Mining Conditions Under the City of Scranton, Pa - Reports and Maps #232368

Messrs. Conner and Griffith, who conducted the investigations described in this report largely for the city of Scranton, are consulting engineers for the Bureau of Mines for investigations similar to those they have already made in connection with their Scranton work; and this report is published by the bureau in response to numerous requests, because of the fact that the information it contains will prove useful in the general solution of similar problems in many of the country's coal fields. A study of the accompanying maps will Show that the city of Scranton is underlain by 11 separate beds of coal, varying in thick ness from 2 to 24 feet. It is estimated that before mining opera tions were begun these beds of coal contained underneath the present city limits of Scranton -tons of coal. The 27 collieries operating within the city limits, working independently of each other, had excavated and removed, up to March, 1911, an aggregate of cubic yards of coal and accompanying rock, or cubic yards more than the total amount of material excavated and to be excavated by the United States in constructing the Panama Canal. This fact illustrates something of the magnitude of the problem that the city of Scranton, with the aid of these engineers and of a special commission or advisory board, has undertaken to solve. The excavation has included tons of coal and tons of rock and accompanying refuse. This leaves about tons of coal still to be removed.