The Southern herald., 1893-04-14
hATURE sTiLL MAKING coal.

Ths Process Begins a The Peat Bed and
NAY BE watches b. Geologists
Nature IS still making coal, though !
unfortunately, not At a rate anything
like fast enough to make up for tie
consumption Of this product The
process may be watched from begin.
ing to end For this purpose one must ,
krst 90 70 a peat bed, which is simply /
an accumulation Of the remains Of
plants that grew and decayed on the
spot where they are now found. When
the upper layer Of this material is re-
moved one finds peat with SO to 60 per
cent Of carbon, and the deeper one goes /
the better in quality It gets II may be
cut out in blocks with sharp spades, the
water may be pressed from the blocks
and they may be stacked mp covered
and dried and used for fuel There is
. certain kind of moss called 'sphag-
num- which in large part makes up the
peat.producing vegetation. Its roots
die annually, but from the living top,
new roots are sent out each year The
workmen who dig peat understand that
II this surface is destroyed the growth
Of the bed must stop; 50 commonly they
remove the sod carefully, replacing it
after they have taken out stratum
OF peat There is little doubt that If
these beds could lie undisturbed and
covered over through many ages they
would take on all the characteristics OF
mineral coal
The substance Of coal has been so
compressed that the forms of the plants
composing 1t can not usually be seen.
But when a piece Of II is made so thin
that II win transmit light, and Is then
subjected to q powerful microscope, its
vegetable structure may readily be dis
tinguished. Immediately under every
separate seam Of coal there is a stratum
OF what is known as fire clay, This
stratum is always present and contains
in great abundance the fossil impress
sions of roots and stems and twigs,
showing that It was once the soil from
which vegetation grew luxuriantly II
is common also to find fossil tree stems
lying mashed Eat between the layers ol
black slate which form the roofs Of coal
mines as we'll as the impressions Of the
leaves, nuts and seeds which fell from
these trees while they were living. In
some beds of camel coal whole trees
have been found with roots, branches
leaves and seeds complete, and all con
verted into the same quality OF coal al
that by which they were surrounded.
Biologists are of the opinion thai
bituminous aud anthracite Goals were
formed during the same period and un
der like conditions Originally they
were all bituminous, but during th'
violent contortions and upheavals o
the earth's crust at the close of the car
boniferous age that bituminous coal
involved in that disturbance were
changed by heat and pressure aud th'
consequent expulsion of volatile matte
i from bituminous to anthracite. Canine
, coal is a variety OF bituminous Goa
| which burns with great freedom
: the flame Of it affording consid
} erable light 1t was called 'candl
coal by the English people VIII
1 first used it. as it often serve,
/ as a substitute for candles. The nam
1 became corrupted to "canner and ha
so remained. 1t is more compact thai
ordinary bituminous coal and It can b
wrought in a lathe and polished
certain variety of it found in York
shire, England, is manufactured into
kind Of jewelry known as jet"-
Washington Star.