Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-10-26
cuRlosI1IEs OF coal.
Tho Almost Uncomfortable Variety OF SUI
stances Derived from Pit-Coal.

| STANCES Derived from GIt-CoHi.
Does any one except a practical
chemist ever stop to think OF all the
substances which we get from pit-coal
and the almost inconceivable variety
of their nsesp Every body is familiar
| with those of them that are in daily
use, such as gas. illuminating oils.
coke and parafflne, but OF the greater
part few persons know even the names,
science advances so rapidly and its
nomenclature is so extensive and so
abgtruse. II Is no wonder that mer-
chants and manufacturers take advan-
tage Of this ignorance to foist upon the
public articles of food, OF drink, or for
the toilet that, II they are not always
dangerous to the health, have not in
them particle OF the substances
which they pretend to contain. Though
pit-coal has been known for some hum
dreds OF years. the discovery of its
numberless products is confined to the
present century. Illuminating gas
was unknown "a hundred years ago.
Petroleum has been in use only about
forty years, and it is scarcely more
than fifty since some one discovered
that stone coal was inllammable. Nearly
all the other products derived from
soft coal have been discovered and APP
piled i'm the interests of science or OF
fraud within the last twenty-five years.
The first thought in regard to coal
Is that 1t Is made to give heat or
mn i. hn hat - 70
principal uses is TO illuminate. But
there are obiained from it the means
of producing over four hundred colors,
or shades OF color, among the chief Of
which are saffron, violet blue, and in
digo. There are also obtained "a great
variety of perfumes cinnamon, bitter
almonds. queen of the meadows,
Glove, wintergreen. anis, camphor,
thymol Ca new French odor), yaniline
and helotropine. Some OF these are
used for iiavoring. Among the explo-
siye agents whose discovery has been
caused by the war spirit OF the last few
years in Europe are two called dinit-
robenzine, or bellite. and picratcs To
medicine coal has given hypnone.
salicylic acid, naphtol, phenol and
actipyrine. Benzine and naphthaline
are powerful Insecticides. There have
been found In it ammoniacal salts
useful us fertilizers. tannin, saechar-
Inc "a substitute for sugar), the flavor
OF currants. raspberry and pepper,
pyrogallic acid and hydroquinone used
m .iatl. nh Ia
stances familiar or unfamiliar, such as
tar, rosin, asphaltum. lubricating oils,
varnish, and the bitter taste of beer
BY means OF some OF these we can have
wine without the juice of the grape,
beer without malt, preserves without
| either fruit or sugar, perfumes with
out flowers, and coloring matters with
out the vegetable or animal substances
from which they have been hitherto
chiefly derived What Is to be the end
| of all thisp Are our coal-beds not only
TO warm and illuminate but to feed and
| Quench the thirst of posterityp We
know that they are the luxuriant vege-
tation of primal epochs stored and
compressed in II way that has made
them highly convenient for transport
and daily use. They are natures saw
ings laid up for rainy day OF her
children, the human race, and it is
probable because they are composed of
the trees, the foliage, the plants, the
roots, the fruits and the flowers of the
ancient world that they now so largely
supply the place of our forests, plains.
fields and gardens. San Francisco
Chronicle.