Part II.— COAL MINES. 



Chapter I. — History. 



An account of the earliest attempt at working coal in the Raniganj 

 field will be found in a paper published by Mr. S. G. T. Heatly, in 

 the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1842,* and which shows 

 by a series of extracts from the records of public offices, the principal 

 details of the opening of the first mines. In August 1774, Messrs. 

 S. G. Heatly and J. Sumner, of the Bengal Civil Service, made an 

 application to Government for the right of working mines of coal, the 

 discovery of which they announced, in " Pachete and Bheerbhoom." 

 Mr. S. G. Heatly was at the time Collector of Chota Nagptir and 

 Palamow, and he was, in all probability, the first discoverer of the 

 existence of coal in Bengal. A Mr. Redferne subsequently joined 

 the firm, which, as Sumner, Heatly, and Redferne, applied for an 

 exclusive right for eighteen years, (which was granted,) to work and sell 

 coal in Bengal and its dependencies. The limits of the area, vrithin 



* (Contributions to a History of the Mineral Resources of India, No. I.,) Vol. XI.,page811. 



The following account is based on information derived from this paper, from Mr. Homfray's 

 papers and from some letters of Mr. C. B. Taylor to the Englishman and republished in 1849, 

 (the latter only quoted for dates,) and from general information obtained from owners and 

 managers of mines. 



