Bituminous coal is the fuel which runs the factories, railways and steamships of the world. The distillation of coal tar and the utilization of its numerous by-products, is one of the best examples of modern economy which turns waste material into useful products and large profits. Much coke is made without saving the by-products.
By distillation, bituminous coal yields gas, ammonia, coal tar and coke. Coal tar products are numbered by the thousand. Among them are naphtha, benzine, oil of mirbane, perfumes, flavors, drugs, saccharine, aniline and other dyes, phenol, carbolic acid, salicylic acid, naphthaline, photographic developers, creosote, oils, tar and pitch.
Anthracite coal is almost pure carbon.
Cobalt is a metal the ores of which are sparingly distributed. It generally occurs as Speiss-cobalt, cobalt-glance (or cobaltite), wad, cobalt-bloom, linnæite and skutterudite. Its minerals are found chiefly in the Erzgebirge Mountains, Sweden, Norway, Chile, in silver ores near Coleman township, Ontario, in Oregon (as garnierite), and in New Caledonia. The metal itself is of a gray color with a reddish tinge, brittle, hard, and very magnetic.
Many of its compounds are valued on account of the brilliance and permanence of their colors. The protoxide of cobalt, is employed in the form of smalt in the production of the blue colors in porcelain, pottery, glass, encaustic tiles, fresco-painting, etc., and forms the principal ingredient in Old Sevres Blue, Thenard’s Blue, etc. The chlorid of cobalt, dissolved in much water, may be employed as a sympathetic ink. In dilute solutions, it is of a faint pink color, which is not observable upon paper; but when heated before the fire, it loses water, and becomes blue, and the writing is then capable of being read.
Copper is, next to iron, the most important metal in use. Its greatest production is in the United States, in Arizona, Montana, Michigan, and Utah. Spain, Japan, Chili, Australia and Germany produce smaller amounts. The metal is purified by smelting, and refined, often by electrolytic methods. There are many ores.
Chalcopyrite and bornite (sulphides of copper and iron) are widely distributed.
Chalcocite (copper sulphide) is mined in Montana, malachite and azurite (carbonates of copper) in Arizona and metallic copper in Michigan.
Copper matte is the crude metal as it comes from the smelter.
Brass and bronze are alloys of copper with zinc, tin, aluminum, etc.