Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — THE FUEL QUESTION. [ARTICLE]

THE FUEL QUESTION.

Possible Exhaustion of the Present Sources of Supply. With the rapid extension of the application of power to manufacturing, transportation, and all other industrial purposes, the extent of our fuel resources and the modes of securing and using them become of the greatest importance. The ease with which the different forms of fuel have heretofore been'secured in this country has led, in many quarters, ts reckless waste and extravagant modes of use, in the apparent belief that the stores from which these sources of power have been drawn were inexhaustible. No greater error can be conceived than that of supposing the world’s supply of fuel, under the present systems of transformation of energy, to be exhaustless in amount. As is well known, the total available supply of English coal is reliably measurable, at the present rate of consumption, in terms of a period of years which does not by any means extend indefinitely into the future. A very few years, indeed, have sufficed to practically exhaust our own natural gas supply, although the most ruthless waste has contributed largely to this result. It is not impossible that the discovery of new fields may replenish the waning store of gaseous fuel, although that does not now seem probable. A considerable number of oil fields have ceased to yield a paying output, and many others have reached the period of decreasing production. Although the prospect for the discovery and utilization of new oil centres iu different parts of the world is certainly encouraging, experience conclusively shows that only a limited supply in reference to the worlcL’s demands can be expected. The case is not so very different when the matter of coal supply is considered. It is true that our soft coal is found in so many locations and in such quantities that it seems to be practically limitless; nnd at the present rate of use it is so. There is every reason, however, to anticipate an increasingly.rapid extension of the application of mechanical power, with a correspondingly enormous consumption of fuel under the present modes of use. If it were possible to estimate this increased consumption for the next century, on the one hand, and our available soft-coal supply on the other, there is no leason to believe that the latter would not be quite finitely expressed in terms of the former. Some really startling, though very conservative, results were recently set forth by the Pennsylvania commission appointed to investigate the matter of waste in anthracite coal mining. In the first place, it was shown that in the past not more than about 30 per cent, of the actual coal in the ground has been obtained for the market by mining operations. The committee believes that this percentage may in the future be raised to 40 by reworking the coal lands and by utilizing the coal now in the culm banks. Even that gain, however, leaves a loss of 60 per cent. The full significance of these flgares does not appear until they are made to exhibit the total available remaining supply in the three great anthracite districts. There remain in the Wyoming district four and one-half times the amount already mined, and in the Lehigh district but two and one-half times the amount now mined, while the Schuylkill district has been depleted of one-fifteenth only of its total store. The quantity termed “mined” includes the 40 per cent, available for market and the 60 per cent, loss. It is thus seen that the supply of anthracite coal is quite limited. Indeed, view the whole question in any way that we will, it is apparent that the present system of utilizing power from its great natural sources is such as to make the exhaustion of our natural fuel supply a mere matter of definite time. It is very probable, however, in fact almost a certainty at the present time, that developments in the science of energy will lead to direct aud vastly more economical utilization of the power stored in nature. The best of our present processes are in reality excessively wasteful, and would within a definite period of time exhaust the supply. But probably no one can be found bold enough to predict that exhaustion and deny that further advances in science will not radically improve our present methods and virtually open new sources of supply of power. It is only through such possible avenues that escape from ultimate fuel exhaustion can be made, and they indicate the way to the most interesting and remarkable scientific developments that have yet been made.