|
(詳細はHopi Indians used coal. The first use by European people in the United States was in the 1740s, in Virginia.〔(A brief history of coal mining ), US Department of Energy,accessed 7 Oct. 2015.〕 Coal was the dominant power source in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and remains a significant source of energy. Coal became the largest source of energy in the 1880s, when it overtook wood, and remained the largest source until the early 1950s, when coal was exceeded by petroleum. Coal provided more than half of the nation's energy from the 1880s to the 1940s, and from 1906 to 1920 provided more than three-quarters of US energy.〔''Historical Statistics of the United States'', 1957, US Department of Commerce, p.355.〕 ==1800s== At the start of the 19th century, coal mining was almost all bituminous. In 1810, 176,000 short tons of bituminous coal were mined in the US, versus 2,000 tons of anthracite. US coal mining grew rapidly in the early 1800s, doubling or tripling every decade. Anthracite mining overtook bituminous coal mining in the 1840s, and from 1843 through 1868, more anthracite was mined than bituminous coal. But the more limited deposits of anthracite could not satisfy the increasing demand for coal, and from 1869 on, bituminous coal was the predominant grade of coal mined.〔''Historical Statistics of the United States'', 1957, US Department of Commerce, p.357-360.〕 Anthracite (or "hard" coal) exploitation began before the War of 1812 spurred by the interest and opportunism of the Wurt brothers of Philadelphia. Burning clean and smokeless, anthracite became the preferred fuel in cities, replacing wood by about 1850, the same pattern seen in Europe. The East became deforested, driving up price of fuel wood. Anthracite from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Region and later from West Virginia was valued for household use because it burns cleanly with little ash. It was also used in the early foundries of Philadelphia, New York, Newark and Allentown. The rich Pennsylvania anthracite fields were close to the big eastern cities, and nearly every major railroad in the Eastern United States such as the Reading Railroad, Lehigh & Erie, Central Railroad of New Jersey, Pennsylvania Railroad and Delaware and Hudson Railroad, extended lines into the anthracite fields. Many railroads began as mining company shortline railroads. By 1840, annual hard coal output had passed the million-short ton mark, and then quadrupled by 1850, and as it grew it pushed railroad construction, mining and steel production in a synergistic symbiosis. Bituminous coal (or "soft coal") mining came later. In the mid-century Pittsburgh was the principal market. After 1850 soft coal, which is cheaper but dirtier, came into demand for railway locomotives and stationary steam engines, and was used to make coke for steel after 1870.〔 * Frederick Moore Binder, ''Coal Age Empire: Pennsylvania Coal and Its Utilization to 1860''. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1974.〕 Total coal output soared until 1918; before 1890, it doubled every ten years, going from 8.4 million short tons in 1850 to 40 million in 1870, 270 million in 1900, and peaking at 680 million short tons in 1918. New soft coal fields opened in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, as well as West Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama. The Great Depression of the 1930s lowered the demand to 360 million short tons in 1932.〔Bruce C. Netschert and Sam H. Schurr, ''Energy in the American Economy, 1850-1975: An Economic Study of Its History and Prospects.'' pp 60-62.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of coal mining in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|