COAL AND COAL-MINES OF BELGIUM.
The Belgian coal-field is a long and comparatively narrow series of basins, extending about 75 miles from east to west, and lying in France and Belgium in about equal proportions, but narrower, and, consequently, longer, in the latter than the former country.
The portion in Belgium is 40 miles in extent from east to west, and 8 miles wide as a mean, with an area of 326 square miles of productive coal measures.
The number of developed seams is 114; but most of them are thin. The average is less than two feet, and but few are over three feet in thick ness. Seams from 12 to 18 inches are considered workable ; but the pro duction is limited, considering the number of workpeople employed, in comparison with the production of the English mines. In 1850 there were 408 pits in operation, 159 idle, and 25 sinking; and the number, character, and wages of the workpeople were:— The total number of workpeople being 47,449, of whom 36,430 were employed below ground, and 11,519 above ; the total production of coal during the same year being 5,820,588 tons, and the average production to each under-ground operative about 160 tons. The exports to France in
1850 were 1,953,190 tons; but in 1856 they had increased to 3,119,630 tons, and the annual home production increased in about the same pro portion. It is reported that the production of Belgium for 1864 exceeds 10,000,000 tons.
The first engine erected in Belgium was in the Li6ge district, as early as 1723, for pumping water. In 1838 the hoisting-engines were 145 in num ber, with an aggregate of 3881 horsepower; the pumping-engines were 58 in number, with an aggregate of 5279 horse-power. In 1850 they had increased to 384 hoisting-engines, with an aggregate of 11,548 horse-power, and 143 pumping-engines, with an aggregate of 16,081 horse-power. The mining records of the kingdom give the following depths of the chief collieries in Belgium :—