COAL.
Some time, long ago, some man made the discovery that what we now call
coal would burn and produce light and warmth. Who he was or how long ago
he lived we do not know, but as all earthly things have a beginning, we
know that such a man did live and that the discovery that coal would
burn was made. Coal, in the sense that we use the word here, is not
mentioned in the Scriptures. According to some authorities, coal was
used in England as early as the ninth century. It is recorded that in
1259 King Henry III. granted a privilege to certain parties to mine coal
at Newcastle. It is further stated that seven years after this time coal
became an article of export. In 1306 coal was so generally used in
London that a petition was sent to parliament to have the use of it
suppressed on the ground that it was a nuisance. Coal was used in
Belgium, however, about 1200. There is a tradition that a blacksmith
first used it in Liege as fuel. It was first used for manufacturing
purposes about 1713.
Coal is found laid down in great veins, varying in thickness, in various
parts of the world in the upper strata of the Paleozoic period. The age
in which it was formed is called by geologists the Carboniferous
(coal-bearing) age.
Before going on to account for the deposits of coal, let us stop a
moment and consider what it is. Chemists tell us that coal is chiefly
constructed of carbon, compounded with oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
There are many varieties, but all may be classified under two general
headings--bituminous and anthracite. Bituminous coal contains a large
amount of a tarry substance, a kind of mineral pitch or bitumen, which
burns with a brilliant flame and a black sooty smoke, exceedingly rich
in carbon. Anthracite coal is hard and stone-like in its texture,
burning with scarcely any flame and no smoke. It produces a fire of
intense heat when it is once ignited. There is another form of coal
called cannel coal, which is a corruption of "candle coal," so called
because a piece of this kind of coal when ignited will burn like a match
or pine knot and give light like a candle. This is the richest of all
the coal deposits in gases that are set free by heat, and for this
reason is extensively used in the manufacture of what is commonly
called coal gas. England produces a large amount of cannel coal, as well
as another variety of bituminous coal, which latter, however, does not
burn with such a black smoke as the coal found in the Ohio valley and
the Western States of America. East of the Alleghany Mountains there is
a region of anthracite coal that is very extensively worked and finds
great favor in all parts of the country as fuel for domestic heating,
especially on account of its great cleanliness.
All of the coal beds have a common origin, and the difference in the
quality of coal found in different parts of the country is due to many
circumstances, some of which have never been explained. There is
indisputable proof, however, that all coal beds are of vegetable origin.
Geologists tell us that these coal beds were formed during an age before
the earth had cooled down to the temperature that it has at the present
time--an age when vegetation was forced by the internal heat of the
earth instead of having to receive all its warmth from the sun's rays as
we do now. Some of our readers are familiar with what is commonly termed
a hotbed. A hotbed is made by putting soil on top of substances that
will ferment and create heat underneath the soil. This heat from beneath
will force vegetation and cause a much larger growth than there will be
if left to the sun's rays alone. During the carboniferous age the earth
was a great hotbed.
The fossils of trees and plants, as well as reptiles, that we find in
the great coal measures of the world, show that they were of large
tropical growth, and this is shown not only in the temperate zone, but
in the zone farther north. For ages and ages this rank growth of
vegetation grew up and fell down until a great layer of vegetable matter
was formed, which at a later time was covered over by other
stratifications of earth material, so that these great layers of
vegetable formation were hermetically sealed and pressed down by an
enormous weight that increased as time went on. The formation of coal
may be studied even at this day (for it is now going on) by visiting and
examining the great peat beds that are found in various parts of the
world. It is well known that peat is used as a fuel by many people,
especially the peasantry of the old countries. If peat is pressed to a
sufficient degree of hardness it burns in a manner not unlike some forms
of coal. Peat is a vegetable formation and has been formed by the rank
growth of various kinds of vegetation in swampy places. Of course, it
lacks the purity of the coal that was formed during the carboniferous
age, because of the much slower growth of vegetation now than during
that time, and the opportunity that peat bogs offer for an intermixture
of earthy with the vegetable matter. The fact that we find the imprint
of trees and ferns and other vegetable growth of tropical varieties, as
well as the fossils of reptiles, imbedded in the coal measures, proves
that at one time this stratum was at the land surface of the earth. We
also find that all of the formations of the Secondary and Tertiary
periods are on top of the coal--and this shows that after the age of
rank vegetable growth there was a sinking of the earth in many places
far down into the ocean--so that vast layers of rock formed on top of
these beds of vegetable matter. In England great chalk beds crop out in
cliffs on the southern coast, and, as we have seen, these chalk rocks
are largely made up of the shells of marine animals. London stands on a
chalk bed, from six hundred to eight hundred feet thick. Indeed, England
has been poetically called Albion, White-land, from this appearance of
her coast.
All of the great chalk beds were formed ages after the coal beds, as the
latter are found in the upper strata of the Paleozoic period.
A study of these strata will show that there are many layers of coal
strata varying in thickness and separated by layers of shale and
sandstone. How the shale and sandstone layers are formed will be the
subject of a future chapter.
From the position that the coal measures occupy, being entirely under
the Secondary and Tertiary formations, it will be observed that they are
very old. If we should examine a piece of ordinary bituminous coal we
should find that there are lines of cleavage in it parallel to each
other, and that it is an easy matter to separate the lump on these
lines. If we examine the outcrop of a coal bed we will find that these
lines of cleavage are horizontal. This indicates that the great bulk of
vegetable matter of which the coal formation is made up has been
subjected to tremendous pressure during a long period of time. If we
further examine the structure of a body of coal we find the impressions
of limbs and branches as well as the leaves of trees and various kinds
of plants. We shall further find that these impressions lie in a plant
in the same direction as the line of cleavage. This is a point to be
remembered, as it helps to explain the nature and structure of other
formations than those of coal. Not only are leaves and branches of
vegetable matter found, but fossils of reptiles, such as live on the
land. Sometimes there is found the fossil of a great tree trunk standing
in an erect position, with its roots running down into the rock below
the coal bed, while the trunk extends upward entirely through the coal
and high up into the other strata. All of these facts lead us to the
firm conclusion that when the trees were grown that formed these beds
they were above the surface of the ocean. This, taken in connection with
the fact that the vegetable fossils that are found indicate a tropical
growth of great size, drives us to the conclusion that the climate at
the time these coal measures were formed was much warmer than it is now.
As already remarked, this extra warmth came from the earth itself before
it had cooled down to its present temperature, rather than from the heat
of the sun. There is nothing inconsistent in the thought that the sun
may have been warmer in a former age than now. We may conceive that the
earliest coal formations took place when the land stood above the
surface of the water, and that the conditions were favorable for a rapid
and luxuriant growth of vegetation; after this had gone on for a very
long period of time, by some convulsion of nature the land surface was
submerged under the ocean, when other mineral substances were deposited
on top of this layer of vegetable growth, which hardened into a rock
formation. At a later period the earth was again elevated above the
surface of the water and the same process of growth and decay was
repeated. These oscillations of the earth up and down occurred at
enormously long intervals, until all of the various coal strata with
their intermediate formations were completed. After this we must suppose
that the whole was submerged to a great depth and for a very long period
of time, because of the great number and various kinds of rock
formations laid down by water that lie on top of the coal measures. This
tremendous weight, as it was gradually builded up, subjected these
vegetable strata to an inconceivable pressure. In some places this
pressure was much greater than in others, which undoubtedly is one of
the reasons why we find such differences in the structure and quality of
coal. There were no doubt many other reasons for differences, one of
them being the character of the vegetable growth out of which they were
formed. Again, in some parts of the world these coal strata may have
been subjected to a considerable degree of heat, which would change the
structure of the formation, and in some cases drive off the volatile
gases. One can easily imagine that heat was thus a factor in the
formation of what is known as anthracite coal, so much less gaseous than
the bituminous kinds. The anthracite beds seem to be denser and of a
more homogeneous character. The lines of cleavage are not as prominent,
but there are the same evidences of vegetable origin that we find in the
bituminous formations.
It will be seen from what has gone before that coal was first wood. But
wood is a product of sunshine. Thus the sun was the architect and
builder of the trees and plants that were finally hermetically sealed
under the great earth strata. The sun gathered up the material and set
the forces in play which made the chemical combinations of the various
elements in nature that enter into vegetable growth.
After the lapse of untold ages of time these great beds of stored-up
sun-energy were discovered by man and their contents are dragged out to
the earth's surface, to warm our houses, to drive the machinery of our
factories, to send the locomotives flying across the continents and the
steamships over the oceans. So important has this article become that if
any one nation could control the output it would be able to paralyze all
the navies and the manufacturing of the world.
If the coal of the world should become exhausted we should be confronted
with a great problem. Fortunately for us, this is a problem that will
have to be solved by the people of some future age, as the growth of
wood will scarcely keep pace with the consumption of fuel. By that time
the genius of man will have devised an economical means of storing the
energy of the sunbeams directly for purposes of heat, light, and power.