22 MINERAL RESOURCES OF ALABAMA. 



greater part of this coke was used in the iron furnaces of the 

 state, though a portion of it was shipped to other states and to 

 Mexico, for smelting and foundry purposes. The present 

 product does not begin to supply the demand and many new 

 ovens are in course of construction. The coke in 1903 was 

 made in about 8,638 ovens, all of the bee hive pattern except 

 about 240 Semet-Solvay ovens at Ensley, with a daily capacity 

 of about 1,250 tons. 



The 80 Semet-Solvay ovens at the Central Furnace near 

 Tuscaloosa were not yet in operation in 1903. 



Most of the coke is made from slack coal but the entire out- 

 put of some of the mines, after crushing, washing and drain- 

 ing, is converted into coke. With one or two exceptions, the 

 heat and gases from the bee hive ovens are allowed to go to 

 waste ; but the Semet-Solvay ovens, of course, utilize these 

 products. 



At a valuation of $2.45 a ton the coke product of Alabama 

 during 1903 was worth nearly $6,000,000. 



THE WARBIOE COAL FIELD. 



This field which lies to the north and west of the other two 

 above named, has nearly ten times the area of the two com- 

 bined, estimated at 7,800 square miles. In the usual classifi- 

 cation the Warrior Field comprises all of the coal measures 

 of Alabama, drained by the Warrior and Tennessee Rivers, 

 together with those of Lookout Mountain drained by the 

 Coosa river. 



The relatively greater importance of the Warrior Field is 

 due also to the vast amount of coal that can be economically 

 mined within its limits, the coal seams outcropping over 

 great areas and with very moderate angle of dip. 



For convenience of description the Warrior Field has been 

 divided into the Plateau Region and the Warrior Basin. 



The Plateau Region includes the northeastern part of the 

 Field, approximately from the line of the L. & N. railroad to 

 the Georgia and Tennessee borders, together with the spurs of 

 the great Cumberland table land on the western and northern 

 side of the Tennessee river. The name comes from the cir- 

 cumstance that the uplands or mountains are portions of the 

 original elevated table land or plateau into which the vallevs 



