Such is the brief history of those new metals which have already found a useful employment in the industrial arts. It throws a vivid light upon the rapid progress of modern chemistry, for the very existence of most of them was undreamt of at the beginning of the present century, and their discovery could be attained only by an amount of analytical knowledge beyond the scope of any previous age. On witnessing these triumphs of science we may well ask where they will end, and when the goal will be reached beyond which it will be impossible for the human intellect to penetrate?
CHAPTER XXXII.
COAL.
The Age of Coal—Plants of the Carboniferous Age—Hugh Miller’s Description of a Coal Forest—Vast Time required for the Formation of the Coal-fields—Derangements and Dislocations—Faults—Their Disadvantages and Advantages—Bituminous Coals—Anthracites—Our Black Diamonds—Advantageous Position of our Coal Mines—The South Welsh Coal-field—Great Central and Manchester Coal-fields—The Whitehaven Basin and the Dudley Area—Newcastle and Durham Coal-fields—Costly Winnings—A Ball in a Coal-pit—Submarine Coal Mines—Newcastle View from Tynemouth Priory—Hewers—Cutting Machines—Putters—Onsetters— Shifters—Trapper Boys—George Stephenson—Rise of Coal Production—Probable Duration of our Supply—Prussian Coal Mines—Belgian—Coal Mines in various other countries—Maunch Chunck.
The history of the primitive races of mankind, as far as we are able to trace it in the few relics that have survived their existence, shows us that an age of stone was followed by one of bronze, which in its turn was succeeded by one of iron. The Golden Age has probably never existed but in the fancy of poets who sought in the land of dreams a compensation for the deficiencies of the real world; and there can be no doubt that, despite California and Australia, our own times are as far from realising the pleasing vision as any before them.
But a title to which they have a better claim is founded upon the vast use of the mineral fuel without which the glorious inventions of Watt and Stephenson would have been comparatively vain; and whoever has attentively examined the foundations of our industry, our commerce, our wealth, and our civilisation will hardly deny that we live in what may justly be termed the Age of Coal.
This mineral, the importance of which in the political economy of the leading nations of the globe can hardly be overrated, is also one of surpassing interest in a geological point of view, for the history of its formation is one of the great marvels of the subterranean world.
PECOPTERIS ADIANTOIDES.
SPHENOPTERIS AFFINIS.