Part 13 (1/2)
The yearly output of the anthracite mines is upward of fifty-five million long tons a year, or somewhat less than five million tons per month. In winter the rate of consumption is somewhat greater than that of production. A shortage in the summer production is therefore apt to be keenly felt in the winter. Before s.h.i.+pment to the market the coal is crushed at the breakers, sorted in different sizes, and washed.
Most of the anthracite coal-mines are owned by the railway companies centring at New York and Philadelphia, or else are operated by companies controlled by the railways. About one-fourth of the output is produced by independent operators who, as a rule, sell their coal to the railway companies. The Reading, Pennsylvania, Central of New Jersey, Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, Ontario & Western, Erie, and Delaware & Hudson are popularly known as ”coalers” because the larger part of their eastern business consists in carrying anthracite coal.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A VIEW OF THREE COLLIERIES IN THE ANTHRACITE COAL BASIN NEAR MAHANOY CITY, PA.]
Formerly much of the coal was s.h.i.+pped by ca.n.a.ls, but the latter were not able to compete with the railways, and most of the coal-ca.n.a.ls have been abandoned. The price of anthracite at tide-water (New York) varies from $3.20 to $4.50 per long ton. At Philadelphia the price is about one-fourth less. Buffalo is the chief lake-port for anthracite. Steam sizes are about two-thirds the price of house fuel.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COAL FIELDS IN UNITED STATES]
Bituminous, or soft coal furnishes the larger part of the house fuel in the United States, and nearly all the house coal used in other parts of the world. It contains from fifteen to more than forty per cent. of volatile matter, burning with a long and smoky flame. The coal which contains twenty per cent. or less of volatile matter is a free-burning coal that may develop heat enough to partly fuse the ash, forming ”clinkers”; it is therefore called ”caking” coal, and is not only well adapted for use as fuel and steam-making, but it is also a good smelting coal.
Coal which contains more than thirty per cent. of volatile matter is known as ”fat” coal and is generally used in the manufacture of c.o.ke and illuminating gas. Western Pennsylvania produces the largest amount of fat coal, but it is found here and there in nearly all soft-coal regions. A so-called smokeless bituminous coal occurs in various localities; its low percentage of volatile matter makes it an excellent house fuel.
Bituminous coal is mined in twenty-five States of the Union, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, and Ohio heading the list. In about half the mines the coal is cut from the seam by means of machinery and is known as machine-mined coal. A very large part of the product is consumed within a short distance of the mines, and this is especially true of the region about the upper Ohio River.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COAL PRODUCTION]
Most of the product is s.h.i.+pped to the large manufacturing cities of the middle west, where it is used for steam as well as fuel; a very large amount also is sent down the Ohio in barges to the lower Mississippi River. The spot value of bituminous coal varies from $0.80 to $1.60 per ton; the product of the Pacific coast mines, however, is from $3 to $5.
The output of the mines of the United States aggregates about two hundred and forty million long tons yearly, and this is about one-third of the world's product. For many years there has been an export trade to Canada, the West Indies, Central and South America, amounting in 1900 to 8,000,000 tons. Within a few years, however, the decreased cost of mining due to machinery, and the low rates of transportation to the seaboard has developed an export trade to Russia, Germany, and France.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COAL]
A small amount of coal is imported into the United States. A superior quality of Australian coal finds a ready market in Pacific coast points as far north as San Francisco, and large quant.i.ties of Nanaimo, B.C., coal are sold in Oregon, Was.h.i.+ngton, and California. A small quant.i.ty of the ”slack” or waste of the Nova Scotia mines is imported to Boston to be made into c.o.ke. The Canadian fields supply a considerable part of the coal used in Montana.
=c.o.ke and Coal-Tar Products.=--In the manufacture of iron and steel a fuel having a high percentage of carbon free from volatile matter is essential. The great cost of wood charcoal forbids its use, and so a charcoal made from soft coal is used. Fat coal is heated in closed chambers until the volatile matter is driven off. The product is ”c.o.ke”; the closed chamber is an ”oven.” The ovens are built of stone or fire-brick, in a long row. They are usually on an abrupt slope, so that the coal can be dumped into the top, while the c.o.ke can be withdrawn from the bottom, to be loaded into cars.
About three thousand one hundred and forty pounds of coal are required to make a short ton of c.o.ke; from three thousand to five thousand cubic feet of illuminating gas, together with varying amounts of coal-tar and ammonia, are driven off and generally wasted. In a few instances ”scientific” ovens are in use for the purpose of saving these products; but in the coal-mining regions such devices are the exception and not the rule. The great waste of energy-products in the manufacture of c.o.ke is partly offset by the employment of refuse and slack, which could not be otherwise used.
There are more than five hundred and eighteen thousand c.o.ke-ovens in the United States, of which eighty per cent. are in use. Most of them are in the region about the upper Ohio River, and nearly half the total number is in the vicinity of Connellsville. The region around Birmingham, Ala., ranks next in number. The c.o.ke product of the United States is more than twenty million short tons a year. This is considerably less than the product of Great Britain, which is upward of twenty-five million tons.
Most of the ”scientific” ovens are near or in large cities where the gas, after purification, is used for illuminating purposes. In some instances the c.o.ke, and not the gas, is a by-product. The coal-tar is used in part for fuel, but a portion of it goes to the chemical laboratory, where it is made to yield ammonia, benzine, carbolic acid, and aniline dyes to the value of nearly seven million dollars.
=Graphite.=--Graphite, plumbago, or ”black lead,” as it is popularly named, is found in many parts of the United States, but only a few localities produce a good commercial article; these are Ticonderoga, N.Y., which yields from six hundred to two thousand tons a year, and Chester County, Pa., which yields a small but increasing amount; a good quality is mined near Ottawa, Canada. It is extensively mined in Ceylon, and this island produces the chief bulk of the world's ordinary product.
The finest grade comes from the Alibert mine in Siberia. A good article is manufactured artificially at Niagara Falls.
Graphite is used as a stove polish and for crucibles; in the main, however, it is employed in the manufacture of lead[41] pencils; for this purpose only a very soft mineral, absolutely free from grit, is employed, and the Siberian output is used almost wholly. One German firm and two American firms supply most of the pencils used.
=Petroleum.=--Petroleum is the name given to a natural liquid mineral from which the well-known illuminating oil ”kerosene” is derived, and to obtain which it is mined. Petroleum is a mixture of various compounds known as hydrocarbons. Some of these compounds are gaseous, some are liquid, and some are solid; all of them are articles of commercial value. The petroleum from different localities differs greatly in appearance and composition.
The pitch that coated Noah's ark, the slime of the builders of the Tower of Babel, and the slime-pits of the Vale of Siddim all refer to mineral products a.s.sociated with petroleum. Under the name of ”naphtha” it has been known in Persia for thirty centuries, and for more than half as long a flowing oil spring has existed in the Ionian Islands. The Seneca Indians knew of a petroleum spring near the village of Cuba, N.Y., and used it as a medicine long before the advent of the white man.
As early as 1850 illuminating oil, known as ”coal” oil, was made in the United States by distilling cannel coal, but this product was supplanted within a few years by the natural petroleum discovered in Pennsylvania.
In 1859 Colonel Drake completed a well bored in solid rock near t.i.tusville, Pa. The venture proved successful, and in a few years petroleum mining became one of the great industries of the United States.
Petroleum is known to exist in a great many parts of the world; the United States and Russia, however, produce practically all the commercial product; a very small amount is obtained from a horizon on the south slope of the Carpathian Mountains, situated in Rumania and Galicia, Austria-Hungary. There are also a few producing wells in Peru, Germany, Italy, Burma, Argentina, and Sumatra.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PETROLEUM FIELDS IN THE UNITED STATES]