Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1892 — Coal In the Twentieth Century. [ARTICLE]

Coal In the Twentieth Century.

We are using coal in this country, It appears, at the rate of about 150,000,000 tons a year, and with qn annual increase which will carry it up to 200,000,000 tons a year at the beginning of the next century. The question has been raised, what will become of the coal, or rather what will become of the country without any coal, in the course of the twentieth century, supposing the rajdo of increase in the consumption to continue unchecked. It has been calculated that the annual requirement a hundred years hence, under the conditions named, will be in the neighborhood of four thousand millions of tons, or about eight times as much as the entire yearly production of the world at the present time. This is a formidable prospect, truly; but if we indulge in looking forward too far, whether as regards'the coal supply or any other requisite of civilized life, we are pretty sure to run into a difficulty of this kind. The twentieth century will have to paddle its own canoe;, and if it is as bright and smart as the nineteenth century has been, it may be trusted to meet all its liabilities promptly at maturity. Besides, in the course of the next hundred years a hundred things may happen. In the matter of coal in particular, there is an immense margin.for the exercise of inventive skill and scientific inquiry to the end that its capabilities of heat and force may be more closely utilized, and a remedy found for the large percentage of [ waste now incurred. This is one of the possibilities which are in sight, so to speak, and there may be others of ten-fold great importance beyond it. Let the twentieth century work out its own salvation. —Mechanical i ISews. ’ '