Note 6 — Chapter VIII · CARBON AND THE HYDROCARBONS

Grass and wood, the vegetation of primæval seas and similar refuse of all geological periods, must have been in many cases subjected to the same changes they now undergo—that is, under water they formed peat and lignites. Such substances, preserved or a long time underground, subjected to the action of water, compressed by the new strata formed above them, transformed by the separation of their more volatile component parts (peat and lignites, even in their last condition, still continue to evolve nitrogen, carbonic anhydride, and marsh gases) form coal. Coal is a dense homogeneous mass, black, with an oily or glassy lustre, or more rarely dull without any evident vegetable structure; this distinguishes it in appearance from the majority of lignites. The density of coal (not counting the admixture of pyrites, &c.) varies from 1·25 (dry bituminous coal) to 1·6 (anthracite, flameless), and even reaches 1·9 in the very dense variety of coal found in the Olonetzky government (termed shungite), which according to the investigations of Professor Inostrantzeff may be regarded as the extreme member of the various forms of coal.

In order to explain the formation of coal from vegetable matter, Cagniard de la Tour enclosed pieces of dried wood in a tube and heated them to the boiling point of mercury, when the wood was changed into a semi-liquid black mass from which a substance exceedingly like coal separated. In this manner some kinds of wood formed coal which on being heated left caking coke, others non-caking; precisely as we find with the natural varieties of coal. Violette repeated these experiments with wood dried at 150°, and showed that when wood is decomposed in this way, a gas, an aqueous liquor, and a residue are formed. The latter at a temperature of 200° has the properties of wood charcoal incompletely burnt; at 300° and higher a homogeneous mass like coal is formed which at 340° is dense and without cavities. At 400° the residue resembles anthracite. In nature probably the decomposition was in rare cases effected by heat alone; more generally it was effected by means of water and heat, but in either case the result ought to be almost the same.

The average composition of coal compiled from many analyses, disregarding the ash, is as follows: 84 parts of carbon, 5 parts of hydrogen, 1 part of nitrogen, 8 parts of oxygen, 2 of sulphur. The quantity of ash is on an average 5 p.c., but there are coals which contain a larger quantity, and naturally they are not so advantageous for use as fuel. The amount of water does not usually exceed more than 10 p.c. The anthracites form a remarkable variety of coals, they do not give any volatile products, or but a very small amount, as they contain but little hydrogen compared to oxygen. In the average composition of coal we saw that for 5 parts of hydrogen there were 8 parts of oxygen; therefore 4 parts by weight of hydrogen are capable of forming hydrocarbons, because 1 part of hydrogen is necessary in order to form water with the 8 parts of oxygen. These 4 parts by weight of hydrogen can convert 48 parts of carbon into volatile products, because 1 part of hydrogen by weight in these substances combines with 12 parts of carbon. The anthracites differ essentially from this: neglecting the ash, their average composition is as follows: 94 parts of carbon, 3 of hydrogen, and 3 of oxygen and nitrogen. According to the analyses of A. A. Voskresensky, the Grousheffsky anthracite (Don district) contains: C = 93·8, H = 1·7, ash = 1·5. Therefore the anthracites contain but little hydrogen capable of combining with the carbon to form hydrocarbons which burn with a flame. Anthracites are the oldest forms of coal. The newest and least transformed coals, which resemble some of the brown varieties, are the dry coals. They burn with a flame like wood, and leave a coke having the appearance of lumps of coal, half their component parts being absorbed by the flame (they contain much hydrogen and oxygen). The remaining varieties of coal (gas coal, smithy coal, coking, and anthracite) according to Grüner in all respects form connecting links between the dry coals and the anthracites. These coals burn with a very smoky flame, and on being heated leave coke, which bears the same relation to coal that charcoal does to wood. The quantity and quality of coke vary considerably with the different sorts of coal from which it is formed. In practice coals are most often distinguished by the properties and quantity of the coke which they give. In this particular the so-called bituminous coals are especially valuable, as even the slack of this kind gives on dry distillation large spongy masses of coke. If large pieces of these kinds of coal are subjected to dry distillation, they, as it were, melt, flow together, and form caking masses of coke. The best coking coals give 65 p.c. of dense caking coke. Such coal is very valuable for metallurgical purposes (see Note 8). Besides coke, the dry distillation of coal produces gas (see further, illuminating gas, p. 361), coal-tar (which gives benzene, carbolic acid, naphthalene, tar for artificial asphalt, &c.) and also an aqueous alkaline liquor (with wood and lignites the liquid is acid from acetic acid) which contains ammonium carbonate (see Note 6).