Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-01-23

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O. - ~ s3&gls4 y38aer
WA, WAPELLO COU
mode of lighting our towns, W
should be practically shut out from
great many of the blessings of mod
ern civilized life, and one slmoa
wonders Whist our grandfAthers an,
great-grandfathers Of past genera
tons must have done without som
such mode Of lighting as we now en-
ljoy. You are of course aware thu
the gas we burn in our streets !
chemically the same as the gas that j
often SO destructive of human life II
our coal mines, thus showing th'
|great law Of the Creator to be th,
same thing that promotes life and
happiness when rightly applied
spreads death and destruction wher
not treated properly. So it is al
through the universe. The storm
that purifies the air and fertilizes tn,
earth often destroys the ship snd
browns the crew. The lightning tha
conveys our thoughts and and wishes
to the ends Of the earth, often spreads
death and destruction around by
means of the thunder storm. But Il
return-See too what is involved Ii
the fuel that keeps our railways
working. Not only would the great.
or part of the vast and complicated
network of railways never have been
made, but for the mineral traffic they
are intended to provide for-but khel
could not be uorked but for the .fue
sUhich s0e are enabled at such a mod
crate cost to f,rovtde. The first rail
way (the Stockton and Darlington,
laid down, remember, only about 81
years ago, was made mainly to carry
coal, and has since developed into
that huge system called "The North
Eastern Railway; remember, too,
that the first locomotive ever con.
structed by Stephenson, was con-
structed to convey the coal on the
Old Killingworth Colliery Tramway
to the shipping stages on the Tyne
and then recollect that in 80 years our
railway system has developed into
nearly 100000 miles of railway, all
over the world, of which, I am glad
to say, nearly 60 per cent. has been
built and is owned by the two great
branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, on
either side of the Atlantic. But be-
hind all this railway development
that is giving employment to hum
dreds of thousands of our population,
and providing good and safe invest
ments for our surplus capital, and ad-
ding enormously to the national pros
perity, stands the power by which
these railways are worked and that
power is coal. Take again our steam
navigation, and bear in mind the ten
dency of the age is more and more
towards towards the use of steam as
a motive power on the ocean; and
couple with this the fact that half the
CARRYING trade Of the world is car
ried on by the energy and industry
of this little island, and I can almost
justify feeling of national pride in
the relation of a fact such as I have
just named. But again we are
brought face to face with q truth that
behind all this power on the ocean
stands our coal production, and that
without steam power, our supremacy
on the sea would be lost.
1t may be interesting to note here
that it seems probable that the btu
minous flame producing element in
coal is chiefly derived from the spores
or seeds of the fossil flora. The club
moss Of the present day is prolific in
seed, apparently of the same kind as
that found by microscopic investiga-
tions to be SO abundant in our coal
beds. The resinous matter in these
spores will, under pressure and heat,
produce bitumen similar to that which
produces the flame we attain by the
combustion of COAL From the living
genera of club moss plants we now
often get the resinous substance used,
instead of sulphur, in the manufac-
ture of fireworks, and the same SUBJ
stance is also often used by chemists
to coat the pills SO largely prescribed
by medical talent; 80 that coal not
only lights your houses, drives your
railways and carries your commerce
over the ocean, but gilds your pills
and gives vitality to your fireworks.
But, while regarding these uses Of
coal as among the most direct and
most important, let me ask you not to
lose sight of the fact that there are
other uses, ii not as important, that
are still more interesting, in a scien-
tific point of view.
The discovery of benzoline in coal
tar by Perkins, in 1856 Cor possibly by
Faraday, in 1S25), was, I believe, the
starting point of all the modern dis
coveries made relative to the colours
that can be extracted from coal tar,
and which we get from the manufac-
ture of gas; and that used to be
thought almost valueless. 1t was not
however, till 1868 that Graebc and
Lierberman (two young German
chemistry discovered that the colour
ing principle in the madder plant, so
largely grown in Holland and France
was Alizarine, and that this colour
could be obtained from Anthracene
which was one of the hydrocarbons
found in coal tar. They found that
the alizarine of the madder plant
gave C. "a, II. 8, o. 4. They also
found that the anthracene derived
from coal tar gave c. IA, H. 10; and
that, by proper treatment, q colour
(similar to that in the madder plant
of which I have just given the formu-
la could be obtained. The result of
this discovery has been to develop
an enormous trade in Germany, since
1870, for the manufacture and use of
dyes made from the coal tar of our
gas manufactures. Germany exports
a large quantity of these dyes to Eng
land and America. They now make
from coal tar the deep Turkish red,
so largely used in the manufacture of
carpets. This colour is said to be su.
perior to what Is derived from the
madder plant-for which we used to
pay France and Holland over one
million q year, and which fetches
readily from f45 to ESQ q ton. A
beautiful violet colour is also made
from the same substance, and the i'm
perial purple is also produced from
the same source. This Roman luxu-
ry and emblem of dignity and power
used to be largely obtained from the
neighborhood of Tyre-and used to
form q leading article of commerce
with the old PhGnician mariners
from 1000 to 1900 years before the
Christian era. This purple dye was
obtained from the shell Of Malluscus
called Mure1 ITMnculls and the
shores Of Tyre and the Syrian coast is
still covered with the debris Of the
mills and manufa ctories, where this
much.valued dye was produced
This dye gave dignity and grandeur
to the proud monsrchs of the Nile.
1t also adorned tho palaces of the
mighty monarchs of Babylon. The
Assyrian potentates in Nineveh wore
garments dyed with the juice of the
murex, and Rome adopted it as the
symbol Of her power, and made it
known al over the world as the "Im-
perial purple" Homer sang its
praises when he said "Bells, that with
Tyrian dye resplendent glow" and
Pliny explains the process by which
the dye was extracted. If they lived
to-day fhav would hovo ouuo tho