Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 305, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1919 — FACTS ABOUT COAL [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT COAL

Anthracite, Semi-Anthracite, Semi-Bituminous, Bituminous, Sub-Bituminous, aad Lignite Produced in United Statei

The geological survey of the United States government gives to coal six classifications. They are: /Anthracite; semianthracite, semibituminous, bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite. All of these classes are produced in the United States. " Most of the anthracite coal is mined in eastern Pennsylvania. Small areas in the West are placed in the anthracite classification, but are not identical with the Pennsylvania anthracite. There is very little semianthracite in this country, hence it is but i small factor in the trade. Semibituminous is of higher rank than bituminous. It has a high percentage* of fixed carbon, which makes it almost smokeless. It is regarded as the best coal for steamships, and is used almost exclusively by the navy. ? Bituminous coal is produced in a number of grades, but generally speaking, it describes a rank of coal having about equal proportions of volatile matter and fixed carbon. It is only slightly affected chemically by weather, unless it is exposed for several, years. Sub-bituminous is used to designate a rank of coal more generally known as black lignite. It is a clean, domestic coal and ignites readily. It is produced generally in the western states. Lignite is a product of North Dakota and Texas. The United States and Alaska have beneath their surfaces more more than one-half of the unmined coal reserve of the world. The total unmined coal reserve throughout the world is officially estimated at 8,154,000,000,000 tons. Of this 548,000,000,000 tons is anthracite, 4,302,000,000,000 is bituminous and 3,304,000,000,000 tons is sub-bituminous and lignite. The unmined reserve of the United States and Alaska is 4,321,000 000 000 tons, of which 22,000,000,000 is anthracite, 2,155,tons is bituminous and 2,054,000,000,000 tons is lignite and sub-bituminous. The St. Louis district is the center of the bituminous area, and most of the bituminous coal produced in this country comes from the central croup of states in and adjacent to the St. Louis coal-producing district.