Evening star., 1928-11-19
COAL IS EXPECTED
TO BOOM MOROCCO
Discovery of Rich Deposits
May Mean Vast Industrial
Development.

discovery by French engineers o.
large deposits of coal in Morocco may
write that country's name unexpected
" large on the future industrial maps
of the world says a bulletin from
headquarters of the National Geo.
graphic Society.
Africa has always been classed with
South America as the poorest of the
continents in coal deposits" continues
the bulletin, 'and likelihood of consid-
cradle industrial development in the
fields dependent on fuel seemed limited
TO the neighborhood of the few small
coal beds in Natal and Transvaal
South Africa.
Nature BOuntiful to Britain.
"What coal means in the develop
inent of country can best be under
stood perhaps by considering the case
of Great Britain, but something of the
importance of this fuel in the life OF
the entire modern world can be visual
lied easily enough by any American
in sight of the trail of smoke left by
a railway train or a steamship, or who
can look upon a factory chimney or
even a radiator.
Natures coal gifts to Great Britain
were more bountiful than to any other
European country: and it was in Scot
land and England that Europe first
saw the utilization of these black
rocks on a considerable scale 1t is
believed that the smiths of ancient
Greece used small quantities of coal in
their forges. but later the fuel appar-
entity dropped from use. The Roman
legions in England burned coal in their
camp fires, but do not seem to have
introduced the fuel into Rome.
For the next 500 years coal was
hardly mentioned in the records; but
in 852 AID. it was being used as fuel
in several British monasteries. The
first charter to mine coal in Great
Britain was issued in Scotland in 1899,
and 80 years later the fuel was being
shipped to London in steady though
small quantities by the monks of Tyne
mouth. But the use of this fuel did
not spread rapidly to the rest of Eu-
rope. 1t was in 1895 that Marco Polo
came back to Venice from China and
astounded the Venetians with the as
Sertion that the Chinese burned black
rocks
Many Mines Opened.
During the next few centuries the
use of coal for household heating and
cooking and by smiths and other small
industrialists grew steadily in England
and Scotland, and mine after mine was
opened and worked in crude fashion.
But it was not until after the inven-
tion of the steam engine, in 1884, that
coal mining became great key indus
try. The effect of this new device was
two-fold. On the one hand it made
possible the pumping of water from the
mines and the easy raising of coal to
the surface from even the deepest
workings. On the other hand 1t multi
piled the fires to be fed with coal and
so greatly stimulated the demand for
the fuel. not only in Great Britain, but
all over Europe and in America and
Australia.
To-day. especially in the temperate
zones, coal is the staff of life for in
dustry and our particular type of civili-
Zation as truly as bread is the staff of
our bodily life Goals contribution to
transportation is apparent enough, but
some of it's other vital services are not
so evident. As matter of fact, moth
ing like our life in great cities could
have developed under our climatic con-
ditionS but for the warmth given by
coal 1t was simple enough in the log
cabin, village and manor house days to
maintain warmth In Winter by burning
wood; but one can hardly imagine huge
modern SkyScraperS and theaterS as well
as city homes heated solely by wood,
even if our forests could supply the mil
lions of cords of logs necessary.
$50 it is with light Modern street
lighting. and the lighting of Office build
ings and dwellings could not be carried
on but for gas or electricity, and both
imply In most cases the burning of
coal or coal product.
Coal Has Many Uses.
"Coal in large part makes the con-
Struction of our buildings possible. It
bakes bricks, burns lime and cement,
and enters into the manufacture of
steel. 1t melts glass and smeltS copper:
and its pitch waterproofs our cellars
and covers our roofs.
THE distillation of coal opened up a
whole new chemical world. Thousands
of new chemical compounds have been
built up from substances distilled out of
a lump of coal-all the colors Of the
spectrum to embelliSh our clothes and
draperieS and ornaments; powerful eX-
plosiyeS; fertilizers; oils and fuels; a
Sweetener for our foods; a gas for our
balloons, and Invaluable substances for
use by the sanitary engineer, the sur
geon and the physician.
what is coal? It is stored up SUM-
light. When We burn coal to heat our
homes today we are in effect 'uncork-
mig the warmth of the sun that
Streamed down on our world a million
or more years ago. The sunlight became
bottled as 1t does today by causing the
growth of vegetation into woody fiber.
According to the most widely accepted
theory, this vegetable matter It h e
trunks, twigS, leaves and fruits of trees
and smaller plants-fell into water and
muck which preserved it from decay.
Millions of Years Old.
Later the beds of vegetable ma
terial we're covered by mud or sand and
underwent chemical alteration under
pressure, gradually changing to the
substance We call COAL Under the micro
scope, the imprints Of leaves and the
existence of woody fiber can be found
today in some specimens OF coal. The
type, or what is technically called the
rank Of coal, depends on the amount of
chemical change that has taken place.
Peat is the beginning of coal; Ignite
or brown coal has progressed farther
In the concentration of carbon; in soft
coal the original vegetable matter has
changed still more; while in anthracite,
coal of the highest rank has been
reached.
'"The true coal that the world uses
today was laid down probably millions
of years ago. 1t was formerly believed
that the vegetable matter accumulated
as result of rank growth in a hot,
Steamy climate. More recently the view
has been advanced that climatic con-
ditions during the deposit of coal ma
terials were only a little milder than
at present. This mild climate was prob
ably world wide, as the presence of
large coal beds in the polar regions
seems to indicate. Coal materials are
accommodating today in every peat bog
and in many swamps. Many of the
peat bogs are in relatively high
latitudes.