Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1859-11-27

THE MANrrAcTrrr oT THoroazx1c or HvDuocAEBox oIIs
from ether tun ous sust 'nces. capable OF supply
ing fluids ny TloxAs Of Chemistry
10 re Meicrl Departmental Georgetown College, D. C., &c
&c. Eeg York d. arr EroS * Co.
During thc vast succession of ages. while the
shine and rain were layshing their ertilising inu
euccs on swamps and forests, peopled as yet by no
human tenants. man, who nterprcts al the phenom-
ena Of nature in reference 10 herself feels his self
love rebukcd at finding luxuriant vegetation. an
exuberant production OF animal life, in short all the
phenomena OF nature produced and reproduced in
a multtudmous variety Of forms, and no apparent
benefit 10 MAJ. no representative of the human race
to claim his interest in the richness and beauty Of
the new world fresh an lovely from the hands Of
is Creator.
Further study leads to the conviction That even in
those pre-adami.e cras cycles of centuries before
the human race was created, physical and organic
processes were going on in which the fature race of
MN was nearly interested the luxuriant and gor
gcous vegetation then iourshing, was silently but
actively withdrawing from the atmosphere the
supeihuity of carbon winch would have rendered
il unfit for the respiration of man and the higher
animals nor was that carbon wasted: the forests
into whose substance it was Incorporated were
overwhelmed by oceanic foundations. and while at
the bottom of the sea- the decaying remains of the
barred vegetation acted upon at the same time by
heat nd pressure, were transformed into the vast
beds of coal which now furnish the inestimabIe
mineral which has contributed more than any other
10 the progress of modern civilization.
Coal mines may be considered as buried sun
shine-the expression being used not as a poeti-
cal figure but as a strictly scientific statement The
solar rays Of the geological period we have alud-
ed to being the great exciting force which produced
vegetation Of those days thatforce became latent
orrather was converted into the organic forces which
influenced their vital phenomena and is only iiber
ated when these organic remains being burnt, their
organic forces are evoked in the form of light and
heat and that motive force which under the form
Of steam is the great agent of material progress in
the nineteenth century.
For a long time these latent energies were only
utilized in the form Of heat; men burnt the coal and
warmed themselves at the fire. but the discovery OF
gas and steam originated a very wide extension OF
the usefulness of the mineral, through the ap
plieaton of these forces to the production of light
and motive force
EThe photogenc or ight-giying properties, howev
er seem to have been mach wasted in the process
of gas-manufactory. The ightemperaturc al which
the dstation takes place leading to the production
in large quantities of incombustble gasses as carbon
ic acid and aqueous vapour, the carbon and hydro
gen producing which, may. by efiectng the distia-
lions in airIght vessels at lower temperature, be
economsed andamadc TO produce various volatile,
fixed and concrete oils. highly combustblc and burn
ing with a brilliant light
Many manufactures already exist in the United
States for the manufacture Of these oils, their loca-
ton being determined by the presenceof highly
bituminous coal, the best Of which is that Of the
Rreckinridge coal mines in Kentucky, from which
at Cloverport 5000 gallons per week Of photogenic
oil are produced.
In an economic and commercial, a. well as in a
scientific point OF view, the work ought 20 be ex
tensively read.
For sale by ". 7. BERRY Co.