Garfield County News | 1955-02-24 | Page 50 | Machines May Cure Ills of Plateau Coal Fields

Machines May Cure Ills - -Of Plateau Coal Fields Recent Inventions of new coalmining machines and processes may heal the illness of what was once one of America's largest producing industries. Two of the most startling mechanized "coal miners" are the Compton auger, developed by C. L. Compton of Grafton, W. Va., along the simple lines of an ordinary woodworking awl, and a remote-control cutter which tows an automatic conveyer belt. The auger, which whirls through a coal seam and sprays shavings out at the rate of three tons a minute, produces three times the 1 national pcr-man-day average, while the converyor belt delivers almost twice that much. Dramatically enough, these machines have reduced the cost of coal per ton delivered at Charleston. W. Va., from 3 to 12, of which SI goes to the railroads which deliver the "black rock." With the development of these machines, plus the solution of the 1 problem of pumping powdered coal 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 industry will be buying coal by the hundred millions tons to make gasoline; more power firms will depend on icoal to produce electricity, of which 70 per cent is now generated in coal burning plants, and foresee even greater purchases from th atomic industry During 1934, 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 will 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 I agree with parts of the recent statement tie made In which to said that "if ... the utilization ot energy, machinery. Improved tech. ntques, can become an economlt advantage in lowering cost of production, In which the Investor, th worker, and the public as a consumer can participate, then it, indeed, becomes not merely an opportunity but an obligation."