Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-03-27
NEW VALUES IN COAL

The United States has one half of the coal
production of the world within its possession.
Montana is big producer of coal and there are
important fields of the black fuel in this state
that have not been touched. This being the case
we are intensely interested in the investigation
and the rise of the coal by-products of the coun-
try. When we were cut off from Germany, and
the coal by-products which she had been selling
to the United States, we found what a stupend-
Gus waste had been going on. We were COM
PEELED to produce essentials that could not be
secured in any other way. What has happened
seems like fairy story in industry.
For years, Americans regarded coal merely
as a source Of light and heat Then came the
war. In the space of a few short months, every
body awakened with shock to find that coal
was also the source of hundreds of other things.
First, came the news that Germany had used
a new coal by-product explosive to blow up Liege
and other Belgian towns-a thing with twice as
much force as dynamite, which they called tri-
nitratoluol. This was the Allies first introduc-
tion to TINT, but they lost no time in pursuing
the acquaintance. Before the end of the first
year. an active coal by-product industry was
turning out not only TINT, but ammonia and
benzo in both France and England.
In this country it was the dyestuff shortage
which first called attention to the necessity of
saving coal by-products. The other shortages be-
gan to occur Physicians had difficulty in OBJ
tanning certain drugs, including the popular As
perrin; large part of the population was de-
prived of it's delight in cheap perfumes and
such miscellaneous things as Photographic de-
velopers carboc acid, lubricating oils, creosote
and metal paints became increasingly scarce.
Why, the public began to inquire innocently,
hadn't the United States been manufacturing
these products? 1t had plenty of coal, much
more than the Germans. What had become Of
the by-products? To this question undoubtedly
the best answer was view of any large coal
consuming city-preferably at night, from the
windows of an incoming railroad train. 1t at
once solved the mystery. All the dyes and drugs
and developers and explosives and oils that were
contained in American coal had been going up
in smoke.
AS had been said the United States possesses
one-half the coal in the world. Only very
small portion of it, however, is anthracite coal.
The rest is bituminus. According to Dr. Gilbert
of the National Museum of Mineral Technology
the supply Of anthracite coal will be left Coal"
he explains and as we all know, contains two
ingredients-a solid ingredient, and volatile in
gredent which turns to gas. Usually, the solid
ingredient in coal is burned to heat house, and
the volatile ingredient is used to do the cooking.
The only difference between anthracite coal and
bituminous coal is that the former, containing a
higher percentage of solid ingredient, is more
satisfactory for obtaining heat while the latter,
containing much higher percentage of volatile
Ingredient is better for obtaining gas and coal
by-products.
The war, which cut the German industry off