Show machines may cure ills of plateau coal fields becent invention of new coal in mining ning machines and processes iray tray heal the illness of what wn was once one of america s largest producing industries two of the most startling rn me coal miners arc are the thi compton auger developed dey elwed by C E compton of grafton Ur afton W va along the simple lines of an ordinary awl and a it remote control cutter which tows an automatic torna tic conveyer belt the auger which whirls through a coal seam and spray t out at the rate of three tons a minute produces three times the national per manday man day average while the conver belt delivers almost twice that much dramatically enough these machines have reduced the cost of coal per ton delivered at charleston VV va from 5 to 2 of which 1 goes to the railroads which deliver the black rock with the development of these machines plus the solution i of the problem of pumping powdered coal co a rough through pipelines coal men think the industry is due to get out of the doldrums in about five years perhaps at the most fifteen these experts predict the oil indu industry will be buying coal by the hundred b re millions tons to make gasoline more power firms will depend on coal to produce electricity elat triciti of which 70 per cent is now generated in coal burning plants and foresee even greater purchases from the atomic industry during 1954 the largest single coal purchaser was the atomic energy commission to date all these innovations have been produced and tested in the coal fields of ohio pennsylvania and west virginia that they win move to the coal rich areas of the colorado plateau is a foregone conclusion in the minds of coal experts coal mine owners who lose no love where john L lewis is concerned are inclined to give him credit for pushing the modernization of the industry and many agree with parts of the recent statement lat ement h he maric made in which he said ld that if the utilization of energy machinery improved techniques can become an f conomas advantage in lowering cost of 0 production du tion in III which the investor the th worker and the public as a consumer can participate then it indeed becomes not merely an opportunity port unity hut but an obligation |