PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6, No. 6, SERIAL No. 154
COPYRIGHT, 1918. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
COURTESY U. S. BUREAU OF MINES
TIPPLE AT BITUMINOUS COAL MINE GARY, WEST VIRGINIA
THE STORY OF COAL
The Coal Fields of the United States
TWO
When a coal famine is upon us there is a grain of comfort in the reflection that beneath the soil of this country, and within 3,000 feet of the surface, there still lies 3,538,554,000,000 tons of coal. This is the estimate of the United States Geological Survey. We have mined coal wastefully and used it prodigally, yet we have taken from the ground, up to the present time, only a fraction of one per cent. of the total amount at our disposal. The whole of our “coal reserves,” if they could be extracted and placed in a great cubical pile, would form a mass 8.4 miles long, 8.4 miles wide and 8.4 miles high. If the coal thus far mined were piled up in the same way, the cube would be 7,200 feet long, 7,200 feet wide, and 7,200 feet high.[1]
[1] These figures were furnished by Mr. M. R. Campbell, of the U. S. Geological Survey. They differ materially from figures previously published by the Survey.