Chapter I: 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"