The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1889-12-18
THE woRLo,s FuEL SUPPLY.
1t Is Estimated by Scientist to Be About
Six TrilIion Tone

1t Is Estimated by Scientist to BE About
Six Trillion Tons.
Time was when the carbon and hydro
gen, which form practically the whole
Of our supply of fuel and the principal
part of our food, were inorganic
more capable of sustaining combustion
or animal life Of we except certain mi
croscopic forms which decompose car
bonic acid) than granite or slate.
For vegetable life, however, the sup
ply of food was at its maximum. Vege-
table life came, generated in some un-
known way by the solar energy which
poured through the atmosphere and the
heat energy which penetrated the earth's
crust from within.
Through the unimaginable ages Of the
carboniferous period gigantic fora fed
on the rich atmosphere, assimilating its
carbon and hydrogen, and thereby set
ting free its oxygen, until it could sus-
tain its animal life, at first in the lowest,
then successfully in the higher forms.
This gigantic flora, with its enormous
potential energy of chemical separation
from oxygen--an energy derived chiefly
from the solar energy of that period,
easily admitted and tenaciously retained
by the atmospheric now stored I'D In
the earth as fuel for the future genera
tions of our race. Future, say, for ire
mendous as the annual consumption of
coal, petroleum and natural gas for a
generation has been, we have as yet only
begun upon the great store. Hitherto
Eaa toa l.. ~ l.
her children's needs by expanding only
her current income.
In this latter day, however, their de-
mands have multiplied so rapidly that
she has been obliged to draw upon the
capital stored up during the long ages Of
her maidenhood. How long will that
capital last at the terrible rate at which
we have begun to squander it? Is her
children's prodigality actually making
her poorer? or has she the power to null
lily the effects of their extravaganza?
and are her diminishing resources due
only to the decreasing energy Of her
natural supporter and protector, the
sum- However prodigal man may be in
his use OF earth's treasures, he can never
annihilate one atom OF her substance or
transport IL beyond her domain.
In his "wastefuP consumption of fuel
he is only restoring its elements to their
primeval condition as constituents chief
lyof the aerial and aqueous oceans which
surround our globe. It follows, then,
that the more rapid the combustion the
richer becomes the atmosphere IL its
power to sustain and force vegetable
growth. III 1t were possible for that pc
Rod so often predicted to arrive, when
the 0,000, 000, 900, 900 tons, more or less,
of fossil fuels now stored up in the earth's
coal bins shall have been consumed, the
atmosphere will simply have returned to
its primeval condition-that which pre-
coded the carboniferous period.
The only essential difference, there
fore, which will mark the two remote
geologic periods, the past and future,
will be due to whatever reduction win
have taken place In the SUMS energy.
But whether that condition is destined
49, :, ts -.-t.s-sI TO cath or NOT. one thing
fsceTJan N viii not be through human
instrumentality. Ages before its arrival
the percentage of carbonic acid in the
atmosphere viii have passed through
the point possible TO the continuance Of
human life. II not through human
agency, then how is it to come? Ger
tainly not by any of the processes now
in operation. The percentage of carbonic
acid In the atmosphere does not ma
terially vary.
This fact means simply that some
where on the earth's surface vegetation
is taking up the enormous surplus Of
carbonic acid constantly pouring forth
from our millions of furnaces, and thus
restoring IL to the form Of available fuel.
The weight that is constantly sinking Is
thus being constantly relifted by the
daily conversion of solar to vital energy.
Only some stupendous CONFUSION OF ma
ture, like those dreamed Of by John OF
Patmos and Lord Byron, In which "the
elements shall melt with fervent heat"
can undo the work of the carboniferous
ages--some tremendous upheaval in
which the subterranean stores of fuel
shall at once be laid bare and given over
to the devouring oxygen. Then would
q new cycle begin, another carboniferous
era, in which the storehouses would DO
again slowly filed for future generations
OF men. Again and again might the
cycle return, until the diminishing emf
ergy of the sun should fail to uplift the
fallen weight. to reorganize the inor-
ganic.--E. p. jackson in North Ameri-
can Review.