The Vastness of Coal Production
WHEN figures go above a few thousand how little we comprehend their real meaning! When we say the amount of coal mined in the United States in 1881 amounted to 76,122,000 tons, we say, of course, the figures are enormous, and begin to wonder where our children are to get their coal, by and by; but before you begin to wonder, read how the Philadelphia Record puts it. It says: "The great pyramids of Egypt are regarded as miracles of industry and wasted labor. The longest of all, at Gizeh, took 100,000 men almost half a century to build; contains very nearly 80,000,000 cubic feet of stone. Yet if all the coal mined in this country in 1881 had been piled in pyramids of similar size, there would have been more than twenty-six of these tremendous monuments of coal completed; or one every two weeks. Again, suppose that a square column had been made of coal, allowing it to base fifty feet square, there would be more than 1,700 such columns, 500 feet high, rising to a level to the projected top of the Washington monument in Washington. The Chinese wall is believed to be 1,400 miles long, 20 feet high and 24 feet thick, containing 3,548,169,000 cubic feet. If the coal in 1881 had been put into such a wall, it would have extended from Philadelphia to Chicago, and have had enough left over to surround both cities;" and Pennsylvania alone produces 48,500,000 tons, or more than one-half the entire amount.—Cyno-sure.