The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965 Page: 218
574 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
ash content of more than that amount. For example, the average
ash content of seventeen samples taken by the University Mineral
Survey, 1901-1902, was 16.o4 per cent.74 In samples analyzed by
S. H. Worrell in 1910-1911, the ash content was 16.3o per cent.?"
Worrell added, "There are no very considerable discrepancies
between these analyses and it may be fully concluded that they
represent the composition of Texas coals as they are mined."'"
The Committee on Energy Resources and National Policy also
noted that in a 1928 survey of national coal reserves:
... 14 inches was adopted as the minimum thickness for bituminous
coals and anthracite, two feet for subbituminous coals, and three feet
for lignite. In practice, not many of the subbituminous and lignite
deposits running to twice the minimum thickness adopted for the
estimate are being mined in volume, and there is only a small tonnage
of the higher rank coals taken from beds less than two and one-half
feet thick."
But in 1917, almost 50 per cent of Texas' production had come
from beds less than three feet in thickness, with 39 per cent being
from beds of less than two feet."
The natural handicaps had a definite effect on the Texas in-
dustry; but their effect was not as great as the competition from
other fuels. The industry had a hard time even getting started
because of the competition of wood. E. T. Dumble pointed out
that "In many places the cheapness of wood has prevented the
use of any other fuel. Even in localities in which lignite is
abundant and easily mined, wood has been easier to get and is
therefore used for all household purposes and in steam making.""
The competition from oil was much greater than that from
wood. The effect of the 1gol oil discoveries on the industry has
been mentioned earlier. The discovery of new fields in the 192o's
had an even greater impact. The effect of oil on the decline of
the Thurber mines was noted by Mary Jane Gentry.
"S. H. Worrell and William B. Phillips, The Fuels Used in Texas (Austin, 1922;
Bulletin of the University of Texas No. 307), 14.
""Ibid.
"Blbid., 22.
"7House Executive Documents, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. (Serial No. o10335), Docu-
ment No. 16o, p. 49.
"'Mineral Resources of the United States, zgr7, p. 944.
'Dumble, Report on the Brown Coal and Lignite of Texas, 21.218
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965, periodical, 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101198/m1/258/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.