Easton Paper - What is the Best System of working Thick Coal Seams?

This question having been repeatedly raised, and particularly revived in a discussion at the last meeting of the Institute, I beg to submit the following remarks, based partly upon personal experience, partly upon the results of large works in Europe, establishing, years ago, the practicability of certain methods, which may therefore be considered to have passed the stage of mere experiment. Before entering upon the merits of one system or the other, it is indispensable to lay down some recognized principles, which ought to serve as guides, in arriving at fair judgments in questions of this character. In a profession like that of mining, locally so much influenced by combinations of circumstances too various to mention, it is difficult to do more than lay down the main features of a system based upon general laws and recognized facts, leaving the details to the sound judgment and experience of the engineer, who, by virtue of his education, ought to be able to make such choice and such modifications in the plans of a mine as the particular case demands. Mineral resources, in some countries the sole property of the owner of the soil, in others controlled by the strong hand of a government, are nevertheless a gift of nature, in which, indirectly, the whole of the human race has as real an interest as the immediate owner himself. This interest requires, at least, that no unnecessary waste of