The Story of a Piece of Coal

ﵺThe Story of a Piece of Coal - What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes

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Title: The Story of a Piece of Coal What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes
Author: Edward A. Martin
Release Date: June 28, 2004 [EBook #12762]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE STORY OF A PIECE OF COAL
WHAT IT IS, WHENCE IT COMES, AND WHITHER IT GOES
BY EDWARD A. MARTIN, F.G.S.
1896

PREFACE.
The knowledge of the marvels which a piece of coal possesses within itself, and which in obedience to processes of man's invention it is always willing to exhibit to an observant enquirer, is not so widespread, perhaps, as it should be, and the aim of this little book, this record of one page of geological 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 mineral history, its discovery and early use, its bearings on the great fog-problem, its useful illuminating gas and oils, the question of the possible exhaustion of British supplies, and other important and interesting bearings of coal or its products.
In the whole realm of natural history, in the widest sense of the term, there is nothing which could be cited which has so benefited, so interested, I might almost say, so excited mankind, as have the wonderful discoveries of the various products distilled from gas-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.
E.A.M.
THORNTON HEATH,
_February_, 1896.

CONTENTS.
I. THE ORIGIN OF COAL AND THE PLANTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED
II. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE COAL-BEARING STRATA
III. VARIOUS FORMS OF COAL AND CARBON
IV. THE COAL-MINE AND ITS DANGERS
V. EARLY HISTORY--ITS USE AND ITS ABUSE
VI. HOW GAS IS MADE--ILLUMINATING OILS AND BYE-PRODUCTS
VII. THE COAL SUPPLIES OF THE WORLD
VIII. THE COAL-TAR COLOURS
CHART SHEWING THE PRODUCTS OF COAL
GENERAL INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. 1. Stigmaria " 2. Annularia radiata " 3. Rhacopteris inaequilatera " 4. Frond of Pecopteris " 5. Pecopteris Serlii " 6. Sphenopteris affinis " 7. Catamites Suckowii " 8. Calamocladus grandis " 9. Asterophyllites foliosa " 10. Spenophyllum cuneifolium " 11. Cast of Lepidodendron " 12. Lepidodendron longifolium " 13. Lepidodendron aculeatum " 14. Lepidostrobus " 15. Lycopodites " 16. Stigmaria ficoides " 17. Section of Stigmaria " 18. Sigillarian trunks in sandstone " 19. Productus " 20. Encrinite " 21. Encrinital limestone " 22. Various encrinites " 23. Cyathophyllum " 24. Archegosaurus minor " 25. Psammodus porosus " 26. Orthoceras " 27. Fenestella retepora " 28. Goniatites " 29. Aviculopecten papyraceus " 30. Fragment of Lepidodendron " 31. Engine-house at head of a Coal-Pit " 32. Gas Jet and Davy Lamp " 33. Part of a Sigillarian trunk " 34. Inside a Gas-holder " 35. Filling Retorts by Machinery " 36. "Condensers" " 37. "Washers" " 38. "Purifiers"

CHAPTER I
.
THE ORIGIN OF COAL AND THE PLANTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED.
From the homely scuttle of coal at the side of the hearth to the gorgeously verdant vegetation of a forest of mammoth trees, might have appeared a somewhat far cry in the eyes of those who lived some fifty years ago. But there are few now who do not know what was the origin of the coal which they use so freely, and which in obedience to their demand has been brought up more than a thousand feet from the bowels of the earth; and, although familiarity has in a sense bred contempt for that which a few shillings will always purchase, in all probability a stray thought does occasionally cross one's mind, giving birth to feelings of a more or less thankful nature that such a store of heat and light was long ago laid up in this earth of ours for our use, when as yet man was not destined to put in an appearance for many, many ages to come. We can scarcely imagine the industrial condition of our country in the absence of so fortunate a supply of coal; and the many good things which are obtained from it, and the uses to which,