COAL. 21 



Between two hundred and fifty and three hundred mines on 

 about twenty-five different seams have furnished this coal. 

 These mines vary in annual production from 2,000 to 418,000 

 tons; more than half of them are drifts with natural drainage; 

 about one third are slopes, and only seven are shafts, the deep- 

 est of which is 230 feet. The larger mines are provided with 

 the most modern equipments for mining and raising the coal. 

 The pillar and stall system is the mining method most in use, 

 but the long wall system has been adopted in some cases. 



In the year 1903 coal mining gave employment to 12,876 

 miners and 5,230 day men, using about 100 mining machines 

 in 13 mines. The mines are comparatively free from fire damp 

 which has been detected in about one fourth of them. 



The Alabama coals are all bituminous coals, and of quality, 

 as shown by chemical analyses and the practical tests of use, 

 to compare favorably with the coal of other states. By the 

 use of improved shaking screens the coal as mined is separated 

 into lump, nut and slack. The two first go to the general mar- 

 ket for steam and domestic purposes, while the slack after 

 washing is used mostly for making coke for the iron furnaces, 

 though some of it is used for blacksmithing. Within the last 

 few years a good deal of run of mines from several different 

 mines has been shipped to Demopolis and there used in the 

 rotary kilns of the portland cement plant, for which purpose 

 it has been found to be well adapted. 



The principal markets for the coal are within the state, but 

 much of it goes to South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mis- 

 sippi, Louisiana and Texas; to the steamships at Mobile, Pen- 

 sacola, New Orleans and Savannah; and to the export trade, 

 chiefly to Mexico. 



The home supply is used mainly for manufacture of coke 

 for the iron furnaces, while the commercial shipments are 

 mostly of steam coal which is suplied to almost every railroad 

 in the South. 



The growth of the Coke industry in Alabama has been 

 even more rapid than that of the coal mining. It was not until 

 1876 that it was known that the Alabama Coal would make 

 coke suitable for iron smelting, and the state ranks now second 

 in the Union as a coke producing state. 



The coke production in 1903, as given in the Alabama 

 State Mine Inspector's Report, was 2,568,185 tons. The 



