The Story of a Piece of Coal: What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes

Produced by Miranda van de Heijning, Luiz Antonio de Souza and PG
Distributed Proofreaders
1896
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 principal 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.
February , 1896.
FIG. 1. Stigmaria 2. Annularia radiata 3. Rhacopteris inaequilatera 4. Frond of Pecopteris 5. Pecopteris Serlii 6. Sphenopteris affinis 7. Catamites Suckowii 8. Calamocladus grandis 9. Asterophyllites foliosa 10. Spenophyllum cuneifolium 11. Cast of Lepidodendron 12. Lepidodendron longifolium 13. Lepidodendron aculeatum 14. Lepidostrobus 15. Lycopodites 16. Stigmaria ficoides 17. Section of Stigmaria 18. Sigillarian trunks in sandstone 19. Productus 20. Encrinite 21. Encrinital limestone 22. Various encrinites 23. Cyathophyllum 24. Archegosaurus minor 25. Psammodus porosus 26. Orthoceras 27. Fenestella retepora 28. Goniatites 29. Aviculopecten papyraceus 30. Fragment of Lepidodendron 31. Engine-house at head of a Coal-Pit 32. Gas Jet and Davy Lamp 33. Part of a Sigillarian trunk 34. Inside a Gas-holder 35. Filling Retorts by Machinery 36. Condensers 37. Washers 38. Purifiers