| Show exhaustion OF ie COUN I 1 COAL SUPPLY 1 the inventory of the mineral le ie sources of the united states which the section of minerals of the national conservation tom commission mission under the chairmanship of representative john dalzell of pennsylvania has made during the bummer hummer and fall is a long list of waning sur supplies plies this was shown by the report of the section before the joint conservation conference which summarizes the figures of the counti mineral wealth of all our minerals the fuels which auprly the heat light and power for domestic as well as indis ind js trial purposes are the most fundamentally essential to the nation the use afi of the fuels involves their immediate and complete destruct destruction ion the use of large supplies of other materials also increases the rate 0 of f consumption of the fuels fur for both metallurgical and manufacturing purposes for as the nation has now passed its early development stage manufacturing and consequently the use of the fuels will increase much more rapidly than population the available and easily accessibly supplies of coal in the united stated aggregate approximately tons at the present increasing rate of production this supply willbe so depleted as to ap exhaustion before the middle of the next century from the beginning of coal mining in this country down to the close of 1907 there were mined tons and it is estimated that for eveir ton produced half a ton has been lost or wasted so that the above production represents an exhaustion of the coal supply to january 1 1908 aggregating gre gating tons the rate of production has been steadily increasing the first step in extending the life of our fuel supply according to the report should be to lessen the waste aste in mining handling and transports tion of coal but there are equally great possible savings nav ings it says in the use t knoal not only in the prevention kofl waste now recognized as such but also in discovering means of avoiding the losses indol involved ed in the transformation of heat into mechanical and electrical energy |
