The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-05
ATURAL GAS, PETROLEUM, COAL; THEIR RELATIONSHIP, FORMATION AND PRIORITY
 (No. D
By II. LEINAD
(No o. 4)


 on the remains entombed in rock of veg etable and animal remains, and the solid matter resulting from this harmonious union would be the oil of eommerce-pe- troleum."
 In no other way can we account for the differences in the crude mineral oils. They differ in color, in consistency, in odor and chemical content. During the carboniferous era there seems to have been a wavelilxe rising and subsistence of earth's crust just as we have greater and lesser waves at sea. More Assures were formed than are now apparent they have in many cases been filled and capped by sedimentary deposts-and hy- drocarbon gases are constantly seeking escape from the interior to the surface.
 These gases in the past as now, acted on the then immense deposits of fallen ferns and other coal forming plants; and rapidly carbonized them, the deposits of silt and water retained the gases just as the marsh gas is acting on our costal swamps today, changing this vegetable matter into peat, and transformed this carbonecous matter into coal.
 Our coals differ in analysis-differ in hardness, in appearance-as well as in the chemical content. The primary cause is not difficult of ascertainment. First, the vegetation differed just as the varie- ties of pine in our forests of today diff fer; then, the hydrocarbon gases diff fered. If hydroearbon gases were gen. erated by the action of earbonic acid, acting on hot alkali metals, aeetyldes were formed and with a watery vapor, like steam, hydrocarbons would be pro- duced and would leave a different deposit as an oil, or change the character of vegetable matter transformed into coal. Iron and carbon produce reactions that give us hydrocarbons. We have anthra- cite, bituminous and Ignite coals, and they each differ, not only when compared with the other, but each differs greatly in different mines Anthracite is nearly pure carbon; soft coal contains much hydro gen with oxygen and carbon; in anthra- cite we see the cellular structure as plainly under the microscope as we see it in charcoal with the naked eye, while 1t is almost absent in bitumious coal.
 Aeain. we have camel coal, that burns like candle, and near Richmond, Va, we have natural coke.
 Other coal making masses have had with the hydro carbon gases, sulphurouS gases. and as along the Greenbrier river. West Virginia the sulphur has been so thoroughly infused as to make the coal of no value, and again the gases unite, and the oil is sulphurous, as the Lima
 
 Amazon from San Pablo west to the Napo in Peru, the condition today shows de- posits with tropical verdure, and on the lower Madina Ca tributary to the Amazon) conditions now obtain favorable to the transformation of vegetable matter into coal and oil In Para-one of the states of Brazil-peat formations are being changed into coal
 T1pJ< of pOnfOrpnifN that On- tinuity of strata, is another cause of pools or cutting off of a flowing supply of oil. This is proven by many thousand borings of wells, demonstrating that where it was believed that rock deposits were conform able-continuous-we now know that shales often displace sandstone within a few yards. Impervious strata, fire and other claps become impaeted closed at the ends, thus preventing oil from sink ing, rising of flowing in underground conduits.
 The writer has seen bitumnous shales burned by the gaseous content until they become a powered dust; other deposits containing silica under intense heat formed crystalline rocks. similar to those that we know have been metamorphosed. Dykes or walls of silica other rock have filled up crevasses, thus cutting off or diverting gas, oil and water flow in the subtereanean conduits of earth.
 The earth when only covered with granite rock had no soil-without soil there could be no vegetation, and with out vegetation no coal. And yet the pro- cess of changing granite into soils and enriching the soil so as to produce luxur- ia1t vegation was all worked out by the same processes we have been describing The hard granite rock partially or com pletely covered with heated saline waters, acted then as now, rapidly and forcibly on granite. The gaseous uplift would break up the surface the water with it's mass of chemicals and the waters were then filled with chemicals as proven by their being deposited from water. I say the chemical bath would separate the mica and feldspar from the silica, this would give us micaceous masses the further dis solution of fedspar would give us our claps for soil and the potash to enrich them. All this must have occurred before vegetation could flourish and this change was the mechanical and chemical means of furnishing the necessary chemicals available for the concentration of hydro carbon gases so as to give us oil in prac- tically unlimited quantities.
 The Virginia coal field was formed at a much later period than the body of our coals in the United States; for the time carboniferrus is entirely wanting These ccals were not as many of our coal deposits were-formed in place What appears to have been stream not unlike our present gulf stream, swept up the eastern coast and deposited coal forming materials in basis or declivities. The old Midlothian mine-see report of Professor Rogers-was opened and coal found to within 15 or 20 inches of the Hproman system (granite) and coal the depth of 50 feet without parting was found. De- posits of iron in boulders and other ma- terial has been found in these charnel houses of the past, circular in form, sau- cer shaped, in some cases lentcular, but always with upturned edges.
 IL is unquestionably true that at some points vegetable matter was changed into oil. Under other conditions vegetable matter was changed to coal. It is as true as truth itself that petroleum can be produced from animal, vegetable and from mineral substances in our labora- tories. Nature does not waste, and it is not a far cry to assume that primary ele- ments have been utilized and that as gases are now and have been most abund- ant and most generally deffused, that the Creator made use of the hydro-carbon gases to rapidly and sure1y convert what would seem waste products into oil and coal for our good, and the oil was raised to higher levels by force. by gas and water, all remaining on the surface. Coal was formed from vegetable forma- tions. It was thought in the long ago that compression was necessary to cont pact it, but even this has been swept away. Good coal has been found near the earth's surface and where there are