Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-02-22
aaEAr D1FFEREnoE IN GOAL.
How the People are Cheated by tho Inconn.
potency orb by tho DishOnesty Of Deal
ers, aside from weighing.

i z -
From Tho Prairie Farmer.
In former ISSUES of the Prairie Farmer
we have shown that there IS very great
difference in the heating value of hard
coal, and Of course in the money value,
even In that bearing the same name, and
nominally If not really from the same 10.
cality. Thus, "Old Company Lehigh'
once meant a nearly pure, compact Cur.
bon. containing very little ash or Stag.
Such coal, containing the greatest num-
Der OF carbon atoms. supplies the largest
amount of heat for each pound burned.
Other brands have come into favor from
time to time for similar reasons. But
after while these names cease to be of
much value, for the double reason, first,
that other coal from other deposits in the
same localities are sold under the same
names, though greatly inferior to the
first opened mines; and second, that in
ferlor Goals from other places are palmed
off upon the public under the names that
once indicated good quality. -
People, generally, not being experts,
as few can be, are unable to judge of the
quality of lot of coal simply by its ap-
pearance to the eye. A few learn by OBJ
servation, or by the instruction of ex-
pert friends, to detect any considerable
percentage of iron sulphide ('sulphuret
of iron" or iron pyrites'), and to refuse
such coal. A few can judge somewhat
by the fracture. the brightness of surface
or otherwise, and by the specific gravity
Or weight; but only experienced dealers
with long observation and practice, or
having had specific instruction, are able
to tell from the looks of coal, the differ
ence between the best and that really for
heating purposes only thrce-four,hs or
one-half, often not one. third as much.
There ought to be law req ulring
dealers in coal to pass an examination as
to their ability to know good coal when
they see it," AS it now is, any man find
ing business opening for supplying COAL
goes into it without any experience ex-
cept IN the use of weighing scales. The
result is. his patrons pay him the same
price for poor as good article, and in
the aggregate lose very large sums, be-
sides the loss of much comfort. On the
other hand, INSCRIPTIONS dealers buy
poorer grades because more is to be thus
made. Goal is coal, they say, and i'm.
pose inferior qualities upon those not
knowing the difference
There is just US much nonsense, as
much swindling in fact, in fixing a uni
form price per ton for hard Goals, as
there would be IN making a uniform
price per barrel C96 lbs) for all grades of
-four; indeed, good deal more, since 1876
lbs. of flour of $500 grade supplies
nearly as much nutriment as a $500
grade; while two tons of coal. looking
much more alike than the two extreme
grades of flour, differ vastly in their heat
ing power, and of couse in their actual
worth. The purchaser of one pays twice
as much for his years fuel as the buyer
of the other-a loss to him of $50, $40,
$50. or more.
In fact, there is quite as much differ
ence in the heating value of different
lots Of hard coal sold at the same price
per ton, as there is between a cord of
Eastwood, elm. beech, oak, and hickory
wood; and it would be as absurd to fix
the same price per cord for all kinds of
wood, as to fix about the same price for
al! or most kinds of hard coal.
| WHY GOALS DIFFER.
In our ''Earth's Crust" articles, when
describing how hard coal was formed and
deposited, it was explained that peat
beds grew in hollows or shallow lakes;
that by the subsistence of the surface,
clay and sand were washed in upon, and
among, the peat plants, and afterward
hardened into shale or sandstone rock;
that IN subsequent upheavels and down
settings of the earth's surface other beds
of peat or coal forming plants grew over
the previous ones, and were in like man.
ner covered, so that in long periods of
time many such alternate beds of coal
and rock were formed above each other.
In one case in Nova Scotia there are over
30 seams of coal, of varying thickness,
both in the coal seams and in the inter
vening beds Of stohe, or shale or clay
The point applicable here is, that in
the filling in, the center and the lower
parts of the peat beds were sometimes so
compact that very little clay, or sand, or
water carrying iron in solution, found
their way among the peat fibers. Such
parts when changed to hard coal by pres
sure and heat, furnish nearly pure car
bon. that is, coal with high heating pow
err. A shaft opened first into such a
place in a deposit. will supply coal which
will justly acquire high reputation.
But other parts of the same coal-form-
ing peats, as that less compact, or on the
surface, or toward the borders, or where
streams of mud or iron bearing water
flowed in through gulches in the sur
rounding high ground, may contain a