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

by Edward A. Martin

When the results of Mr Young's labours became publicly known, a number of companies were started with the object of working on the lines laid down in his patent, and these not only in Great Britain but also in the United States, whither quantities of cannel coal were shipped from England and other parts to feed the retorts. In 1860, according to the statistics furnished, some seventy factories were established in the United States alone with the object of extracting oil from coal and other mineral sources, such as bituminous shale, etc. When Young's patent finally expired, a still greater impetus was given to its production, and the manufacture would probably have continued to develop were it not that attention had, two years previously, been forcibly turned to those discoveries of great stores of natural oil in existence beneath a comparatively thin crust of earth, and which, when bored into, spouted out to tremendous heights.

The discovery of these oil-fountains checked for a time the development of the industry, but with the great production there has apparently been a greatly increased demand for it, and the British industry once again appears to thrive, until even bituminous shales have been brought under requisition for their contribution to the national wealth.

Were it not for the nuisance and difficulty experienced in the proper cleaning and trimming of lamps, there seems no other reason why mineral oil should not in turn have superseded the use of gas, even as gas had, years before, superseded the expensive animal and vegetable oils which had formerly been in use.

Although this great development in the use of mineral oils has taken place only within the last thirty years, it must not be thought that their use is altogether of modern invention. That they were not altogether unknown in the fifth century before Christ is a matter of certainty, and at the time when the Persian Empire was at the zenith of its glory, the fires in the temples of the fire-worshippers were undoubtedly kept fed by the natural petroleum which the districts around afforded. It is thought by some that the legend which speaks of the fire which came down from heaven, and which lit the altars of the Zoroastrians, may have had its origin in the discovery of a hitherto unknown petroleum spring. More recently, the remarks of Marco Polo in his account of his travels in A.D. 1260 and following years, are particularly interesting as showing that, even then, the use of mineral oil for various purposes was not altogether unknown. He says that on the north of Armenia the Greater is "Zorzania, in the confines of which a fountain is found, from which a liquor like oil flows, and though unprofitable for the seasoning of meat, yet is very fit for the supplying of lamps, and to anoint other things; and this natural oil flows constantly, and that in plenty enough to lade camels."

From this we can infer that the nature of the oil was entirely unknown, for it was a "liquor like oil," and was also, strange to say, "unprofitable for the seasoning of meat"! In another place in Armenia, Marco Polo states that there was a fountain "whence rises oil in such abundance that a hundred ships might be at once loaded with it. It is not good for eating, but very fit for fuel, for anointing the camels in maladies of the skin, and for other purposes; for which reason people come from a great distance for it, and nothing else is burned in all this country."

The remedial effects of the oil, when used as an ointment, were thus early recognised, and the far-famed vaseline of the present day may be regarded as the lineal descendent, so to speak, of the crude medicinal agent to which Marco Polo refers.

The term asphalt has been applied to so many and various mixtures, that one scarcely associates it with natural mineral pitch which is found in some parts of the world. From time immemorial this compact, bituminous, resinous mineral has been discovered in masses on the shores of the Dead Sea, which has in consequence received the well-known title of Lake Asphaltites. Like the naphthas and petroleums which have been noticed, this has had its origin in the decomposition of vegetable matter, and appears to be thrown up in a liquid form by the volcanic energies which, are still believed to be active in the centre of the lake, and which may be existent beneath a stratum, or bed, of oil-producing bitumen.

In connection with the formation of this substance, the remarks of Sir Charles Lyell, the great geologist, may well be quoted, as showing the transformation of vegetable matter into petroleum, and afterwards into solid-looking asphalt. At Trinidad is a lake of bitumen which is a mile and a half in circumference. "The Orinoco has for ages been rolling down great quantities of woody and vegetable bodies into the surrounding sea, where, by the influence of currents and eddies, they may be arrested, and accumulated in particular places. The frequent occurrence of earthquakes and other indications of volcanic action in those parts, lend countenance to the opinion that these vegetable substances may have undergone, by the agency of subterranean fire, those transformations or chemical changes which produce petroleum; and this may, by the same causes, be forced up to the surface, where, by exposure to the air, it becomes inspissated, and forms those different varieties of earth-pitch or asphaltum so abundant in the island."

It is interesting to note also that it was obtained, at an ancient period, from the oil-fountains of Is, and that it was put to considerable use in the embalming of the bodies of the Egyptians. It appears, too, to have been employed in the construction of the walls of Babylon, and thus from very early times these wonderful products and results of decayed vegetation have been brought into use for the service of man.

Aniline has been previously referred (p. 135) to as having been prepared from nitro-benzole, or essence de mirbane, and its preparation, by treating this substance with iron-filings and acetic acid, was one of the early triumphs of the chemists who undertook the search after the unknown contained in gas-tar. It had previously been obtained from oils distilled from bones. The importance of the substance lies in the fact that, by the action of various chemical reagents, a series of colouring matters of very great richness are formed, and these are the well-known aniline dyes.