| 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. |
|