American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-06-22
Sunshine in Coal.

A LUMP of coal, il is often said, is made
up of sunbeams. We could believe this
more readily of the diamonds, which is
Just crystal of carbon, for it is so bright
and sparkling, and makes brilliant sun
shine in shady place. But even the
dull, black coal has been formed of the
sunshine of long forgotten summers.
Every sunbeam that fell upon the club
moses and ferns of the old coal-forests
enabled them to withdraw the minute,
unseen carbon from the air, and form out
of it their own solid tissues. They thus
Gagged and imprisoned the floating light
itself, and wrought its bright threads in
their loom into the beautiful patterns of
stem and leaf which they showed
To form one of the little rings of wood
in the trunk of one of the old pines took
the sunshine of long summer falling
upon all its thousand leaves; and who can
tell how much sunshine has been worked
up in all the stores of coal that lie con-
cealed under our feet? This prisoned sun
shine We set free whenever we kindle a
fire of GOALS When the sun ceases to
shine upon us in the cold, misty days, we
draw upon the sunshine of a million years
ago to drive away the frost and make us
all comfortable. The source of all labor
is the sun; and we get the benefit of his
labor when we burn the coal or the wood
in which he has condensed and preserved
it.
No ray of sunshine has ever been wasted
or thrown away. 1t is because nature has
been SO thrifty in her household ways
that we are enabled to be so prodigal of
our resources to day, spending more than
one hundred millions of tons of coal
every year, and with that vast consump-
ton of sun labor producing all the varied
and extraordinary work that we do I'M
der the sun. Why is lumb of coal black,
if it is composed of sunbeams, which
every one knows contains all the colors
of the rainbow? Why is it black, if it is
made up of the green stems and branches
and leaves of plants9 1t is because its
particles are so formed and arranged as to
take in all the light that falls upon it,
without giving back any portion. A
white object reflects all the light, and a
black objects absorbs all the light. What
becomes, then, of the colors (which the
black coal has Withdrawn from the sun
shine? Are they lost? No, nothing in
this world is lost. Everything isaccount-
ed for. When anything has served It's
purpose in one form, it seems to vanish
altogether; but it re-appears in another
form, and in it works anew.
There is everywhere change, but not
loss. A growing plant absorbs some OF
| the colors of the sunbeams that nourish
it, and reflects others in its prevailing hue
yellow, or blue, or red, or purple. But
the colors that it absorbs are not lost
| they generally reappear in some other OF
after part of the plant. So the colors OF
| the sunshine that are absorbed in the
black coal come out in the colored flames
of the blazing fire. The red and yellow
| flame over which you warm your hands
| is just the flower into which the sunshine,
concealed and stored up in the coal fol
| ages, has blossomed. But more than this
| the lost colors of the rainbow in coal are
brought out still more strikingly by ouI
modern manufactures. Every one has
| heard of, and perhaps very many have
seen, what are called the coal-tar colOrs
Richest and brightest hues of blue, and
green, and mauve, and magenta, and rose
and yellow, are obtained from tar, and
! tar is obtained from coal.
There are hidden beauties in every
| thing, and there are wonders in the frs
| stranger than any faces and castles and
| pictures that the fancy sees in its glow
| ing heat in the twilight hours-wonders
the half of which have not been told
| Tile Coal and Iron Record.