History of Springfield, Illinois, its attractions as a home and advantages for business, manufacturing, etc. Pub. under the auspices of the Springfield board of trade, by J. C. Power.

ITS ADVANTAGES FOR MANUFAOTURING. 45
thieir natural outcrop, within the county, seventy-five of the one hundred and two
anl all, except the upper one, have been counties of the State.
worked to a greater or less extent. The "The usual mining estimate for the proaggregate thickness of these seams is ductive capacity of a coal seam gives one
about twenty-five feet, and their individ- million tons of coal to the square mile
1al range is from twenty inches to six for every foot in thickness that the seam
feet in thickness." will measure."
In order to illustrate the inexhaustibleIn a conversation with Prof. Worthen,
which I am at liberty to use, he informed ness of the supply, we will take ten miles
me that Sangamon county has all the square, of which Springfield is the centre.
workable coal strata found in any other This makes one hundred square miles.
part of the State; hence, there is at least The stratum now being worked is six feet
twenty-five feet, in thickness, of coal un- thick If onefootdepth,overonesquare
derlying the county. The stratum pene- mile, gives one million tons, six feet
trated by all the coal shafts in this county depth gives six mill'on tons. Multiply
-of which I shall speak in another place that by one hundred, and it gives six
-is either the fifth or fourth, he thinks hundred millions of tons or fifteen thousand millions of bushels on ten miles
it is the fourth.
square. And this stratum is only oneThe Illinois coal fields extend over three- fourth of the aggregate thickness of the
fourths of the State. Coal is found in coal we have.
ARTESIAN WELL.
In the year 1S57 an arrangement was then abindoned, leaving the greater part
made, by which the City Council of of the machinery in the earth. In passSpringfield, and some or the public spirit- ing through the stratum of coal now
ed citizens, agreed to contribute equaliy mined here, Prof. Norwood, the State
for the purpose of sinking an Artesian Geologist, was in attendance, and proWell. June 15, 1857, an ordinance was nounced the coal to be froln twenty to
passed, appsropriating $3,000 to defray twenty-four inches in thickness. The
the expense on the part of the city. De- failure to understand its extent was, no
cember 20, 1858, $2,000 more was appro. doubt, owing t to the fact that no precaupriated, and again $2,000 March 7, 1859. tions had been taken to keep out the
Ex-Mayor John W. Priest was then water and mud from the boring. Mayor
Mayor of the city. Froin him I learn Priest says that if its real extent had been
that the last appropriation was never known, there is but little doubt that a
used. The whole amount expended was shaft would have been sunk and mining
about $10,000 —half by the city and half commenced at that time. The boring
by subscribers. The boring was carried was done at the side of Washington street,
down about eleven hundred feet and near the eastern limits of the city.