Coal and the coal mines

by Homer Greene

OLD OPENING INTO AN OUT-CROP OF THE BALTIMORE VEIN.

The carboniferous measures are the highest and latest geological formation in the great coal fields of the United States. Therefore where the strata have not been disturbed by flexure the coal seams lie near the surface. This is generally the case in the bituminous districts, and it is also partially true in the northern anthracite coal field. Deep mining is necessary only in the middle and southern anthracite coal fields, where the folds are close and precipitous, and the deep and narrow basins formed by them have been filled with deposits of a later geologic age.

Some of the difficulties to be met and overcome in mining coal will by this time have been appreciated by the reader. But some of them only. The inequalities of roof and floor, the pitching seams, the folds and faults and fissures, all the accidents and irregularities of formation and of location, make up but a few of the problems which face the mining engineer. But the intellect and ingenuity of men have overcome most of the obstacles which Nature placed in the way of successful mining when she hardened the rocks above her coal beds, crowded the earth’s crust into folds, and lifted the mountain ranges into the air.

It will not be out of place at this time to make mention of those localities in which coal is found. Indeed, there are few countries on the globe in which there are not carboniferous deposits of greater or less extent. Great Britain, with Ireland, has about 12,000 square miles of them. In England alone there is an area of 8,139 square miles of workable coal beds. In continental Europe the coal fields are numerous, but the character of the deposit is inferior. Coal is found also in the Asiatic countries, in Australia, and in South America; and in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick there is an area of 18,000 square miles of coal measures. The combined areas of coal measures in the United States amount to about 185,000 square miles. The Appalachian or Alleghany region contains about 60,000 square miles, included in the States of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. The Illinois and Missouri region contains also about 60,000 square miles, and has areas not only in the States named, but also in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, and Arkansas. Michigan has about 5,000 and Rhode Island about 500 square miles. There are also small areas in Utah and Texas, and in the far West there are workable coal fields in Colorado, Dakota, Indian Territory, Montana, New Mexico, Washington, Wyoming Territory, Oregon, and California. The entire coal area of the United States, with the exception of that in Rhode Island and a few outlying sections in Pennsylvania, contains coal of the bituminous variety only. Both the area and supply are therefore practically without limit. In the coal regions of Rhode Island the disturbances affecting the earth’s crust have been very violent. The motion, heat, and compression have been so great as to give the rocks associated with the coal measures a true metamorphic or crystalline structure, and to transform the coal itself into an extremely hard anthracite; in some places, indeed, it has been altered to graphite. The flexures of the coal formation are very abrupt and full of faults, and the coal itself is greatly broken and displaced. Its condition is such that it cannot be mined with great profit, and but little of it is now sent to market. The only areas of readily workable anthracite in the United States are therefore in Pennsylvania. These are all east of the Alleghany Mountains, and are located in four distinct regions. The first or Southern Coal Field extends from the Lehigh River at Mauch Chunk, southwest to within a few miles of the Susquehanna River, ending at this extremity in the form of a fish’s tail. It is seventy-five miles in length, averages somewhat less than two miles in breadth, and has an area of one hundred and forty square miles. It lies in Carbon, Schuylkill, and Dauphin counties. The second or Western Middle field, known also as the Mahanoy and Shamokin field, lies between the eastern headwaters of the Little Schuylkill River and the Susquehanna River. It has an area of about ninety square miles, and is situated in the counties of Schuylkill, Columbia, and Northumberland. It lies just north of the Southern field, and the two together are frequently spoken of as the Schuylkill Region. The Eastern Middle or Upper Lehigh field lies northeast of the first two fields, and is separated into nine distinct parallel canoe-shaped basins. These extend from the Lehigh River on the east to the Catawissa Creek on the west, and comprise an area of about forty miles. They are principally in Luzerne County, but extend also into Carbon, Schuylkill, and Columbia counties. The Northern or Wyoming field is a crescent-shaped basin about fifty miles long and from two to six miles broad, with an area of about two hundred square miles. Its westerly cusp is just north of the Eastern Middle field, and it extends from that point northeasterly through Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, just cutting into Wayne and Susquehanna counties with its northern cusp. It lies in the valleys of the Susquehanna and Lackawanna rivers, and in it are situated the mining towns of Plymouth, Wilkes Barre, Pittston, Scranton, and Carbondale. There is also a fifth district, known as the Loyalsock and Mehoopany coal field, lying in Sullivan and Wyoming counties. It is from twenty to twenty-five miles northwest of the Wyoming and Lackawanna field, its area is limited, and its coals are not true anthracite.

It will thus be seen that aside from this last field the anthracite coal area of Pennsylvania contains about four hundred and seventy square miles.

CHAPTER V.
THE DISCOVERY OF COAL.

Although it has been within comparatively recent times that coal has come into general use as a fuel, yet there can be no doubt that it was discovered, and that its qualities were known, many centuries ago. To prove its use by the ancients, mention is sometimes made of a passage from the writings of Theophrastus, a pupil and friend of Aristotle and for many years the head of the peripatetic school of philosophy. This passage dates back to about 300 B. C., and is as follows: “Those substances that are called coals and are broken for use are earthy, but they kindle and burn like wooden coals. They are found in Liguria where there is amber, and in Elis over the mountains toward Olympus. They are used by the smiths.”

The word “coal,” however, as used in the Bible and other ancient books, usually means charcoal, or burning wood. It is claimed, and not without plausibility, that coal was mined in Britain prior to the Roman invasion. The cinder heaps found among ruins of the time of Roman supremacy in the island point to quite an extensive use of coal by the people of that age. But no writings have been found recording the use of coal prior to 852 A. D. In that year twelve cartloads of “fossil fuel,” or “pit coal,” were received by the abbey of Peterborough in England, and the receipt was recorded. It is said that coal first began to be systematically mined in Great Britain about the year 1180.