Popular Science Monthly 



531 



UNITED 

 iSTATES 



(bitumimous) 



NORTH 

 AMERICA 



mined in the West Virginia region. If 

 you live in Nebraska, or North Dakota, 

 or still farther away, this map brings 

 home to you 

 the long dis- 

 tance that coal 

 had to come. 



If you are a 

 manufacturer, 

 how many hun- 

 dred miles has 

 your coal trav- 

 eled this win- 

 ter? Manufac- 

 turers around 

 Chicago de- 

 mand coal from 

 southern Illi- 

 nois and from 

 West Virginia. 

 Closer at hand 

 is a plentiful 

 supply. Like- 

 wise Iowa will not have Iowa coal, if it 

 can help it. Those in the mountain re- 

 gions of the West are none too well satis- 

 fied with their own supply. In the East, 

 they're such connoisseurs that only the 

 choicest fuel beds are touched. The 

 railroads are cluttered with the cross- 

 ing and recrossing of coal trains from all 

 these conflicting sources of supply. Smith 

 wants coal from Jones* region; Jones 



UNITED STATES 

 (ASTHRACITr) 



WORLD 



Courtesy United States National Museum 



Comparative coal supplies of all regions in the world. 

 Nick in the small cube shows hard coal we've used. 

 Soft coal cube has hardly been scratched yet 



must have it from Smith's. Woe results. 

 Transportation Causes Trouble 



Our annual 

 "coal shortage" 

 is not a coal 

 shortage; it's a 

 transportation 

 difficulty. And 

 bound up with 

 this, are our 

 archaic meth- 

 ods of using 

 coal. To avoid 

 smoke and 

 sooty flues and 

 poor steaming 

 effects, a large 

 share of our 

 boilers and 

 furnaces will 

 take only 

 c o m p a rati vely 

 Even then they 

 or five per 

 coal's actual 

 thieves work- 

 to comb the 

 good coals. 



good grades of coal, 

 get only about four 

 cent, or less of the 

 energy. To keep these 

 ing at all, owners hm)e 

 country for reasonably 

 It's their extremity that is one big 

 factor in our coal difficulties. Many 

 owners think their present plants effici- 

 ent. They can well think again. If a 



Actors in Ovir Annual Coal Drama- 

 Here the scene shifteth. No longer are we concerned with 

 the producing end of the business. Above sundry com- 

 mission men, wholesalers and brokers lock arms. To the 

 right is the establishment of the local dealer. In the lower 

 corner standeth he, himself. And below — below — is a 

 certain gentleman with his pockets stripped. His knees are 

 bent, and his toes turned far, far inward. He is the ulti- 

 mate consumer — yourself. You recognize him, do you not? 



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