The Story of a Piece of Coal Part 1

The Story of a Piece of Coal.

by Edward A. Martin.

PREFACE.

The knowledge of the marvels which a piece of coal possesses within itself, and which in obedience to processes of man's invention it is always willing to exhibit to an observant enquirer, is not so widespread, perhaps, as it should be, and the aim of this little book, this record of one page of geological history, has been to bring together the princ.i.p.al facts and wonders connected with it into the focus of a few pages, where, side by side, would be found the record of its vegetable and mineral history, its discovery and early use, its bearings on the great fog-problem, its useful illuminating gas and oils, the question of the possible exhaustion of British supplies, and other important and interesting bearings of coal or its products.

In the whole realm of natural history, in the widest sense of the term, there is nothing which could be cited which has so benefited, so interested, I might almost say, so excited mankind, as have the wonderful discoveries of the various products distilled from gas-tar, itself a distillate of coal.

Coal touches the interests of the botanist, the geologist, and the physicist; the chemist, the sanitarian, and the merchant.

In the little work now before the reader I have endeavoured to recount, without going into unnecessary detail, the wonderful story of a piece of coal.

E.A.M.

THORNTON HEATH,

_February_, 1896.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN OF COAL AND THE PLANTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED.

From the homely scuttle of coal at the side of the hearth to the gorgeously verdant vegetation of a forest of mammoth trees, might have appeared a somewhat far cry in the eyes of those who lived some fifty years ago. But there are few now who do not know what was the origin of the coal which they use so freely, and which in obedience to their demand has been brought up more than a thousand feet from the bowels of the earth; and, although familiarity has in a sense bred contempt for that which a few shillings will always purchase, in all probability a stray thought does occasionally cross one's mind, giving birth to feelings of a more or less thankful nature that such a store of heat and light was long ago laid up in this earth of ours for our use, when as yet man was not destined to put in an appearance for many, many ages to come. We can scarcely imagine the industrial condition of our country in the absence of so fortunate a supply of coal; and the many good things which are obtained from it, and the uses to which, as we shall see, it can be put, do indeed demand recognition.

Were our present forests uprooted and overthrown, to be covered by sedimentary deposits such as those which cover our coal-seams, the amount of coal which would be thereby formed for use in some future age, would amount to a thickness of perhaps two or three inches at most, and yet, in one coal-field alone, that of Westphalia, the 117 most important seams, if placed one above the other in immediate succession, would amount to no less than 294 feet of coal. From this it is possible to form a faint idea of the enormous growths of vegetation required to form some of our representative coal beds. But the coal is not found in one continuous bed. These numerous seams of coal are interspersed between many thousands of feet of sedimentary deposits, the whole of which form the "coal-measures." Now, each of these seams represents the growth of a forest, and to explain the whole series it is necessary to suppose that between each deposit the land became overwhelmed by the waters of the sea or lake, and after a long subaqueous period, was again raised into dry land, ready to become the birth-place of another forest, which would again beget, under similarly repeated conditions, another seam of coal.

Of the conditions necessary to bring these changes about we will speak later on, but this instance is sufficient to show how inadequate the quant.i.ty of fuel would be, were we dependent entirely on our own existing forest growths.

However, we will leave for the present the fascinating pursuit of theorising as to the how and wherefore of these vast beds of coal, relegating the geological part of the study of the carboniferous system to a future chapter, where will be found some more detailed account of the position of the coal-seams in the strata which contain them. At present the actual details of the coal itself will demand our attention.

Coal is the mineral which has resulted, after the lapse of thousands of thousands of years, from the acc.u.mulations of vegetable material, caused by the steady yearly shedding of leaves, fronds and spores, from forests which existed in an early age; these acc.u.mulated where the trees grew that bore them, and formed in the first place, perhaps, beds of peat; the beds have since been subjected to an ever-increasing pressure of acc.u.mulating strata above them, compressing the sheddings of a whole forest into a thickness in some cases of a few inches of coal, and have been acted upon by the internal heat of the earth, which has caused them to part, to a varying degree, with some of their component gases. If we reason from a.n.a.logy, we are compelled to admit that the origin of coal is due to the acc.u.mulation of vegetation, of which more scattered, but more distinct, representative specimens occur in the shales and clays above and below the coal-seams. But we are also able to examine the texture itself of the various coals by submitting extremely thin slices to a strong light under the microscope, and are thus enabled to decide whether the particular coal we are examining is formed of conifers, horse-tails, club-mosses, or ferns, or whether it consists simply of the acc.u.mulated sheddings of all, or perhaps, as in some instances, of innumerable spores.

In this way the structure of coal can be accurately determined. Were we artificially to prepare a ma.s.s of vegetable substance, and covering it up entirely, subject it to great pressure, so that but little of the volatile gases which would be formed could escape, we might in the course of time produce something approaching coal, but whether we obtained lignite, jet, common bituminous coal, or anthracite, would depend upon the possibilities of escape for the gases contained in the ma.s.s.

Everybody has doubtless noticed that, when a stagnant pool which contains a good deal of decaying vegetation is stirred, bubbles of gas rise to the surface from the mud below. This gas is known as marsh-gas, or light carburetted hydrogen, and gives rise to the _ignis fatuus_ which hovers about marshy land, and which is said to lure the weary traveller to his doom. The vegetable mud is here undergoing rapid decomposition, as there is nothing to stay its progress, and no superposed load of strata confining its resulting products within itself. The gases therefore escape, and the breaking-up of the tissues of the vegetation goes on rapidly.

The chemical changes which have taken place in the beds of vegetation of the carboniferous epoch, and which have transformed it into coal, are even now but imperfectly understood. All we know is that, under certain circ.u.mstances, one kind of coal is formed, whilst under other conditions, other kinds have resulted; whilst in some cases the processes have resulted in the preparation of large quant.i.ties of mineral oils, such as naphtha and petroleum. Oils are also artificially produced from the so-called waste-products of the gas-works, but in some parts of the world the process of their manufacture has gone on naturally, and a yearly increasing quant.i.ty is being utilised. In England oil has been pumped up from the carboniferous strata of Coalbrook Dale, whilst in Suss.e.x it has been found in smaller quant.i.ties, where, in all probability, it has had its origin in the lignitic beds of the Wealden strata. Immense quant.i.ties are used for fuel by the Russian steamers on the Caspian Sea, the Baku petroleum wells being a most valuable possession. In Sicily, Persia, and, far more important, in the United States, mineral oils are found in great quant.i.ty.

In all probability coniferous trees, similar to the living firs, pines, larches, &c., gave rise for the most part to the mineral oils. The cla.s.s of living _coniferae_ is well known for the various oils which it furnishes naturally, and for others which its representatives yield on being subjected to distillation. The gradually increasing amount of heat which we meet the deeper we go beneath the surface, has been the cause of a slow and continuous distillation, whilst the oil so distilled has found its way to the surface in the shape of mineral-oil springs, or has acc.u.mulated in troughs in the strata, ready for use, to be drawn up when a well has been sunk into it.

The plants which have gone to make up the coal are not at once apparent to the naked eye. We have to search among the shales and clays and sandstones which enclose the coal-seams, and in these we find petrified specimens which enable us to build up in our mind pictures of the vegetable creation which formed the jungles and forests of these immensely remote ages, and which, densely packed together on the old forest floor of those days, is now apparent to us as coal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2.--_Annularia radiata._ Carboniferous sandstone.]

A very large proportion of the plants which have been found in the coal-bearing strata consists of numerous species of ferns, the number of actual species which have been preserved for us in our English coal, being double the number now existing in Europe. The greater part of these do not seem to have been very much larger than our own living ferns, and, indeed, many of them bear a close resemblance to some of our own living species. The impressions they have left on the shales of the coal-measures are most striking, and point to a time when the sandy clay which imbedded them was borne by water in a very tranquil manner, to be deposited where the ferns had grown, enveloping them gradually, and consolidating them into their ma.s.s of future shale. In one species known as the _neuropteris_, the nerves of the leaves are as clear and as apparent as in a newly-grown fern, the name being derived from two Greek words meaning "nerve-fern." It is interesting to consider the history of such a leaf, throughout the ages that have elapsed since it was part of a living fern. First it grew up as a new frond, then gradually unfolded itself, and developed into the perfect fern. Then it became cut off by the rising waters, and buried beneath an acc.u.mulation of sediment, and while momentous changes have gone on in connection with the surface of the earth, it has lain dormant in its hiding-place exactly as we see it, until now excavated, with its contemporaneous vegetation, to form fuel for our winter fires.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.--_Rhacopteris inaequilatera._ Carboniferous limestone.]

Although many of the ferns greatly resembled existing species, yet there were others in these ancient days utterly unlike anything indigenous to England now. There were undoubted tree-ferns, similar to those which thrive now so luxuriously in the tropics, and which throw out their graceful crowns of ferns at the head of a naked stem, whilst on the bark are the marks at different levels of the points of attachment of former leaves. These have left in their places cicatrices or scars, showing the places from which they formerly grew. Amongst the tree-ferns found are _megaphyton_, _paloeopteris_, and _caulopteris_, all of which have these marks upon them, thus proving that at one time even tree-ferns had a habitat in England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 4.--Frond of _Pecopteris._ Coal-shale.]

One form of tree-fern is known by the name of _Psaronius_, and this was peculiar in the possession of ma.s.ses of aerial roots grouped round the stem. Some of the smaller species exhibit forms of leaves which are utterly unknown in the nomenclature of living ferns. Most have had names a.s.signed to them in accordance with certain characteristics which they possess. This was the more possible since the fossilised impressions had been retained in so distinct a manner. Here before us is a specimen in a shale of _pecopteris_, as it is called, (_pekos_, a comb). The leaf in some species is not altogether unlike the well-known living fern _osmunda_. The position of the pinnules on both sides of the central stalk are seen in the fossil to be shaped something like a comb, or a saw, whilst up the centre of each pinnule the vein is as prominent and noticeable as if the fern were but yesterday waving gracefully in the air, and but to-day imbedded in its shaly bed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5.--_Pecopteris Serlii_. Coal-shale.]

_Sphenopteris_, or "wedge-fern," is the name applied to another coal-fern; _glossopteris_, or "tongue-leaf"; _cyclopteris_, or "round-leaf"; _odonlopteris,_ or "tooth-leaf," and many others, show their chief characteristics in the names which they individually bear.

_Alethopteris_ appears to have been the common brake of the coal-period, and in some respects resembles _pecopteris_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 6.--_Sphenopteris Affinis._ Coal-shale.]

In some species of ferns so exact are the representations which they have impressed on the shale which contains them, that not only are the veins and nerves distinctly visible, but even the fructification still remains in the shape of the marks left by the so-called seeds on the backs of the leaves. Something more than a pa.s.sing look at the coal specimens in a good museum will well repay the time so spent.

What are known as septarian nodules, or snake-stones, are, at certain places, common in the carboniferous strata. They are composed of layers of ironstone and sandstone which have segregated around some central object, such as a fern-leaf or a sh.e.l.l. When the leaf of a fern has been found to be the central object, it has been noticed that the leaf can sometimes be separated from the stone in the form of a carbonaceous film.

Experiments were made many years ago by M. Goppert to ill.u.s.trate the process of fossilisation of ferns. Having placed some living ferns in a ma.s.s of clay and dried them, he exposed them to a red heat, and obtained thereby striking resemblances to fossil plants. According to the degree of heat to which they were subjected, the plants were found to be either brown, a shining black, or entirely lost. In the last mentioned case, only the impression remained, but the carbonaceous matter had gone to stain the surrounding clay black, thus indicating that the dark colour of the coal-shales is due to the carbon derived from the plants which they included.

Another very prominent member of the vegetation of the coal period, was that order of plants known as the _Calamites_. The generic distinctions between fossil and living ferns were so slight in many cases as to be almost indistinguishable. This resemblance between the ancient and the modern is not found so apparent in other plants. The Calamites of the coal-measures bore indeed a very striking resemblance, and were closely related, to our modern horse-tails, as the _equiseta_ are popularly called; but in some respects they differed considerably.

Most people are acquainted with the horse-tail (_equisetum fluviatile)_ of our marshes and ditches. It is a somewhat graceful plant, and stands erect with a jointed stem. The foliage is arranged in whorls around the joints, and, unlike its fossil representatives, its joints are protected by striated sheaths. The stem of the largest living species rarely exceeds half-an-inch in diameter, whilst that of the calamite attained a thickness of five inches. But the great point which is noticeable in the fossil calamites and _equiset.i.tes_ is that they grew to a far greater height than any similar plant now living, sometimes being as much as eight feet high. In the nature of their stems, too, they exhibited a more highly organised arrangement than their living representatives, having, according to Dr Williamson, a "fistular pith, an exogenous woody stem, and a thick smooth bark." The bark having almost al ways disappeared has left the fluted stem known to us as the calamite. The foliage consisted of whorls of long narrow leaves, which differed only from the fern _asterophyllites_ in the fact that they were single-nerved. Sir William Dawson a.s.signs the calamites to four sub-types: _calamite_ proper, _calamopitus, calamodendron_, and _eucalamodendron_.

[Image: FIG. 7.--Root of _Catamites Suckowii_. Coal-shale.]

[Image: FIG 8.--_Calamocladus grandis_. Carboniferous sandstone.]

Having used the word "exogenous," it might be as well to pay a little attention, in pa.s.sing, to the nomenclature and broad cla.s.sification of the various kinds of plants. We shall then doubtless find it far easier thoroughly to understand the position in the scale of organisation to which the coal plants are referable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 9.--_Asterophyllites foliosa_. Coal-measures.]

The plants which are lowest in organisation are known as _Cellular_. They are almost entirely composed of numerous cells built up one above the other, and possess none of the higher forms of tissue and organisation which are met with elsewhere. This division includes the lichens, sea-weeds, confervae (green aquatic sc.u.m), fungi (mushrooms, dry-rot), &c.

The division of _Vascular_ plants includes the far larger proportion of vegetation, both living and fossil, and these plants are built up of vessels and tissues of various shapes and character.

All plants are divided into (1) Cryptogams, or Flowerless, such as mosses, ferns, equisetums, and (2) Phanerogams, or Flowering. Flowering plants are again divided into those with naked seeds, as the conifers and cycads (gymnosperms), and those whose seeds are enclosed in vessels, or ovaries (angiosperms).

Angiosperms are again divided into the monocotyledons, as the palms, and dicotyledons, which include most European trees.

Thus:--

------------------------------------------------------------------- | (M.A. Brongniart). | |(Lindley). | |CELLULAR | | | | _Cryptogams_ (Flowerless) |Fungi, seaweeds, |Thallogens | | | lichens | | | | | | |VASCULAR | | | | _Cryptogams_ (Flowerless) |Ferns, equisetums, |Acrogens | | | mosses, lycopodiums| | | _Phanerogams_ (Flowering) | | | | Gymnosperms (having |Conifers and |Gymnogens | | naked seeds) | cycads | | | Two or more Cotyledons | | | | Angiosperms (having | | | | enclosed seeds) | | | | Monocotyledons |Palms, lilies, |Endogens | | | gra.s.ses | | | Dicotyledons |Most European |Exogens | | | trees and shrubs | | -------------------------------------------------------------------

Adolphe Brongniart termed the coal era the "Age of Acrogens," because, as we shall see, of the great predominance in those times of vascular cryptogamic plants, known in Dr Lindley's nomenclature as "Acrogens."