Note 27 — THE LIMITS OF OUR COAL SUPPLY.23
Reading edition
In a paper on the Comstock mines, read at the Pittsburg meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1879, by Mr. John A. Church, the hot mine waters are described as reaching 158° Fahr. (so hot that men have been scalded to death by falling into them). The highest recorded air temperature there is 128°. These are silver mines, and vigorously worked in spite of this temperature and great humidity. A much higher temperature is endurable in dry air.