ENGLISH COAL FIELDS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2381, 19 November 1881, Page 3

ENGLISH COAL FIELDS.

Writing upon the probable duration of the coal fields in Great Britain a newspaper says : —The great increase which took place in the production of coal in the United Kingdom in 1880, as compared with the previous year, again forcibly presses forward the question as to the probable duration of our coal fields. The Royal Commission, which was appointed some ten years ago to inquire into the subject, found that there were, in 1869, in our known and concealed coalfields, a total of 139,000.000,000 tons of coal at a depth not exceeding 4000 feet, which, at the then rate of production, would have lasted for 1260 years. But the increase in 1880 as compared with the previous year far surpassed the extreme anticipations of any of the gentlemen who have written on the exhaustion of our coal fields. In 1879 the quantity of coal raised was 133,720,393, and in 1880 it was 146,969,409, showing an increase for the year of 13,249,016 tons, being equal to fully 9 per cent., whilst taking the last twenty-five years up to the end of 1880 the increase was equal to 128 per cent. Were the same rate of increase to go on, such as took place last year, at tho end of 1905 the consumption of coal would then be at the rate of about 1,200,000,000 tons a year, and which if then continuing stationary would be exhausted in something like 105 years. But the consumption of ooal, there is little doubt, will go on increasing, for, as Professor Jevons, who has written a most important and elaborate work on the duration of our coal supply, states, every improvement for the economising of labour has resulted in increasing the consumption of coal, and he contends that coal being the source of power, and being required for every great extension of industry, the consumption of it must keep pace with tho progress of population apd the extension of our manufactures and industrial pursuits. The commissioners on our coal resources arrived at the conclusion that at a depth of 1000 yards the temperature of the earth would be 98 degs., and that the depth at which the temperature of the air would become equal to the heat of the blood would be about 3420 feet, so that it is questionable whether coal could be worked at a depth of 4000 feet, where, under ordinary circumstances, the heat would be at least 116 degs, Fahr. Some of our ooal fields will, of course, be worked out much sooner than others, whilst the thin seams will be left to the last. From the figures given, it will be seen that our stores of unworked fuel are far below what they are generally supposed to be, and that the question as to their duration is an important one, not only as regards the coal itself, but upon the many industries that are depen. dent upon it. The question is undoubtedly a national one, and it is to bo hoped that efforts will be made to prevent the waste of the material which more than any other has contribu ed to the manufacturing and commercial greatness of England, and made ho* the 1 workshop of the world.