Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-04-06
The Story of a Block of Coal

From time TO time individual trees died
and fell to the earth parts decayed, but the
more durable portions resisted decomposi-
tion and gradually covered the surface with
layer of dead vegetable matter that was
afterward to become a seam of coal. Among
the less perisbable parts were the bark, and
notably the spores, whose resinous nature
| kept them dry and enabled them to defy
| the action of water, that ''sore decayer of
your dead body"
And now the machinery comes into play
by which this embryo coal-seam is to be
sealed up and kept safe for use on some far
distant day, land begins to sink slowly,
and basin is formed that catches the water
of the rivers which flow down from the sur
rounding highlands. A lake arises, and
| into it the stream rolls down mud and sand
these are spread out in sheets and piled up
in banks on the top of the layer of dead
plants, still the land goes down, and more
and more sand and mud is spread over the
bottom of the water now and again. during
heavy storms, the bursts through the bar
riers that hold it back and floods the area
and then, after while, the breach is re-
| paired, and the lake becomes fresh again.
At length the sinking of the land stops,
sandy shoals and hanks of mud rise from
| beneath the water and lift their heads in
| every direction, till u swampy fiat is estab-
| ished dry enough to permit of the growth
! of second jungle and the accumulation of
| the materials for second seam of coal
After while sinking sets in afresh, and our
second coal bed is buried beneath piles of
sand and mud And so the process goes on;
during each period of rest sheet of dead
plants accumulates oyer the fiat, and during
the period of subsistence which follows this
is covered up by deposits of mud and sand.
!
peaty sheet. aud chemical changes go on
when i'll the end turn it into coal After
ward earth-moyements bring it up from the
depths to which it has been carried down,
portion of the rocks which once covered it
Is stripped off by the action of running wa
ter, and it is placed within the reach of
man.
But, when within his reach, how was it
that man discovered that coal would burn ?
Possibly thus There Is in coal hard, yell
low, brassy mineral, which flies in the fire
ana not unfrequently starties the circle that
has gathered round Its cheerful ba 9. When
exposed to damp air this mineral undergoes
chemical change, and during the process
heat is given out, sometimes in sufficient
quantity to set the coal alght. In this way
II occasionally happens that seams of coal,
when they lie near the surface, take nre of |
ehelr own accord One Gay savage on |
stroll was startled by finding the ground |
warm beneath his feet, and by seeing smoke |
and sulphurous vapors issuing from it. He |
laid it first to supernatural cause; but |
curiosity getting the better of superstition, |
he scrnped away the earth to find whence
the reek came. Then he saw a bed of black |
stone, loose blocks of which he had already |
noticed lying about, aud parts of this stone
were smouldering, and as soon as air was
admitted burst into blaze, That savage |
little thought that he was laying the founda-
ton of England's commercial greatness
Good Words.