Chapter L: J. M. Daguerre, born 1787, died 1851 (9)

A palisade, constructed by sinking 4 ft. into the ground trunks of trees 18 in. in diameter, was completely destroyed in some experiments at Stowmarket by the explosion of only 15 lbs. of gun-cotton. Huge logs were sent bounding across the field to great distances, and some of the trees were literally reduced to match-wood. The gun-cotton, be it observed, was simply laid on the ground exposed to the air. The destructive powers of nitro-glycerine are even greater. A tin canister, containing only a few ounces of nitro-glycerine, is placed, without being in any way confined, on the top of a smooth boulder stone of several tons weight; it is exploded by a fuse containing fulminating powder, which is fired from a distance by electricity. There is a report, and the stone is found in a thousand fragments. The last experiment shows one of the advantages of nitro-glycerine over gunpowder as a blasting material, beyond its far greater power, which is about ten times that of gunpowder. A charge of gunpowder inserted in a vertical hole tends to force out a conical mass, the apex of which is at the space occupied by the charge. With nitro-glycerine, and also with gun-cotton, which last has almost six times the force of gunpowder, a powerful rending action is exerted _below_ as well as above the charge. Again, in blasting with gunpowder the charge must be confined, and the hole is filled in above the charge with tightly rammed materials, forming what is termed the _tamping_. But nitro-glycerine requires no tamping: a small, thin metallic core containing the charge is simply placed in the drill-hole, or the liquid itself is poured in, and a little water placed above it. The effect of the explosion of nitro-glycerine in “striking down,” when apparently no resistance is offered, will seem very strange to the reader who is oblivious of certain fundamental principles of mechanics. The force of the explosion is due entirely to the sudden production of an enormous volume of gas, which at the ordinary pressure would occupy several thousand times the bulk of the material from which it is produced. This gas, by the law of the equality of action and reaction, presses down upon the stone with the same force that it exerts to raise the superincumbent atmosphere. The pressure of the gas at the moment of its liberation is enormous; but the atmosphere cannot instantaneously yield to this, for time is required to set the mass of air in motion, and the wave of compression advances slowly compared with the rapidity of the explosion. Hence the air acts, practically, like a mass of solid matter, against which the gases press, and which yields less readily than the rock, so that the blow which is struck takes visible effect on the latter. Now, with gunpowder, the evolution of gas is less rapid, the atmosphere has time to yield, and the reaction has not the same violence. The rapidity of the evolution of gas from the exploding nitro-glycerine is so great, that the gases, though apparently unconfined, are not so in reality; for the atmosphere acts as a real and very efficient tamping.

When nitro-glycerine first came into use for blasting purposes, it was used in the liquid form under the name of “blasting oil;” but the dangers attending the handling of the substance in this state are so great, that it is now usual to mix the liquid with some powdered substance which is itself without action, and merely serves as a vehicle for containing the nitro-glycerine. To mixtures of this kind the names “_dynamite_,” “_dualine_,” “_lithofracteur_” &c., have been given.

It is now hardly necessary to point out that the discovery of these new explosives has largely extended our power over the rocks, enabling works to be executed which would have been considered impracticable with less powerful agents. It is true that the most fearful disasters have been accidentally produced by the new explosives; but such occasional devastation is the price exacted for the possession of powerful agents. And just as in other cases—steam, for example—where great forces are dealt with, so these new powers must be managed with unceasing care, and placed in the hands of only skilful and intelligent men.

The products of the combustion of gunpowder are not all gaseous, but include solid compounds, such as carbonate and sulphate of potassium. It is these that give rise to the smoke seen when a gun is discharged, and which, in rapid firing, soon obscures the sight of the objects aimed at. They are also the causes of the fouling of the bore. Gun-cotton is quite unexceptionable in these respects, and that prompted the attempts made soon after its introduction to use it instead of gunpowder in fire-arms. But the explosion of gun-cotton was found too sudden and violent for guns and rifles, so that many serious accidents in consequence occurred. The next thing done was to lessen the rapidity of the explosion by using gun-cotton mixed with ordinary cotton, or twisted in threads round some inert substance—in fact, to mitigate the violence of the shock by some mechanical disposition of the material. The introduction of rapid firing guns and repeating rifles forced on the problem of a smokeless powder; and as the plan of replacing nitrate of potassium, in ordinary gunpowder, by nitrate of ammonium was found to be attended with loss of the keeping quality of the powder, other materials, such as picric acid, which forms also the basis of the explosive called _mélinite_, have been proposed. The composition of _mélinite_ was long a mystery, and that of the smokeless powder adopted by the French was so carefully concealed that many experiments had to be made by other nations to discover some similar preparation, which was found possible by combining certain substances with gun-cotton so as to modify the violence of its explosion, and produce a manageable material having the required properties. The British Government, after many experiments and much careful testing, decided to adopt _cordite_, made of nitro-glycerine, in which, by the aid of volatile solvent, di-nitro-cellulose is dissolved, together with a little mineral oil. The semi-fluid composition, forced through a round hole or die, comes out like a thread or cord, which the evaporation of the volatile solvent leaves with very much the appearance of common brown window-cord. This material has the several advantages of keeping well, of being _uniform_ in its propulsive powers, of being capable of imparting as high a velocity as a much larger charge of the ordinary black gunpowder, while at the same time exercising a less pressure on the chase of the gun.

It will have become obvious from the preceding paragraphs that, according to the conditions under which an explosive is to be used, selection must be made of the most suitable. For example, the substances employed for propelling projectiles from guns must not have the violent rending power of certain others, which, by this very property, are most useful for blasting operations; and, again, although explosives of this last kind are inadmissible as projectile agents, they are of the kind best adapted for use in shells where it is the disruptive action that is required. Also in blasting operations, the explosive has to be adapted to the nature of the work, and it has been found that a substance which has worked well in driving a heading for a tunnel through one kind of rock may prove both slow in progress, and more costly in expenditure, when some different kind of rock is reached. Besides this, regard must be had in blasting operations to the nature of the effect required, which is in some instances a shattering of the rock into fragments, in others a detachment of it in masses. Thus, in the working of a slate quarry, the explosive used must not be of a nature to shiver the rock into useless splinters, but must operate in such a manner that compact masses may be separated from the mountain side in a condition suitable for cleaving, by appropriate tools, into numberless broad laminæ, which, trimmed into rectangular shape, constitute our well-known roofing slates. The blasting used on a coal seam must be so conducted as to yield the material as much as possible in big lumps or cobbles rather than in slack. When granite is blasted for the purpose of obtaining building stones, the explosive must be one that, by its comparatively slow action, divides the compact rock into the largest possible blocks. On the other hand, when granite is blasted merely with the object of removing it, as when a tunnel has to be driven through a mass of it, the most disintegrating agent is then the best. The common popular expressions by which the two classes of explosives just referred to are distinguished are “high explosives” and “low explosives.” Dynamite may be taken as a type of the former, and gunpowder a type of the latter. As will be gathered from what is to follow, no definite separation between these classes can be fixed, but in a general way it may be said that, where a destructive, rather than a propelling or pressure effect is required, the explosive used is one brought into operation by a concussive or detonating priming, and acting mostly by detonation within itself, such as dynamite, &c.

Whereas, up to nearly the middle of the nineteenth century, gunpowder was practically the only explosive in use for either civil or military purposes, the close of the century can show a list of several hundred preparations that have been proposed or actually used in its stead. The names by which these are put forward are expressive sometimes of an ingredient in their composition, such as “ammonia dynamite,” “cellulosa,” “mica powder,” “dynamite au carbon,” “dynamite de boghead,” &c.; and sometimes the inventor’s name, as “So-and-so’s powder or explosive”; sometimes of the strength of the mixture under various fanciful names, such as “dynamite,” “heraklin,” “vigorite,” &c., &c.; sometimes the names relate to the appearance of the compound, as “white gunpowder,” “blasting gelatine,” &c., &c.; and sometimes to other circumstances, such as “pudrolithe,” “saxifragine,” “safety powder,” &c., &c. A very long list might be given of the substances severally used in these various compositions. It will be sufficient to indicate the general nature of the several classes into which the new explosives may be divided. By turning back to p. 746, the reader will be reminded of the composition of gunpowder, and of the part played therein by the nitre (nitrate of potassium). Now a considerable number of the recently patented explosives are simply modified gunpowders, which all contain some nitrate, replacing wholly, or in part, the nitrate of potassium, while sulphur is an ingredient of nearly all, and in many, the charcoal of gunpowder is partly or wholly replaced by other carbonaceous materials, such as sawdust, coal-dust, tan, starch, paraffin, lycopodium, graphite, peat, flour, bran, &c. Certain mineral salts enter into the composition of some, such as sulphate of iron, carbonate of copper, sulphide of antimony, &c., &c.

In another class of the newer explosives chlorate of potassium takes the place of the nitrate as the oxygen supplying material, with similar variations as to the carbonaceous matter as are referred to above. Yellow prussiate of potash and sugar sometimes replace both the charcoal and sulphur of gunpowder in this class. Explosives of this chlorate class are usually dangerous to manufacture, and are often very sensitive, and also liable to changes by keeping, which render them still more dangerous.

The next class of preparations brings us to the “high explosives,” properly so called, and it is among these that most notable preparations are met with. Of all the explosive nitro-compounds, gun-cotton was the first practically employed (_vide_ p. 741); but very soon after nitro-glycerine was discovered by Sobrero when working in Pelouze’s laboratory. This afterwards became known as “blasting oil,” but it was many years before nitro-glycerine came into use as an explosive, namely, when, about 1860, Nobel, a Swedish engineer, had established factories for its production as an agent for blasting. At first there were difficulties and dangers attending its use, and it was only when Nobel had discovered the detonation method of setting free its tremendous energy that the new era of “high explosives” really commenced. Between 1860 and 1870 such a number of appalling catastrophes occurred in the handling of the new “blasting oil” that in several European countries its use was entirely prohibited. And, in England at least, this prohibition remains, for “in a liquid state this explosive cannot be sold in, or imported into this country. It is manufactured under the strict provision that it is forthwith made up into dynamite or some kindred licensed explosive.” ... “The only source, practically speaking, of nitro-glycerine on a commercial scale in this country is the factory of Nobel’s Explosive Co. (Ltd.) at Ardeer, in the county of Ayr.”[17] Nitro-glycerine being so extremely dangerous to handle in the liquid form led Nobel to propose its use in an altered condition, by causing it to be absorbed by some inert porous material, the most suitable being a siliceous earth found in Germany, and there known as _kieselguhr_, of which one part will absorb three times its weight of liquid nitro-glycerine. Here we have the original dynamite, but now other substances are used for absorbing the liquid, and there are, indeed, dynamites of two different classes:

1. Dynamites with inert absorbents.

2. Dynamites with absorbents which are themselves combustible, or explosive.

Footnote 17:

Major Cundill, H.M.’s Inspector of Explosives.

Of the latter class there are endless varieties. One that has latterly been much used is called “blasting gelatine,” and is practically a combination of nitro-glycerine and nitro-cotton, this last ingredient being a less nitrated cellulose than gun-cotton. Blasting gelatine contains a very large percentage of nitro-glycerine (93–95 per cent.), and has the appearance of stiff jelly of a pale yellow colour. It may be of interest to remark that this second class of dynamites admits of well-defined sub-divisions according to the nature of the absorbent, as:

(_a_) Charcoal, or other simple carbonaceous material.

(_b_) Gunpowder, or other nitrate or chlorate mixtures.

(_c_) Gun-cotton, or other nitro-compounds.

FIG. 340.—_View on the Tyne._
]

MINERAL COMBUSTIBLES.

Certain mineral combustibles may fairly claim attention in a work treating of the discoveries of the nineteenth century, not because these bodies have been known and used only in recent times, but for other reasons. The true nature of coal—that most important of all combustibles—its relation to the past history of the earth, and to the present and future interests of mankind; the work it will do; the extent of the supply still existing in the bowels of the earth; the innumerable chemical products which it yields—are subjects on which the knowledge gained during the present century forms a body of discovery of the most interesting and important kind. Another substance we have to mention, though not a modern discovery, has lately been found in far greater abundance, and is now so largely used for various purposes, that it has become an important article of commerce.

_COAL._

FIG. 341.—_Fossil Trees in a Railway Cutting._
]

Most persons know, or at least have been told, that coal is fossil vegetable matter,—the long-buried remains of ancient forests. But probably many receive the statement, not perhaps with incredulity, but with a certain vague notion that it is, after all, merely a daring surmise. And, indeed, nothing is at first sight more unlike stems, or leaves, or roots of plants than a lump of coal. Then everybody knows that coal is found thousands of feet beneath the surface of the earth, whereas plants can grow only in the light of the sun. One begins to understand the matter only when the teachings of geology have shown him that, so far from the crust of the earth being, as he is apt to suppose, fixed and unchangeable, it is in a state of constant fluctuation. Changes in the levels of the ground are always going on: in one place it is rising, in another sinking; here a tract of land is emerging from the ocean, there a continent is subsiding beneath the water. The extreme slowness with which these changes proceed causes them to escape all ordinary observation. The case may be compared to the hour-hand on the dial, which a casual spectator might pronounce quite stationary, since the observation of a few seconds fails to detect its movement. As the whole period comprehended in human annals counts but as a second of geological time, it cannot be wondered at that it required a vast accumulation of facts, and much careful and patient deduction from them, before a conclusion was reached so apparently contradictory of experience. It is, indeed, startling to learn that “the sure and firm-set earth” is in a state of flow and change. Even the “everlasting hills” give evidence that their materials were collected at the bottom of the sea, and we know that the water which runs down their sides is slowly but surely carrying them back particle by particle. Of the magnitude of the changes which the surface of the earth has undergone in times past, and which are still imperceptibly but constantly proceeding, the ordinary experience of mankind can of itself give no example. But such changes have sufficed to entomb a vast quantity of relics of the innumerable forms of vegetation which flourished and waved their branches in the sun, ages upon ages before the advent of man.

FIG. 342.—_Impression of Leaf found in Coal Measures (Pecopteris)._
]

It may be thought impossible that vegetable matter should have so changed as to become a dense, black, glistening, brittle mass, showing no obvious forms of leaves or texture of wood. But no one who has seen how a quantity of damp hay closely pressed together will, after a time, become heated and change in colour to black, can have any difficulty in comprehending how chemical and mechanical actions may completely alter the aspect of vegetable matter. We have, however, the most direct evidence of the vegetable origin of coal in the numberless unquestionable forms of trees and plants met with in all coal strata. Sometimes the trunks of the trees fossilized into stony matter are found upright in the very situation in which they grew. Thus in Fig. 341 is represented the appearance exhibited by the trunks and roots of some fossil trees, which were exposed to view in the formation of a railway cutting between Manchester and Bolton. In every coal-field also beautiful impressions of the stems and leaves of plants are met with—one common form of which is shown in Fig. 342. Most of the plants so found belong to the flowerless division of the vegetable kingdom. Some are closely allied to the ferns of the present day—to the common “mare’s-tail” (_Equisetum_), to the club-moss, and to other well-known plants. The firs and pines of the coal age are scarcely distinguishable from existing species. If a fragment of ordinary coal be ground to a very thin slice—so thin as to be transparent—and placed under the microscope, it will show a number of minute rounded bodies, which are, there is good reason to believe, nothing else than the spores or seeds of plants, closely resembling the existing club-mosses. The spores of the club-moss (_Lycopodium_) are so full of resinous matter, that they are used for making fireworks and the flashes of lightning at theatres. It is, therefore, extremely probable that the bitumen of coal is due to the resin of similar spores, altered by the effects of subterranean heat. The immense abundance of these little spores in the coal is a proof that they accumulated in the ancient forests as the mosses grew, and therefore the matter of coal was not accumulated under water or washed down into the sea; for these little spores are extremely light, and they cannot be wetted by water, and therefore they would have floated on the surface, and would not have been found so diffused throughout the coal. Fig. 343 is a picture of the possible aspect of the ancient forests of the coal age. In the humid atmosphere which probably prevailed at that period, the large tree-ferns and gigantic club-mosses, which are conspicuous in the picture, must have flourished luxuriantly.

FIG. 343.—_Possible Aspect of the Forests of the Coal Age._
]

The immense importance of coal for domestic purposes will be obvious from the fact that it is estimated that in the United Kingdom alone no less than 30,000,000 tons are annually consumed in house fires. Another great use of coal is in the smelting, puddling, and working of iron, and this probably consumes as much as our domestic fireplaces. Then there is the vast consumption by steam engines, by locomotives, and by steamboats. Another purpose for which coal is largely used is the making of illuminating gas; and to the foregoing must also be added the quantity which goes to feed the furnaces necessary in so many of the arts—such as in the manufacturing of glass, porcelain, salt, chemicals, &c. The quantity of coal raised in Great Britain was not accurately known until 1854, when it was ordered that a register should be kept, and an annual return made. The following figures, in round numbers, are the returns published up to 1873. The table is continued in Note A.

Year. Coal raised, in Tons.
1854 64,661,000
1855 64,453,000
1856 66,645,000
1857 65,395,000
1858 65,008,000
1859 71,979,000
1860 83,208,000
1861 85,635,000
1862 83,638,000
1863 88,292,000
1864 92,787,000
1865 98,150,000
1866 101,630,000
1867 104,500,000
1868 103,141,000
1869 107,427,000
1870 110,289,000
1871 117,352,000
1872 123,497,000
1873 127,017,000

The first return showed our annual produce to be 64,661,000 tons. The amount did not greatly vary until 1859, when there was an increased production of nearly seven millions of tons; in 1860 a further increase of eleven millions of tons more. Since then the quantity annually raised has been increasing. Comparing the quantity which has been raised in any year after 1863 with that raised ten years before, we see that the increase in ten years is nearly half as much again; or, that at the present rate of increase the amount annually raised doubles itself at least every twenty years. Now, the question arises, How long can this go on? However great may be the store of coal, it must sooner or later come to an end. Is it possible to calculate how long our coals will last? and what are the results of such calculations? These calculations have been made; but there are great discrepancies in the results, for the estimates of the amount of available coal still remaining vary greatly, and different views are held regarding the rate of consumption in the future. A very liberal estimate, by an excellent authority, of the quantity of coal remaining under British soil, makes it 147,000 millions of tons. With a consumption stationary at the present rate, this will last 1,200 years; with an increase of consumption of 3,000,000 tons a year, 276 years; but if the consumption continues to increase in the same geometrical ratio it has hitherto followed, the supply will scarcely last 100 years. It cannot be conceived, however, that this last will be the real case, for the increasing depth to which it will be necessary to go will soon cause a great increase in the cost, and thus effectually check the consumption. Great Britain will, however, be compelled to retire from the coal trade altogether, by the cheaper supplies which other countries will yield, long before the absolute exhaustion of her own coal-fields. It is calculated that the coal-fields of North America contain thirteen times as much as those of all Europe put together. Coal is also found abundantly in India, China, Borneo, Eastern Australia, and South Africa; and it is believed that these stores will supply the world for many thousand years.

FIG. 344.—_The Fireside._
]

Seeing, then, that our supply of coal has a limit, and that at the present increasing rate of consumption, the chief source of the wealth of Great Britain must necessarily be exhausted in a few more centuries, it behoves us to turn our mineral treasures to the best account, and to adopt every possible means of obtaining from our coal its whole available heat and force. The amount of avoidable waste of which we are guilty in the consumption of coal is enormous. This is especially the case in its domestic use, where probably nineteen-twentieths of the heat produced is absolutely thrown away—sent off from the earth to warm the stars. In England people look upon the wide open fireplace as the image and type of home comfort. No doubt there are, from long use and habit, many pleasing associations which cluster round the domestic hearth; but we, to whom it is given to “look before and after,” must think what it takes to feed that wide-throated chimney. All but a very small fraction of the heat thus escapes, and is lost to man and the world for ever; and surely we shall deserve the curses of our descendants if we continue recklessly to throw away a treasure which, unlike the oil in the widow’s cruse, is never renewed—for there is no contemporaneous formation of coal. Thanks to the enhanced price of coal during the last few years, some attention has been directed to contrivances for the economical consumption of coal in its domestic, as well as in its manufacturing, applications.

A time, however, will sooner or later come, when the whole available coal shall have been consumed. What will then be the fuel of the engines, and steamboats, and locomotives of the future? The reader may think that then it will only be necessary to burn wood. But wood is already being consumed from the face of the earth much more rapidly than it is produced. How, then, can it be available when coal fails? The truth is, we are now consuming not merely the wood which the sun-rays are building up in our own time, but in hewing down the forests we are using the sun-work of a century, while in coal we have the forests of untold ages at our disposal—the accumulated combustible capital stored up during an immense period of the earth’s existence. Upon this stored-up capital we are now living, our current receipts of sun-force being wholly inadequate to meet our expenditure. The coal is the sun-force of former ages; and it is from this we are now deriving the energy which performs most of our work. George Stephenson long ago declared that his locomotives were driven by sunshine—by the sunshine of former ages bottled up in the coal. And he was right. The mechanical energy of our steam engines, and the chemical energy of our blast furnaces, are derived from the combustion of vegetable matter, in which the heat and light of the sun—our present sun or that of the coal ages—are in some way stored up. The burning of wood or coal is, chemically, the reverse action to that performed by the sunlight: by the former carbon and oxygen are united, by the latter they are separated.

We foresee, then, a future period—however distant may be that future—in which the world’s capital shall have been exhausted, and the energies which are now employed in doing the world’s work will no longer be available. But the reader will perhaps think that by improvements in the steam engine, and in other ways, means will be found of getting more and more work out of coal. It is true that we obtain from coal only a _fraction_ of its available energy; but the whole work which could, by any possible process, be done by the combustion of coal is _definite and limited_, although its amount is large. A pound of coal burnt in one minute sets free an amount of energy which would, if it could all be made available, do as much as 300 horses working in the same time. But, again, the reader may think, even if at some distant future the supplies of fuel for the steam engines of our remote posterity should fail, that before that time some other form of force than steam or heat engines will have been discovered—some application of electricity, for example. Now, it will appear, from principles which will be discussed in a subsequent article, that not only is there no probability of such a discovery, but that now, when the relations of the whole available energies of the globe have been traced and defined, Science can find no ground for admitting such a possibility under the present condition of the universe.

_PETROLEUM._

When coal is heated in closed vessels, there are given off, as we shall presently see, a number of gaseous and volatile products—many being compounds of carbon and hydrogen—which condense to liquids or solids at ordinary temperatures. Carbon is by far the largest constituent of coal, which commonly contains only about 10 per cent. of other substances, although the proportions vary very widely. Another important constituent of coal is its hydrogen, and the value of coal as a source of heat depends almost entirely upon the carbon and hydrogen it contains. Carbon is one of the most remarkable of all the elements of the globe for its power of entering into an enormous number of compounds. Thus, for example, the compounds of carbon with only hydrogen are innumerable; but they are all definite, and their composition is expressible by the admirable system of chemical symbols, of which the reader has now, it is hoped, some definite notion. Perhaps these hydro-carbons are among the best evidences which could be adduced that modern science has obtained a grasp of certain conceptions which have a real correspondence with the actual facts of nature, even as regards the intimate constitution of matter. This is not the place to enter into a complete exposition of this subject. We may, however, invite the reader’s attention to a few simple facts. A very large number of compounds of carbon and hydrogen are known. If the percentage compositions of these be compared together, it is only the eye of a most expert arithmetician which can detect any relation between the proportions of the constituents in the various compounds. The chemist, however, by associating such of these compounds as resemble each other in their general properties, finds that they can be arranged in series, in which the composition is accurately expressed by multiples of the proportions: C = 12, H = 1. And not only so, the different series themselves form a series of series, having a simple relation to each other. Thus, confining ourselves to some of the known hydro-carbons, we have the following:

┌──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐ │ A │ B │ C │ ├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤ │ C H_{4} │ C H_{2} │ │ │ C_{2}H_{6} │ C_{2}H_{4} │ C_{2}H_{2} │ │ C_{3}H_{8} │ C_{3}H_{6} │ C_{3}H_{4} │ │ C_{4}H_{10} │ C_{4}H_{8} │ C_{4}H_{6} │ │ C_{5}H_{12} │ C_{5}H_{10} │ C_{5}H_{8} │ │ C_{6}H_{14} │ C_{6}H_{12} │ C_{6}H_{10} │ │ &c. │ &c. │ &c. │ │ C_{_n_}H_{2_n_ + 2} │ C_{_n_}H_{2_n_} │ C_{_n_}H_{2_n_ – 2} │ └──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

┌──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐ │ D │ E │ F │ ├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ C_{3}H_{2} │ │ │ │ C_{4}H_{4} │ C_{4}H_{2} │ │ │ C_{5}H_{6} │ C_{5}H_{4} │ C_{5}H_{2} │ │ C_{6}H_{8} │ C_{6}H_{6} │ C_{6}H_{4} │ │ &c. │ &c. │ &c. │ │ C_{_n_}H_{2_n_ – 4} │ C_{_n_}H_{2_n_ – 6} │ C_{_n_}H_{2_n_ – 8} │ └──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

This table might be indefinitely extended, but enough is given to enable the intelligent reader to discover the laws connecting these formulæ. The series headed B, it will be observed, have all the same percentage composition. Why, then, one formula rather than another? The answer to this question is the statement of a theoretical law upon which the whole science of modern chemistry is based; for it has the same relation to that science as gravitation has to astronomy. It is a matter of fact that all gases, whatever their chemical nature, expand alike with the same application of heat, and all obey the same law, which connects volumes and pressures. These are very remarkable uniformities, for gases in this respect exhibit the most decided contrast to liquids and solids. The volume of each solid and of each liquid has its own special relations to temperature and pressure: here there is endless diversity. The volumes of all gases have one and the same relation to temperature and pressure: here there is absolute uniformity. As an explanation of these and other facts relating to gases, Amedeo Avogadro, in 1811, put forward this hypothesis—_Equal volumes of all gases, under like circumstances of temperature and pressure, contain the same number of molecules_. This hypothesis was revived by Ampère a few years later, and sometimes is called his. A necessary consequence of this law is that the weights of the molecules of gases are proportional to their densities or specific gravities. Hence when the percentage composition of a hydro-carbon has been determined, by burning or oxidizing it in such a manner as to obtain and weigh the products, carbonic acid and water, the next thing the chemist does is to obtain the weight of a volume of the gas. The number of times this exceeds the weight of hydrogen gas, under the same conditions, expresses how many times the molecule is heavier than the hydrogen molecule. Now, the chemist’s unit of weight in these inquiries is the weight of a single _atom_ of hydrogen; and, as there are grounds for believing that the _molecule_ of hydrogen consists of two atoms of that substance, its weight = 2. Now, if the molecule of marsh gas, the first hydro-carbon in the above list, has the composition assigned, it will be 12 + 4 = 16 times heavier than the _atom_ of hydrogen, and 16/2 = 8 times heavier than the _molecule_ of hydrogen. Hence, if Avogadro’s law be correct, marsh gas should be just eight times heavier than hydrogen gas; which is really the fact. The formula expressing the composition of the molecule of a hydro-carbon, or of any chemical compound whatever, is always so fixed that the same relations may hold; and almost the first thing a chemist does in examining a new body is to endeavour to obtain it in the state of gas.

The first four members of the series headed A are gases at ordinary temperatures, the fifth is a gas at temperatures above the freezing-point, and a liquid at lower temperatures; the next following members are liquids which boil (that is, are converted into gases) at temperatures rising with each additional carbon atom about 20° F. The specific gravities and boiling-points of these liquids augment as we pass from one hydro-carbon to the next, and the lower members of the series are solids, fusing at temperatures higher and higher as the number of carbon atoms is greater. Similar gradations of properties are exhibited by the other series of hydro-carbons. Petroleum or rock-oil is the name given to liquid hydro-carbons found in nature, and consisting chiefly of compounds belonging to the series marked A in the above list. Some varieties of petroleum hold in solution other hydro-carbons, and in some cases paraffin is extracted from the oils by exposing the liquid to cold, when the solid crystallizes out. Paraffin is a solid belonging to the B series, and it is for the most part obtained by heating certain minerals.

Deposits of liquid hydro-carbons, perhaps formed by a kind of natural subterranean distillation from coal or other fossil organic matter, exist in various localities. These deposits have long been known and utilized at Rangoon, in Burmah, and on the shores of the Caspian Sea. At Rangoon the mineral oil is obtained by sinking wells about 60 ft. deep in a kind of clay soil, which is saturated with it. The oily clay rests upon a bed of slate also containing oil, and underneath this is coal. It may be supposed that subterranean heat, acting upon the coal, has distilled off the petroleum, which has condensed in the upper strata. This petroleum, when distilled in a current of steam, leaves about 4 per cent of residue, and the volatile portion contains about one-tenth of its weight of a substance (paraffin) which is solid at ordinary temperatures. After an agitation with oil of vitriol, and another distillation, _rock oil_ or _naphtha_ is obtained, which, however, is still a mixture of several distinct chemical compounds. Mineral oils have also been found in China, Japan, Hindostan, Persia, the West India Islands, France, Italy, Bavaria, and England. In one of the Ionian Islands there are oil-springs which have flowed, it is said, over 2,000 years.

But it is the recently discovered and extremely copious springs and wells in Pennsylvania and Canada which have given a vastly extended importance to the trade in mineral oil. Rock oil is now used in enormous quantities as the cheapest illuminating oil, and that which furnishes the most intense light. Its consumption as a lubricating oil for machines has also been very large. Mineral oil was occasionally found at various places in the United States, and sometimes used by the inhabitants of the locality before the recent discoveries; but it was not until August, 1859, that it was met with in large quantities. About this time a boring which was made at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, reached an abundant source, for 1,000 gallons a day were drawn from it for many weeks. The news of the discovery of this copious oil-spring spread rapidly: thousands of persons flocked to the neighbourhood in hopes of easily making a fortune by “striking oil.” Before the end of 1860 more than a thousand wells had been bored, and some of these had yielded largely. The regions of North America in which petroleum has been found cover a large part of the States, and comprise Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Kansas, Illinois, Texas, and California. In the vicinity of Oil Creek the bore-holes are usually about 3 in. or 4 in. in diameter, and are often 500 ft. deep, and even 800 ft. is not uncommon. To make a bore-hole 900 ft. deep, and procure all the requisites—steam engines, barrels, &c., for pumping the oil—costs about $5,000. In 1869 many of these wells still yielded regularly 300 barrels a day, but the supply has not continued with the same abundance. One of the luckiest wells flowed at its first opening at the rate of about 25,000 barrels a day. The apparatus used for working the oil-wells is very simple—a rude derrick, a small steam engine, a pump, and some barrels and tubs being all that is necessary. Fig. 345 will give the reader an idea of the scene presented by a cluster of oil-wells in the Oil Creek region. Oil Creek received its name before the petroleum trade was established, from the oil found floating on the surface of the water. It is on the Alleghany River, about 150 miles above Pittsburg, and here at its mouth is situated Oil City. There is a wharf in Pittsburg for the oil traffic, and the barrels are brought down the river in flats, or the oil is poured into very large flat boxes, divided into compartments, which are then closed, and the boxes floated down in groups of twenty or more. The refining process consists in placing the crude oil into a large iron retort, connected with a condenser formed of a coil of iron pipes, surrounded by cold water. Heat is applied, and the lighter hydro-carbons (naphtha) come over first. After the naphtha, the oils which are used for illuminating purposes distil off. A current of steam is then forced into the retort, and this brings over the heavy oils which are used for greasing machinery. A black tarry oil yet remains; and, finally, after the separation of this, a quantity of coke. The products are subjected to certain processes of purification, which need not here be described. The magnitude of the American oil trade may be inferred from the fact that in the second year of its existence, from January to June, 1862, more than 4,500,000 gallons were exported from four seaports. This can hardly be wondered at, considering the extremely low price at which this excellent illuminating and lubricating agent can be produced. Refined petroleum can be bought at Pittsburg for 16 cents. per gallon. It is believed by some that the supplies of petroleum which exist in various localities are so abundant that they will furnish illuminating oils to the whole world for centuries.

FIG. 345.—_View on Hyde and Egbert’s Farm, Oil Creek._
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_PARAFFIN._

In the course of some researches on the substances contained in the tar, which is obtained by heating wood in close vessels, Reichenbach found a white translucent substance, to which he gave the above name, because it was not acted upon by any of the ordinary chemical reagents, such as sulphuric acid, nitric acid, &c. This substance, which is composed of carbon and hydrogen only, is not unlike spermaceti; it is colourless, translucent, and without smell or taste. But when slightly warmed, it becomes very plastic, and may then be moulded with the greatest ease—and in this respect it differs from spermaceti. Paraffin melts at from 88° to 150° C., to a colourless liquid, which is so fluid that it may be filtered through paper like water, and at a higher temperature it can be distilled unchanged. Paraffin does not dissolve in water, and is but slightly soluble in alcohol. In ether, naphtha, turpentine, benzol, and sulphide of carbon, it dissolves very readily. When heated with sulphur, it is decomposed: the sulphur seizes upon its hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen is given off, and the carbon is separated; and this action has been proposed as a ready means of obtaining pure sulphuretted hydrogen for laboratory use. It is probable that paraffin is a mixture of various hydro-carbons, having a composition expressible by the formula, C_{_n_}H_{2_n_}; for different specimens fuse at different temperatures, according as the paraffin has been obtained from one or the other source.

In the year 1847, Dr. Lyon Playfair directed the attention of Mr. James Young, then of Manchester, to a dense petroleum which issued from the crevices of the coal in a Derbyshire mine. It was soon found that this substance yielded a distillation—a pale yellow oil—which, on cooling, deposited solid paraffin. Mr. Young, recognizing the importance of this discovery, had an establishment at once erected on the spot, and the work of extracting paraffin was carried on until the supply of the petroleum had become nearly exhausted. Forced to seek for other sources of paraffin, Mr. Young was fortunate enough, after many trials, to discover that a species of bituminous coal, which occurs at Boghead, near Bathgate, in the county of Linlithgow, yielded by distillation annually large quantities of paraffin. In 1850 he procured a patent for “treating bituminous coals to obtain paraffin, and oil containing paraffin, therefrom.” This method consisted in distilling the coal in an iron retort, gradually heated up to low redness, and kept at that temperature until the volatile products ceased to come off. Under this patent, Mr. Young developed the manufacture of paraffin into a new and important branch of industry. The oil which first comes over in the distillation of the Boghead mineral is largely used for illuminating purposes under a variety of names besides that of _paraffin oil_, which term is, we believe, chiefly applied to a less volatile portion, extensively used for lubricating machinery, and consisting of liquid hydro-carbons of the same percentage composition as solid paraffin, which substance it also holds in solution. Mr. Young’s process consisted in placing the mineral in a retort encased in brickwork—an arrangement which caused the temperature of the retort to be more uniform than if the heat of the furnace had been applied to it directly. The retorts were placed vertically, and they were fed with the mineral by a hopper at the top. The products of the distillation passed through a worm tube surrounded by cold water into a cooled receiver. The result of the first distillation was a crude oily matter, differing from tar in being lighter than water, and in not drying-up when exposed to the air. This crude oil was then several times alternately treated with sulphuric acid and caustic potash, and distilled; and when about two-thirds of the oil had been separated from the rest, as an oil for burning and lubricating purposes, the residue yielded paraffin, or “paraffin wax,” as it is sometimes called. It is estimated that in Scotland no less than 800,000 tons of shale are annually distilled for mineral hydro-carbons, with a consumption of 500,000 tons of fuel. It is believed that about 25,000,000 gallons of crude oil are thus obtained, and from this 350,000 gallons of illuminating oil, 10,000 tons of lubricating oil, and 5,800 tons of solid paraffin are produced. Among the products exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1862, was a block of beautifully translucent paraffin, of nearly half a ton weight.

Paraffin is also obtained on the continent by distilling a variety of coal termed _lignite_. The tar which comes over is distilled, until nothing but coke remains. The condensed products are then treated with caustic soda, in order to remove carbolic acid and other substances. After washing with water, the oils are treated with sulphuric acid, in order to remove basic substances. The oil is again washed, and is then rectified by another distillation. The products which successively come over are, if necessary, separated by being collected in different vessels; but sometimes they are mixed together, and sent into the market as illuminating oils under various names, such as “photogen,” “solar oil,” &c. Oils having a specific gravity about 0·9 are collected apart, and are placed in tanks in a very cool place. In the course of a few weeks the solid paraffin, which is dissolved in the other hydro-carbons, crystallizes out. The liquid oils are drawn off, and the crude paraffin, which is of a dark colour, is freed from adhering oil by a centrifugal machine, and afterwards by pressure applied by hydraulic power. It then undergoes several other processes of purification before it is obtained as a colourless translucent solid.

Several thousand tons of paraffin are annually consumed for making candles, which is the most important application of the material. The variation in the fusing-points of different specimens is doubtless due to admixtures in greater or less proportion of other more easily fusible hydro-carbons. It was on account of the imperfect separation of these that the candles first made from paraffin were so liable to soften and bend, and felt greasy to the touch. Paraffin for candle-making is sometimes mixed with a certain proportion of other substances, such as palmitic acid, &c. Among the patented applications of paraffin are the lining of beer-barrels, and the preserving of fruits, jams, and meat. Some kinds of paraffin are also used in the manufacture of matches.

Liebig once expressed a wish that coal-gas might be obtained in a solid form: “It would certainly be esteemed one of the greatest discoveries of the age if any one could succeed in condensing coal-gas into a white, dry, odourless substance, portable and capable of being placed in a candlestick or burned in a lamp.” Now, it is curious that paraffin has nearly the same composition as good coal-gas: it burns with a bright and smokeless flame, and beautiful candles are formed of it, which burn like those made of the finest wax. When the fused paraffin first assumes the solid form, it is transparent like glass; and if it could be retained in that condition, we might have the pleasing novelty of transparent candles. But the particles seek to arrange themselves in crystalline forms, and the substance soon takes on its white semi-opaque appearance.

The great richness of the Boghead mineral in paraffin, which appears to exist in it ready formed, prevented for many years any successful competition by the working of other sources of supply. But paraffin is an abundant constituent of Rangoon petroleum, and considerable quantities may be obtained by distilling peat, and other fossil substances. All petroleums and paraffins are, in fact, mixtures of a number of hydro-carbons, which in many cases cannot be entirely separated from each other. The accidents which have from time to time occurred with some of these combustibles, and have caused legislative enactments with regard to them, are due to the imperfect removal by distillation of the more volatile bodies, which rise in vapour at ordinary temperatures. Explosions of the hydro-carbons can occur only under the same circumstances as with coal-gas; that is to say, the application of a flame to a mixture of the vapour with atmospheric air.

FIG. 346.—_View of the City of London Gas-works._
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COAL-GAS.

When coal is burning in a common fire, we may see jets of smoky gas issuing from the pieces of coal before they become red hot. This vapour, coming in contact with flame in another part of the fire, may often be observed to ignite, thus supplying an instance of gas-lighting in its most elementary form. In the ordinary fire the air has free access, and the inflammable gases and vapours continue to burn with flames more or less bright, and when these have ceased the carbonaceous portion continues afterward to glow until nearly the whole has been consumed, except the solid residue which we call the ashes. These ashes in general contain a portion of unconsumed carbon, mixed with what is chemically _the ash_, namely, certain incombustible salts, constituting the white part of the ashes. If, however, we heat the coal in a vessel which prevents access of air, and allows the gases to escape, the coal is decomposed much in the same way as when it is burnt in the open fire; but the products formed are no longer burnt, the supply of oxygen being cut off. Every one knows the familiar experiment of filling the bowl of a common clay tobacco-pipe with powdered coal, then covering it with a dab of clay, and placing it in a fire. The gas which soon comes from the stem of the pipe does not take fire unless a light be applied, when it may be seen to burn with a bright flame, and after the flow of gas has ceased, nearly the whole of the carbon of the coal will be found unconsumed in the bowl of the pipe. This simple experiment illustrates perfectly the first step in the manufacture of coal-gas, namely, the process of heating coal to redness in closed vessels, by which operation the substances originally contained in coal are destroyed, and their elements enter into new combinations.

These elements are few in number; for, except the very small portion which remains as incombustible white ash, coal is constituted of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and a little sulphur. All the varied and interesting products obtained by the destructive distillation of coal are combinations of two or more of these four or five elements. Illuminating gas is far from being the only product when coal is heated without access of air; for of the numerous substances volatized at the red heat of the gas-retort a great number are not only incapable of affording light, but liable to generate noxious compounds when burnt. Besides this there are numerous bodies which, though leaving the retort in the gaseous form, immediately assume the liquid or solid state at ordinary temperatures. All such substances must be separated before permanent gases are obtained fit for illuminating purposes and capable of being carried through pipes to distant places. Thus an important part of the apparatus for gas manufacture consists in arrangements for separating the condensable bodies, and for removing useless or injurious gases from the remainder.

FIG. 347.—_Section of Gas-making Apparatus._
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