The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-12-11
@naersu,s gutelItgeussr.
The Formation Of Coal.

the composition of coal. A good
specimen Of hard dry anthracite would
show from 81 to 90 per cent of carbon.
The average anthracite of commerce,
known technically as semi-anthracite,
would >show from IS to 80 per cent,
and the bituminous and semi-bitumin
GUS varieties would range all the way
from so to IS per cent. The amount
of volatile matter contained increases
from three per cent in the anthracites
to 38 per cent in the bituminous
species. The conduct Of these differ
ent kinds of coal in combustion gives
practical emphasis to the difference in
composition. The anthracitcs burn
with small blue fame of carbonic
oxide until thoroughly ignited, give
off no smoke, and leave compare
lively small percentage Of ashes. The
bituminous classes, on the other hand,
burn with continuous yellowish
fame, give off considerable smoke, and
leave large percentage. of ashes,
That coal is ayegetable product may
be specifically proved. Indeed, ocular
demonstration may be had of that
fact. For while to- the naked eyeethe
structure of a fragment of mineral
coal is-purely amorphous, yet if that
fragment be make so thin that it will
transmit light, and IF it be then ex-
amiped through powerful microscope,
its vegetable structure will be readily
distinguished. Heat, pressure and
confinement have produced the trans
formation. It's simply a process Of
smothered combustion. The operation
may be watched in any peat bog. A
peat bed is simply an accumulation of
the remains of plants which have
grown and deceyed, and have been
year by year buried more deeply under
succeeding growths. Remove the up
per layer, and you find peat with its
81 to Sc per cent of carbon. The
deeper you go, that is, the older and
longer buried the product, the better
will be It's quality for fuel. If this
process of deposition should continue
through many geologic ages, the result
would doubtless be true coal.
tits known. that during the carbon
ferrous age the area now covered by
the Middle, Southern and Western
States was little, more than vast
marsh bnrdened with the most luxu-
lriant vegetation. The conditions were
all Favorable for the rapid. and enor.
nous growth of plants, The soil was
rich and moist. The heat was greater
than exists to-day at the torrid zone.
The humidity Of the atmosphere was
great and constant. The airwas laden
with carbon. Plants luxuriated in it.
They grew to enormous sizes. Plants
which in our day! are mere stems, a
fraction Of an inch in diameter, were
in that time represented by trees from
one to- three feet in diameter and from
40 to 100 feet in height. This mass
OF vegetation, including more than
500, different species, was constantly
growing, falling and decaying, each
succeeding growth forming still
richer bed for the vegetation to follow.
IF the theory propounded by Lap
lace is correct, our earth was at one
time ball Of liquid FIRE. Cooling and
condensation progressed from the sur
face toward the center. Contraction
of the earth s crust necessarily follow
led, and vast areas of land sank and
were covered ;by the waters. This
process was still going on during the
.carboniferous age. The submergence
ola bed Of this incipient coal meant
the cessation, for time, of vegetable
growth from its surface. That sur
face was covered instead by the sand,
mud and gravel washed over it by the
waves, by the drift from higher levels,
and BY the limestone deposits swept
up to it from the sea. When con-
traction ceased for a time and the
earth s crust again became stable, the
waters began to recede, leaving behind
them great wastes Of mud and sand.
And, following this slow recession to
the sea, vegetation crept once more
over the surface Of the land, the soil
grew rich with the products Of decay,
and plant life reigned and rioted anew.
But cooling and contraction of the
earth's body were going continuously
on, and submergence followed again
and again, each bed Of vegetable mat
ter, thick or shallow, being covered in
turn by its layers of sand and salt.
In this submergence and burial Of
the deposits of the coal era we find all
the conditions necessary for the
transformation Of vegetable matter in
to coal. Only from one-ninth to one
sixteenth Of the mass Of vegetable
matter subjected to this heat and
pressure was retained in the form of
coal. This was largely carbon, the
hydrogen apd oxygen having been ex-
PEELED. As we have already seen, the
anthracite coal contains a much larger
percentage of carbon than does the
bituminous; and much less quantity
Of volatile matter. Of the immense
coal areas in the United States only
an extremely small percentage are Of
the anthracite variety, and these all
lie in the state Of Pennsylvania, east
of the Allegheny Mountains, with the
exception Of a small field in Rhode
Island. It is not thought that the
vegetable life which entered into one
class differed in any material respect
from that which entered into the
other.
The presumption is natural, if not
conclusive, that prior to the close Of
the carboniferous age all the coal de-
posits had been bituminous in
character, but that the violent move
ment of the earth's crust at the time
of the Appalachian revolution, the
enormous pressure and intense heat,
were sufficient to expel a large portion
of the volatile matter from the btu
minous coal beds, and otherwise change
their character into what We now class
as anthracite. In the slate strata i'm
mediately everything each coal seam, it
is common to find the impressions Of
twigs, nuts, seeds, leaves, the most
do1;nofo farn krooory ond tho fraoaru