196 FREDERICK EDWARD SAWARD 



no other coal so regular in formation; so uniform in quality; 

 of so convenient a thickness (8 to 9 feet), or so easily mined. 

 These are not mere statements, but facts — facts that have 

 made Pittsburg the steel center of the world, and facts that 

 in thirty years have been the means of bringing up the out- 

 put of the blast furnaces of the United States from 30 tons 

 per day to more than 700 tons per day. The following tables 

 will show the quality of this coal. 



In the earlier days of the industry, the incentives for 

 economical and exhaustive mining were not great. Large 

 areas of the coal lie above water level, much of it with com- 

 paratively light cover, and of an inclination that furnished 

 natural drainage and grades in favor of the load haul — a 

 state of affairs presenting few or no difficulties to a mining 

 proposition, and requiring no greater outlay of capital for 

 mine development or expensive openings, timber, etc. These 

 conditions, together with the fact that Connellsville coal at 

 one time sold at the ridiculously small sum of $12 per acre 

 and for many years remained less than $100 per acre, gave 

 the earlier operators the false idea that it was immaterial 

 whether coal was exhaustively mined or not, and the result 

 was that the mining was done in the crudest way and fully 

 one half of the coal area mined over in the earlier mines was 

 lost. The mines were often opened up on the single entry 

 plan; the entries were of the most temporary character, and 

 both these and the rooms were driven haphazard; there were 

 no regulations as to width of rooms or pillars, and ventilation 

 and mining engineers were regarded as expensive superfluities. 



It was not until extensive operations became a feature 

 of the industry that skill, definite systems of mining, machin- 

 ery, and mechanical and mining engineers were considered 

 factors at all ; even then, if it had not been that coal lands be- 

 came enhanced in value and the coal seam had to be attacked 

 below water level, with adverse grades, mechanical drainage 

 and ventilation, expensive openings, heavy cover, and im- 

 mense volumes of water and fire damp to contend with, there 

 would have been no strenuous attempt made to obtain from 

 the seam the greatest possible yield and results. With these 

 conditions imperatively confronting the operator, a radical 



