i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

38 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
• PERTINENT PARAGRAPHS. •
Detectives employed by the Provident Coal The Co., Westmoreland Coal Co.'s stockholders have
whose power plant at St. Clairsville, 0., was authorized an increase of $2,000,000 in the capital
wrecked by a boiler explosion on February 20, in stock, shareholders being privileged to subscribe
which four men were killed and about 20 badly
hurt, report that the disaster was probably caused
at par for 66
by miscreants who secretly drained the boilers
which gave way. A few days after the explosion
the mine foreman saw two former employes running
from the mouth of the mine, and an investigation
showed that the water had been drained
from one of the boilers of another battery and
that the other was only partially filled. There
was but little heat and a second disaster was
averted. The men seen were included among a
number of Italians who had been discharged for
incompetency, and who are suspected of tampering
with the boilers through motives of revenge.
: ;4 per cent, of their present holdings.
The exclusive agency for the Pittsburgh Coal
Co. East of the Alleghanies, heretofore held by
P. Heilner & Son, has been transferred to B. Nichol
& Co., 59 Wall street.
1 he official statement of Mine Inspector J. M.
Gray, of Alabama, shows that the state's production
Of coal during 1904 was 11,2/3,151 tons.
A twenty-inch vein of coal has been discovered
wuhin ten feet of the surface, across the Columbia
river from Wenatchee, Wash.
The Rev. John Hague, pastor of the English
Baptist chuch of Lee Park, Pa., is building a mammoth
dredge for getting coal from the bottom of
the river. He is an expert mechanic and will
devote the time aside from his church duties to
dredging. The dredge will be equipped with
rollers to break the coal, screens to separate it
and barges to convey it to the storage yard he
will have at a convenient place. It will be a
miniature breaker on water as well as a dredge.
The shipment of lake coal from Buffalo was be
gun on April 8, five vessels pushing their way
through the ice at the mouth of the harbor and
reaching clear water without difficulty. The
steamers starting out were the Yosemite, Martin.
Mullen. Saxon, Sonora and Kensington. All carried
full cargoes of hard coal. It is probable that
within a few days the greater part of the freight
boats at Buffalo will move.
A coal mine deal has been consummated at
Terre Haute. Ind., by which eight of the best
mines in Indiana, owned by a company headed by
J. K. Siefert, of Chicago, were transferred to the
Indiana Southern Coal Co., of which D. W. Cummings,
of Chicago, is president. The consideration
was $2,000,000.
A combination of the Colorado anthracite interests,
to be effected May 10, is announced at Denver.
If the fields, which are being examined by
an expert, are found to be as extensive as reported,
the coal will be put on the market at once.
There is always a brisk demand for old coal
mines in England. Some are utilized by shotmakers,
who find them cheaper than towers. Many
of the shallower pits are used for growing rhubarb,
mushrooms and similar vegetables.
Half a ton of coal per inhabitant is the world
average. The LTnited States produces four tons
per inhabitant.
Eight coal boats, each loaded wuh 25,000 bushels
of coal, and the model barge, Marmet, laden with
steel and wire products, including 12,000 kegs of
wire nails, were sunk at Merriman's, in the Ohio
river, by one steamboat during the recent March
rise. They were the property of the Monongahela
River Consolidated Coal & Coke Co. and probably
will prove nearly a total loss.
—x—
Six loaded coal barges were sunk at Henderson,
Ky., by the Ohio river towboat W. W. O'Neil.
owned by the Monongahela River Consolidated
Coal & Coke Co., through a false current swaying
the tow against the railroad bridge at that point.
The loss, which is a total one, is estimated at
$40,000.
—x—
The Sykesville mine of the Rochester & Pittsburgh
Coal & Iron Co., near DuBois, Pa., was
badly wrecked, recently, by an explosion of fire
damp, in which two miners lost their lives.
—x—
Forty-three miners were killed on April 3 by
an explosion in the Zeigler, 111., mine, owned by
Joseph Leiter. The mine was badly wrecked.
—x—
Fire in the Weber & Quinn Co.'s coal pockets in
Brooklyn, destroyed the plant and stock of coal.
causing a loss of $15,000.
—x—
The Moore Coal Co., of Jellico, Tenn., sustained
a fire loss of $6,000.