San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1890-01-09
THE WORLDS FUEL SUPPLY. I
10 Is Estimated by Scientist TO No Abou1
Six TrilIion Tons.


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-no
more capable Of sustaining combustion
or animal life Qf we except certain NH
croscopic forms which deoomposc car
bonic acid) than granite or slate.
For vegetable life, however, tho 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 It's
carbon and hydrogen, and thereby set-
ting FREQ its oxygen, until II could sus-
tain its animal life, at first In the lowest,
then successfully In the higher forms.
This gigantic fora, with It's 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 up In
the earth as fuel for the future genera
tions Of our race. Future, say, for tre-
mendous as the annual consumption Of
coal, petroleum and natural gas for q
generation has been, we have as yet only
begun upon the great store. Hitherto
Mother Earth has been able to supply
her childreu's needs by expending 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 it1 Is her
children's prodigality actually making
her poorerp or has she the power to null
lify the effects Of their extravaganza
and are her diminishing resources due
only to the decreasing energy Of her
natural supporter and protector, the
sun? However prodigal man may be in
his use of earth's treasures, he can never
transport it beyond her domain.
In his "wasteful" consumption Of. fuel
he is only restoring its elements to their
primeval condition as constituents chief
ly of the aerial and aqueous oceans which
surround our globe. II follows, then,
that the more rapid the combustion tho
richer becomes the atmosphere in It's
power to sustain and force vegetable
growth. II 1t were possible for that pc
riod so often predicted to arrive, when
the 5000, 200, 100000 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-
ceded tho 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 will
have taken place in the suns energy.
But whether that condition Is destined
ever to return to earth or not, one thing
Is certain: It will not be through human
instrumentality. Ages before It's arrival
the percentage Of carbonic acid In tho
will have passed through
the point possible to the continuance Of
human life. II not through human
agency, then how is 1t to conner 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
acid constantly pouring forth
from our millions Of furnaces, and thus
1t to the form Of available fuel
The weight that Is constantly sinking is
thus being constantly relifted by the
iaily conversion Of solar TO vital energy.
Only some stupendous convulsion of ma
,ure, like those dreamed Of by John Of
Patmos and Lord Byron, In which "the
elements shall melt with fervent heat"
IAN undo the work Of the carbonifercus
lges-some tremendous upheavai In
which the subterranean stores of fuel
hall at once be laid bare and given over
o the devouring oxygen. Then would
! new cycle begin, another carboniferous
ra, In which Che storehouses would be
gain slowly filled for future generations
4 men. Again and again might the
ycle return, until the diminishing en-
rgy Of the sun should fail to uplift the
allen weight. to reorganize the inors
anic.-E. L. jackson In North Ameri-
an Review.