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

: another form, coal is only 80 mucl
light and heat borrowed from tn,
sun and invested in the tissue of tn,
: nora OF past age, marvellous as |
, may seem our ladies of to-day dres
: IN the colours fixed in the plants b,
the rays of the sun millions of year
, ago--and we regale our appetites, to
, day, with the favOurs and essences
liked in vegetation during the Goa
lperiod.
il 1need hardly tell you that oil, bott
for burning and lubricating purposes
is also derived from coal, and the
shales associated with coal, to an
enormous extent. It was the discov.
cry Of the way to extract oil from
boghead coal some twenty-five years
ago that led to the celebrated trial in
!, Scotland that lasted, I think, fourteen
days, as to whether the substance
from which the oil was extracted was
coal or not. One would have thought
the question, what is coal? could not
have taken fourteen days to settle,
and given rise among our leading
chemists and geologists to opinions
and evidence 90 utterly opposed to
each other, that the presiding Judge
mad to counsel the jury to dismiss all
the evidence they had heard from
scientific men, or he felt sure that
they, like himself, would be utterly
unable to arrive ct any decision.-
Pure white parafiin, used for making
candles, the white lucifer matches
used in bedrooms and elswhere, and
even our children's dolls, is also OBJ
j tained from the products of coal.
This substance is also used in the
manufacture Of some Of our finest
scented soaps, and also In the manu.
facture and publication of sugar
And noto only 80, but prussic acid, one
one of our most virulent poisons, can
be obtained from the distillation of
coal tar; also spirits of hartshorn, oil
of vitriol, sulphur and carbonic acid,
80 useful as disenfectant, can be OBJ
tanned from the same unlikely source !;
and creosote, for the preservation OF
timber, Ia also obtained from the
products of coal; also naphtha, used
as . solvent In the Manufacture of
india-rubber and lgutta- -percha and
lamp black, for use on iron as q poll
ish and protection, and also for the
manufacture Of printers ink, is made
from the products Of coal; SO also is
the pitch used for asphalt paving; 90
so also, from hydro-chloric acid OBJ
tanned from the products of coal, we
get bleaching powder. And there is
another use, which / hope you will
agree with me is an illegitiinate and
improper one to apply the products
of coal to, and that 10 the manufact-
ure of brandy, for am told that such
is the inventive powers of man that
that even this has been done. It
would, however, not be candid in me
if did not remark, that, much as
regret the application of coal to such
a purpose as this, yet, if people are
unwise enough to drink brandy, 1
would rather they made it out of
small coal than anything else. 1t is
clear, then, that in some form or 9TH
er coal and its products follow us
through life. In infancy it
cooks our food and warns
our baths; in childhood it
gives US amusement in our dolls in
mature age it provides us with many
Of the luxuries and most Of the COM
forts of life and in declining life it
gilds our pills and provides our med.
icines; and even when we are gone,
it melts the metal out of which the
bell is made that tolls our funeral
knell, and our obituary and virtues
will probably be written with ink
made from coal tar. It is also inter-
esting to note that nearly the whole
CT these substances, and many more
that could be named, are obtained
(after the primary extraction of gas
and coke has been accomplished)
out of what used to be regarded
as the scaste products Of coal, thus
helping to prove fact that
chemistry is every day making clear
er, namely that there is no such thing
as waste in this world; that every
substance, every gas, every element
has its use, and that our duty is to
find out the use to which each and all
can be applied, and thus humbly and
earnestly follow the teachings of Him
who said "Gather up the fragments
that nothing be lost" The following
synopsis of the products Of coal gas,
may help to impress on your minds
what l have been saying The illum-
mating principle in gas is ethylene,
diluted by marsh gas, hydrogen, acct
ylene, aud carbonic oxide; and con-
tains, as impurities, carbonic acid
and sulphuretted acid. From the
manufacture of this gas, we get am
monia, which gives ammoniacal gas,
alum, sal ammoniac, sal volatile, SC.
Another product is coal tar, which
gives paraff1n, used to make candles,
matches, dolls, &c. benzoline, from
which we manufacture aniline dyes !;
carbolic acid, from which is obtained
disinfectants; authracene, from is OBJ
tanned the madder dyes; and pitch,
used for various purposes.
Few things Of common use are
more common than coal, and yet I
venture to think there are thousands
who handle it from age to age, with
out at all thinking or observing the
power and utility of the black unin-
viting substance that we burn in our
CRATES and store in our cellars. Who
would have thought that out Of the
fossil vegetation Of past and remote
geological-combined with the sun
shine that was absorbed at that time
I'VE should to-day be able to get the
fuel that warns our houses, the steam
that works our machinery and plows
the ocean-thus enabling us to carry
our commerce and our flag to every
country and every port. That from
this same vegetable fuel we get the
light which, transmitted through our
houses and streets, is at once the evi.
dence and result of the civilization
ton and progress Of the age
That from the same fuel we
get the heat that melts, and fuses, all
our metals, and that both works, and
creates, the traffic Of the railways
And that after answering all these
grand and useful purposes, conde-
scends to furnish with some of the
most brilliant and beautiful colours
by means Of which we render more
beautiful (if that is possible) the fair
est part of creation (woman) nay
more; from which we get not only
colours to please the eye, and culti-
vate the taste, but essences to satisfy
the appetite and minister to the gus
| tatory organs Of man. and from which