Part 1 (1/2)

The Story of a Piece of Coal

by Edward A Martin

PREFACE

The knowledge of the marvels which a piece of coal possesses within itself, and which in obedience to processes ofto exhibit to an observant enquirer, is not so widespread, perhaps, as it should be, and the aiical history, has been to bring together the principal facts and wonders connected with it into the focus of a few pages, where, side by side, would be found the record of its vegetable and s on the great fog-probleas and oils, the question of the possible exhaustion of British supplies, and other is of coal or its products

In the whole realm of natural history, in the widest sense of the ter which could be cited which has so benefited, so interested, I ht almost say, so excited mankind, as have the wonderful discoveries of the various products distilled froas-tar, itself a distillate of coal

Coal touches the interests of the botanist, the geologist, and the physicist; the chemist, the sanitarian, and the merchant

In the little work now before the reader I have endeavoured to recount, without going into unnecessary detail, the wonderful story of a piece of coal

EAM

THORNTON HEATH,

_February_, 1896

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF COAL AND THE PLANTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED

From the hoeously verdant vegetation of a forest of ht have appeared a somewhat far cry in the eyes of those who lived soo But there are feho do not knoas the origin of the coal which they use so freely, and which in obedience to their deht up more than a thousand feet froh familiarity has in a sense bred contes will always purchase, in all probability a stray thought does occasionally cross one's s of a ht was long ago laid up in this earth of ours for our use, when as yet es to coine the industrial condition of our country in the absence of so fortunate a supply of coal; and the s which are obtained from it, and the uses to which, as we shall see, it can be put, do indeed denition

Were our present forests uprooted and overthrown, to be covered by sedimentary deposits such as those which cover our coal-seams, the amount of coal which would be thereby fore, would amount to a thickness of perhaps two or three inches at most, and yet, in one coal-field alone, that of Westphalia, the 117 most important seams, if placed one above the other in immediate succession, would amount to no less than 294 feet of coal Frorowths of vegetation required to form some of our representative coal beds But the coal is not found in one continuous bed These numerous seams of coal are interspersed between many thousands of feet of sedimentary deposits, the whole of which form the ”coal-rowth of a forest, and to explain the whole series it is necessary to suppose that between each deposit the land became overwhel subaqueous period, was again raised into dry land, ready to becoet, under similarly repeated conditions, another sea these changes about ill speak later on, but this instance is sufficient to sho inadequate the quantity of fuel would be, e dependent entirely on our own existing forest growths

However, ill leave for the present the fascinating pursuit of theorising as to the how and wherefore of these vast beds of coal, relegating the geological part of the study of the carboniferous system to a future chapter, where will be found some more detailed account of the position of the coal-seams in the strata which contain them At present the actual details of the coal itself will demand our attention

Coal is the mineral which has resulted, after the lapse of thousands of thousands of years, froetableof leaves, fronds and spores, froe; these accurew that bore them, and formed in the first place, perhaps, beds of peat; the beds have since been subjected to an ever-increasing pressure of accus of a whole forest into a thickness in some cases of a few inches of coal, and have been acted upon by the internal heat of the earth, which has caused theases If we reason froin of coal is due to the accuetation, of which more scattered, but more distinct, representative specimens occur in the shales and clays above and below the coal-seams But we are also able to exa extreht under the microscope, and are thus enabled to decide whether the particular coal we are exa is formed of conifers, horse-tails, club-mosses, or ferns, or whether it consists sis of all, or perhaps, as in some instances, of innumerable spores

In this way the structure of coal can be accurately deteretable substance, and covering it up entirely, subject it to great pressure, so that but little of the volatile gases which would be forht in the course of ti coal, but whether we obtained lignite, jet, common bituminous coal, or anthracite, would depend upon the possibilities of escape for the gases contained in the mass

Everybody has doubtless noticed that, when a stagnant pool which contains a good deal of decaying vegetation is stirred, bubbles of gas rise to the surface froht carburetted hydrogen, and gives rise to the _ignis fatuus_ which hovers about marshy land, and which is said to lure the weary traveller to his doo rapid decoress, and no superposed load of strata confining its resulting products within itself The gases therefore escape, and the breaking-up of the tissues of the vegetation goes on rapidly

The cheetation of the carboniferous epoch, and which have transformed it into coal, are even now but imperfectly understood All we know is that, under certain circumstances, one kind of coal is formed, whilst under other conditions, other kinds have resulted; whilst in some cases the processes have resulted in the preparation of large quantities of mineral oils, such as naphtha and petroleum Oils are also artificially produced froas-works, but in soone on naturally, and a yearly increasing quantity is being utilised In England oil has been pumped up from the carboniferous strata of Coalbrook Dale, whilst in Sussex it has been found in smaller quantities, where, in all probability, it has had its origin in the lignitic beds of the Wealden strata Immense quantities are used for fuel by the Russian stea a most valuable possession In Sicily, Persia, and, far more ireat quantity

In all probability coniferous trees, siave rise for the_coniferae_ is well known for the various oils which it furnishes naturally, and for others which its representatives yield on being subjected to distillation The gradually increasing ao beneath the surface, has been the cause of a slow and continuous distillation, whilst the oil so distilled has found its way to the surface in the shape of hs in the strata, ready for use, to be drawn up when a well has been sunk into it