NP, RSTD 3/24A/1863

From the Raleigh Standard
 
March 24, 1863
 
[From the Charleston Courier]
A Few Facts on Coal and Coal Roads
   From a report of the Western Rail Road Company of North Carolina (connecting Fayetteville with the coal region on Deep River) we take some facts and statements which may demand attention and further consideration from readers of the Courier.
   In 1820 the first anthracite coal 365 tons, was sent to market. In 1856 the amount exceeded 7,000,000 tons.
   The increase only shows the beginning of the application of coal to locomotion on land and sea. As to the consumption of wood, and its approaching exhaustion along the lines of rail road in the older and populous States, the Superintendent of the New York Central reported, in 1856, one cord of wood for every 27 1/2 miles run.
   It being almost demonstrable that rail roads will be compelled to seek other fuel than wood, the facilities and conditions of procuring bituminous or semi-bituminous coal demand consideration. Pennsylvania yields no bituminous coal east of the mountains.
   Maryland coal has to be taken two hundred miles to Baltimore, to find a good sea outlet.
   The Deep River coal of North Carolina by forty-three miles of rail road can be brought as near the ocean as the Cumberland coal is at Baltimore, and is of better quality. The semi-bituminous coal of Pennsylvania requires two hundred miles of railroad transportation.
   Taking into consideration the quantity, quality and nearness to the Atlantic, there is no source of semi-bituminous coal which can be compared with Deep River.
   We ask attention specially to the following extract from the report before us from 1858:
   "No roads ear as much per mile as coal roads. But for the immense cost (owing to the inaccessible location of coal beds) none could pay larger dividends. The Reading Road is ninety-three miles long and cost $20,000,000. or $200,000 per mile, yet it earns an interest of more than six per cent."
   We close these hints with an extract from a report from Prof. E. Emmons, M. D., Geologist of North Carolina:
   The Deep River coalfield possesses all the essential characteristics o the better developed ones in this country, though its extent or area is comparatively small. Its outcrop of coal, or line upon which it has been proved to exist, is about 80 miles. This outcrop runs along the course of Deep River, and is rarely, if ever, more than a mile from it. On this line there are eleven different places where either shafts, slopes or pits have been sunk, and which have severally cut the main or six foot seam.
   These coal shafts or slopes begin at Farmersville, the lowest point upon the river where coal has been fully disclosed. From Farmersville proceeding up the river, we find in succession, McIver's, Egypt, Taylor's, Gulf, Tyser's and Tyson's, Carbonton, Mrs. Bingham's, Murchison's and Fooshee's. There is no doubt of the existence of coal beyond the extremes I have named; but these being immediately as it were on the river bank, and all of them disclosing the existence of a continuous seam of coal, it is evident this segment of Deep River is the most important one upon which capitalists must rely for their supply of this kind of fuel. Viewing this coal then, only in the extent along which it has actually been developed, there seems to be no sufficient reason why doubts should be entertained of a supply for a long time to come. All doubts respecting a supply of coal will, however, vanish, when it is considered that even from one of the shafts enumerated, an ample supply may now be obtained; I allude to the Egypt shaft, as these works have been more fully carried out than at any other point upon the river. Here, there is a shaft 460 feet deep, and sunk 1000 feet within the outcrop. It gives access to the main or six foot seam, as it is called, through it exceeds that amount.
   The quality of this coal is a matter of considerable consequence. Tested in the smith's shop, the uniform opinion is, that it is cheaper for all work at 40 cents per bushel than charcoal at 5 cents. Smiths at Fayetteville have been in the habit of buying it at that price for several years. It contains a large proportion of volatile matter; at the same time it forms, during combustion, a fir, hollow coke, which makes it so much sought for by smiths and within which it furnishes an intense heat, which especially fits it for the performance of every heavy work. In the next place it is a gas coal. This property having been fully tested in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, it might be inquired whether the residuum left is valuable as a fuel. On this point, too, it is fortunate that there is so much testimony of the value of its coke, for it is a singular fact that the coke of many gas coals is of little value. The late Professor Johnson, whose investigations in the department of coals are so well known, gave a very favorable account of it, entertaining no doubt of its high heating as well as reducing properties when employed for smelting the ores. In the region of Deep River the coke of the refuse coal will undoubtedly take the place of anthracite in the furnace and forge.
   The composition of this coal, as determined by Johnson and Jackson, is as follows:
Fixed carbon 63.6
Volatile matter 34.8
Ashes 1.6
Specific gravity 1.3
   The coal is also remarkably free from smuttiness or dirt, as well as sulphur and other impurities which injure mineral coals when employed for heating and reducing the metallic ores. Having, then, had this coal under examination for four years past and having used it in a grate, and having observed its action in the forge, and having also the testimony of competent observers and experimenters as to its value for gas, as well as the value of its coke, there remains, as I conceive, not the shadow of a doubt as to its value when employed for melting iron, reducing its ores, or of its value for all manufacturing purposes where charcoal is not absolutely required.

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