PREFACE IT is now many years since aWork on Coalwas presented to the public, and since that time knowledge of its natural history and appreciation increased. of its manifold uses have been Coal is indispensable to all civilised nations it is not surprising therefore that the origin, position and extent of the seams have exercised the best thought and enquiry of geologists and prospectors that its discovery and working have stimulated the skill and demanded the best energies of engineers, and the heroism and labours of innumerable miners that its economical utilisation and application have been obtained in spite of years of necessary labour and research on the part of learned men in many branches of science. This book, though dealing only with the first and last of the aspects of the subject thus suggested, should be interest- ing and instructive not only to students of various sciences, but to the whole of those people who, though proud of the high commercial position of this country, are unaware as to how greatly this is due to our Coal supplies. As a rule descriptions of mining practice avoided, though a few subjects with in the authors Principles, have been here included are dealt and Practice of Coal Mining,. The latter book is intended particularly for students the present work is of course written for a different public. Some of the friends to whom I am indebted for advice and assistance and to whom thanks are now tendered are Mr. Bennett Brough, F.G.S., Mr. John Gerrard, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Mr. James Lomax, Petrologist, and Mr. Herbert Bolton, F.K.S.E. WESTHOUGHTON, October, 1907 JAMES TONGE. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. HISTORY........ 1 II. OCCURRENCE ....... 6 III. MODE OF FORMATION OF COAL SEAMS . . 16 IV. FOSSILS OF THE COAL MEASURES ... 21 V. BOTANY OF THE COAL-MEASURE PLANTS . . 46 VI. COALFIELDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES ... 84 VII. FOREIGN COALFIELDS . . . . .101 VIII. THE CLASSIFICATION OF COALS . . . .124 X. FOREIGN COALS AND THEIR VALUES . . . 154 167 IX. THE VALUATION OF COAL 140 XI. USES OF COAL....... XII. THE PRODUCTION OF HEAT FROM COAL . .178 XIII. WASTE OF COAL 205 XIV. THE PREPARATION OF COAL FOR THE MARKET . 210 XV. COALING STATIONS OF THE WORLD . 255 INDEX 263 COAL What COAL. CHAPTEK I. HISTORY. romance surrounds the word Consider the strange natural history the wonderful provision in an early geological age of the vast supplies for the future use of a higher type of animal than existed at the time the skill and ingenuity of the engineer in finding the deeply- hidden beds and extracting them from their long resting place, and this in the face of such obstacles as water, fire, and noxious gas the labour of thousands of men and boys in a subterranean world, and the toll of lives annually sacrificed therein the innumerable purposes for which it is required, whereby human life on this earth may be made enjoyable, it might almost be said, possible. In those remote ages of the early history of man, before the periods of metal began, there was little use for coal, so that, whether it was visible or not in the river beds or hill sides, man had probably not investigated its properties. But when the great discovery was made that certain sub- stances could be melted by heat and moulded into various shapes and patterns the hill sides were robbed of the black B c. 2 COAL. substance which could produce the fire necessary for smelting purposes. And so, although pre-historic man had little use for this combustible, and obtained his supplies of fuel from the forests in or near which he lived, there were possibly some miners who smelted and worked the metals, and some smiths who made and tempered arms...