COAL - Clpdigital.org

48 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
• PERTINENT PARAGRAPHS. •
The sale of the holdings of the Kennerly Coal &
Coke Co., near Thomas Mills, Somerset county,
Pa., and of the properties of the Valley Coal &
Stone Co. at Johnstown, Pa., has been lately consummated,
the deals having involved approximately
one and a half million dollars. The holdings
of the Kennerly Coal & Coke Co. were purchased
by J. L. Mitchell of Philadelphia in conjunction
with a number of unnamed associates.
while J. Blair Kennerly, also of Philadelphia, acquired
the property of the Valley Coal & Stone
Co., paying for same in the neighborhood of half
a million dollars.
A special meeting of the stockholders of the
Bessemer Coal & Coke Co. was held on August 23,
at which a proposition to change the location of
the trustee of the bonds from Cleveland to Pittsburgh
was approved. The directors were authorized
to negotiate for the sale of the company's
properties at any time if a favorable offer is
made. The authorized capital of the company is
$2,500,000 and the bond issue is about $360,000.
Its plants are located at Masontown, Humphreys,
Bradenville, New Geneva and Ruffsdale.
The cost of stripping coal in the Lehigh region
of Pennsylvania has been reduced 50 per cent, in
the last 15 years as regards rock. Recently contracts
have been taken out at 25c. per cubic yard
for rock, 14c. for earth, and 9c. for coal. Fifteen
years ago to remove solid rock cost 50c. per
cubic yard, loose rock 35c. and earth 18c. To-day
loose rock classification is largely obsolete. The
current prices may vary slightly from above
figures, as they are based on a sliding scale depending
on rates for laDor.
Within a few weeks all the collieries of the Delaware
& Hudson Coal Co., in the northern part of
Wilkes-Barre, Pa., will be operated by electricity,
and the mules, which have furnished the motive
power for drawing out the coal from the chambers
ever since the mine was opened, will be dispensed
with. As soon as the company can make
arrangements coal breakers are to be equipped
with the automatic slate picking devices, and this
will do away largely with breaker boys.
After a conference with the Kentucky Railroad
Commission, the Louisville & Nashville railroad
has adopted a new schedule of rates on coal from
all the mines along the Owensboro and Nashville
division, considerably reducing those previously
in effect.
A Mainz newspaper of recent date states that
"probably the largest train of towboats ever seen
on the Rhine had passed that city on the previous
day. This train of boats was towed by a tug
steamer and embraced eight boats with an aggregate
load of 17,000 metric tons of coal, or 850 German
freight-car loads, destined for Mannheim."
This is still a considerable distance short of an
average Ohio river coal tow.
A largely attended meeting of the principal operators
and sales agents of the Kanawha, West Virginia,
district was held August 22, at Cincinnati.
The affair was entirely informal, and only general
conditions of the district were discussed. The
principal topic under consideration was the extraordinary
shortage of cars on the Chesapeake &
Ohio railroad. It was found that no immediate
relief can be expected.
In Paris a company has contracted with the
municipal authorities for all the foliage to be derived
from the trees of the public squares, gardens,
streets and woods within the limits of the city.
These leaves are to be compressed under high
pressure and will then be converted into a fuel,
which, it is claimed, will have a far greater calorific
capacity than coal or any other fuel known.
W. F. Borland, representing Montreal and New
York capital, has completed the purchase of 30,-
000 acres of coal lands on Queen Charlotte Islands
from a local syndicate for $700,000. Development
is dependent on the action of the British Columbia
government regarding the construction of local
railways and the making of harbors, which is expected
to commence next spring.
Handsome invitations, signed by President Robert
P. Burgan and the other principal officers of
the company, have been sent out by the Carnegie
Coal Co., for the opening of its new mine at Oakdale,
Pa., on the afternoon of September 6.
The H. C. Frick Coal & Coke Co. has formulated
plans for the planting of an extensive forest covering
thousands of acres of land extending through
Westmoreland, Fayette and Greene counties in
Pennsylvania.
It is announced that the Leiter estate has arranged
to sell the Zeigler (111.) mining property to
an English syndicate.
Mining machines have had a rapid growth in
West Virginia. During the last eight years the
machines in use have each averaged a production
of forty tons for each working day.