The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-01
The Story of
American Goals.
What Science and History Have to Offer
i'm Illumination of This Subject.

condensed ana the richest in carbon.
It's color varies from jet and glistening
black to dark lead gray. 1t is clean,
ignites with difficulty, burns with n
short flame without smoke, and has
very little Illuminating power 1T gives
an intense concentrated heat. Some
varieties, when undisturbed while
burning, partially retain their shape
till nearly consumed and some be-
come extinct before they have parted
with the whole of their carbon. The
constituents of anthracite coal are
carbon, water, and earthly matter, In
acciSental and varying mixtures.
There are also other ingredients pres
ent, besides the oxide of iron, silica,
and alumina, which compose the earth
ly matter or ash; these are sulphur,
bitumen, etc All fuels, including In
that designation naptha, petroleum,
asphaltum, are but representations of
the successive stages in the change
from vegetable co mineral matters.
Anthracite Is the condensed coke of
bitumnous coal in some varieties the
volatile btumen is only partially eX-
PEELED. These are known as free burn
ing anthracite semi-bituminous.' and
other commercial names. According
to color of the ashes, the Goals are
classed as red ash and white ash
The red ash contains a considerable
proportion of oxide of iron, which gives
them a reddish color. They are gen
orally more easily kindled and a more
free burning coal than the white ash.
but from the liability to clinker or
form cinders, which melt and adhere
to the walls of the CRATE or furnace,
they are not SO much esteemed for pur-
poses which require considerable draft
as the White ash variety which shed
their ashes freely. To burn in open
CRATES, with a moderate draft, the red
ash coal is preferred by many. Fer
making pig iron in blast furnaces, the
preference seems generally to be for
white ash anthracite. This may be
owing to the slight difference in the
percentage of carbon, the less proper
tion in the red ash being made up by
the greater amount of ashes. The
fact that the physical structure Of the
white ash is harder better, and more
suited to carry the burden in a blast
furnace may also have something to
do with the preference usually given
to it. \ comparison Of twenty thrc,
analysis Cf Different white ash Penn
sylvania anthracitos gives an average
of 4.62 per cent. of ashes. Another COM
parisOn of twenty-One varieties of red
ash Pennsylvania anthlacites gives an
average Of 7.29 per cent. of ashes. The
latter therefore, contain 2.67 per cent.
more of ashes than the white ASH Goals.
OF this 2.67 per cent, about one-tenth,
or five pounds to the ton of coal, is
iron, which goes to increace the pro-
duct of the furnace. The relative value
Of fuels is determined by the quantity
of water eVaporated by a certain
weight of each coal. In the earlier
experiments made in this country and
in England the results obtained ap
peared to establish law, viz, that
the richer a coal is in fixed carbon, the
greater is its heating power; and the
anthracites were thus classed as Of
higher value, weight for weight, than
the bituminous Goals. 1t was the opin-
ion of English engineers that the
strongest fuel contained the least gas,
and vice versa, that bituminous coal
has no greater heating power than th'
coke, after its gases were dispelled,
II is shown by laboratory experiments
that one pound of Pennsylvania an
thracite coal eVaporated 1856 pounds
of water, while a pound of Scotch BIZ
luminous evapOrated only 774 pounds
Of water, and of the best English hi
luminous only 9.O7 pounds of water.
These results it is well known, are not
sustained in actual practice. The con-
clusion of the whole matter is that
each variety of mineral coal is found
to be adapted for some particular use
i'm nrPfpTpnpp To the OF hers ~
Attractive though the chapters on
Development appear to be from a
hasty inspection, we must forbear to
go into a detailed review of the meth
DDS used in testing and mining the de-
posits of coal. In a general way, they
are familiar to our constituency and
it remains but to remark that the au-
thor seems to have grasped the salient
points in this feature of the story and
set them down in a most compre hem
sive and attractive style for the pleas
ure and profit of mine worker and
stranger alike, for even those who are
most familiar with the work of dig
ing dusky diamonds" will here find
much to absorb attention anu add to
their store of information.
Nor is it withint he province of this
i've steps in the development of coal
transportation which Mr.. Nicolls de-
scribes as well. There is a touch Of the
romantic in the story of the days when
coal was towed to market by means
of the water ways, and the boatman's
horn walked the echoes from the dis
tant hills" The river business it is
shown, had a special class who
rates met in the flat-boatmen of that
early day class ready, eager and will
ing for the fray, a class which, like
the ranchers of the plains accounted
trip tame and spirtless If unattend-
ed with danger. They were rough and
ready, soulless and care free. Dream
lily floating down the Ohio, they whiled
away with song and dance the lazy
| hours"
Down the river, down the river,
Down the O-hi-o-o!,,
But the chapters of "Transporta-
tion" are not all romance Far from it,
| They are rePlete with valuable infor-
nation relating to the primitive flat
boats of the early days, the canal
boats which succeeded them, and es-
pecially with regard to the steep
highways which climb the mountains
and scour the valleys between the coal
region and the sea board.
Mr.. Nicolls concludes his admirable
work as follows: when we review
the preceding pages, the most aston
ishing fact presented to our notice is
the wonderful growth of our coal tom
mage in so short a period of time. In
fifty years the United States has ad-
vanced in the production of coal from
100000 tons in 1Si5 to 1S2, ,00O 900, in