 years ago, and new mechanical devices
and improved methods are each ye;ir increasing
the economy of time and labor.
People living in the hard coal fields are
deeply interested in the supply of anthracite
,ind the amount of unmined coal in the possession
of the different companies. Just
how much coal there is yet unmined in the
little section of Pennsylvania in which it
is to be found has always been an open
question.
W. W. Ruley, the well known stathitican
oi the anthracite companies, has estimated
the acreage and unmined coal of the various
anthracite companies as follows:
Acres. T- 1o " s ,,
I nimned.
Phil:i. ML Reading 102.000 2,450,000,000
Delaware & Hudson 21,300 260 000,000
D.,L. & W 15.200 400,01X1,000
Penna. Coal Co 12,600 180.600.000
Hillside C. & I. Co 7,200 70.000,0 0
Lehigh Valley 22 720 400 000.000
Lehigh and W. B 13.600 335.000,000
LehUh and Luzerne 800 5.000.000
Lehigh Coal and N 9,400 370.000,000
Alliance Coal M. Co 4.000 130 000.000
Penna Railroad 4,280 74.000,000
Total 213,000 4,684,000,000