Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-01-07
CURIGSITIES OF COAL.
Interesting Facts of the Products of
This Material.

Professor f. w. Clarke, chief chemist
of the United States geological survey,
has been delivering a public lecture on
"The Chemistry of Coal"
He began, says the Washington Star,
by discussing the origin, nature and COM
position of coal He gave an interesting
table showing the gradual elimination of
the oxygen and hydrogen gases from de-
cayed wood in the various forms of peat
Ignite, earthly brown COAL bitu,uinous
coal and anthracite coal, through which,
uuder certain condition, it passes. Wood
contains 52.6 per cent of carbon, 5.25
per cent. of hydrogen and ALL per cent.
of oxygen, while anthracite coal 1.6 per
cent. carbon, $50 per cent. hydrogen
and only 4.5 per cent. oxygen. Coal
also contains ash, sulphur, nitrogen, etc.
When coal is heated in large brick,
iron or tire-clay retort for from three to
five hours it gives rise to two products
coal gas, which rises and escapes into the
air, and the coke which is left.
Coal gas was first used for illuminating
purposes by William Murdock, who in
1892 illuminated by its means his work
shops in Cornwall, England. In 1902 it
was used for the same purpose at the
Soho foundry, near Birmingham, by the
firm of Boulton & Watt. In 1912 the
streets of London were lighted with it
and in 1920 the streets of Paris. The
gas rs it first rises is very impure. To
purify it it is first passed through water,
by which two important products, ammo
MIA and coal tar, are removed from it.
Then through "scrubbers," or apart
ments filled with coke treated with GER
tain chemicals, by which it is freed from
carbonic acid and sulphurated hydrogen.
The composition of gas varies considera-
bly,.
The incidental products of the gas
factory, which were at first only nui-
sance, have become very valuable. The
coke is used extensively for fuel, espe-
cially in iron foundries and similar es-
adjustments. The ammonia used in
domestic affairs, for smelling salts and
in refrigeration and agriculture, is de-
rived almost wholly from coal gas.
1t is the most important ingredient of
all fertilizers, and it is by its means that
artificial ice is produced and the new and
important developments of the coal stor-
age system have taken place.
The coal tar has been found to yield an
immense number of products of extraor-
dinary scientific and commercial value.
Among the most remarkable are the ami
line dyes which have almost driven other
dyeing stuffs out of the field and which
produce every color in the rainbow, be-
side vast number of most delicate tints,
some of which are not otherwise obtain
able. Bitter almond oil and vanillin are
two havoring extracts obtained from coal
tar, and saccharine, another substance
from the same source, is several hundred
times as sweet us sugar.
Musk and other perfumes also are de-
rived from it.
Of late many valuable medicines have
sprung from the same fecund substance,
notable among which is antipyrine. The
time may come when gourmand may
sit down to an elaborate dinner, most of
which has been derived from coal Ice
cream may be frozen by ammonia,
sweetened with saccharine, favored with
vanilla or "bitter almond" from coal tar
and colored by compound of analine.
And dose of coal-tar medicine will re-
lieve the results the next dayl