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with glossy stems and jointed leaves . ; - ' innumerable , ferns of far greater dimensions than our fern plants , and in fact tree-ferns ; club mosses that would be gi : mtsto bur . mosses ; together wi . th plants having fluted steins and ' regularly indented seal-like scars ; the whole comprising a fossil flora of about one thousand -recognised ; species , once waving , and quiveriug ^ and bending under winds which have left no trace of . their passage , and under suns which set : in ages almost incalculably antecedent to that in which we now write , — cheered and warmed by the heat and light emanating from the wreck and decay of miles -after miles and years after years' growth of one of the earlier floras of our earth ! While fossil botanists afc home and abroad have busied ; themselves in examining and . determining' the species and ' . dimensions- of the ¦ various plants from . which coal was formed , and of which it bears memorials in its own substance and deposits , geologists have concerned themselves respecting the -mean ' s ' by which these plants were originally accumulatedjtlien decayed , then pressed down and finally transformed into the present fuel . There are theories which . have been fbiight for by the side of good coal-fires , and hotly discussed under gaseous illuminations derived from coal , and some of these have faded and been forgotten , while others have survived and are now flourishing . The pith of the questions is this : —Were these enormous amounts of vegetation stationary in death iis well as in life ; or were they , when fallen , drifted away into the repositories where their ' results are now discovered ? According to the former , or the Peatbogtheory , the ancient forests and jungles- originally . flourished in the present localities of coal , and in due time- suffered subsidence together with the land np « n which they grew , which thus became the basin Of a , lake or estuary , into Which broad rivers carried mud and sand . Out of these latter were consolidated ythose numerous beds of shale and sandstone between which the seams ' --of coal lie , as-iF-preserved by them , and inclosed in sandy and shaley protections . While these covers were -depositing 1 , the vegetable matter , became bituminised and mineralised into coal . Coal , therefore , is as it were boxed up in vast cases of sandstone and shale , which . must be lifted before the fuel can be reached and extracted . ^ Successful coal-mining is nothing else than the discovery and application of akeyto unlock the ponderous coal-cases of Nature . , The second , or the J 3 rift theory , admits , indeed , of partial and limited submersions and elevations of land , but it does not suppose that coal wa $ formed as peat-bogs are how constituted—by the continual decay of plants upon the same spot , and their slow accumulation without transportation , On / the contrary , it contends that the main bulk of the coal seams was deposited as drift and silt in lakes and estuaries , into which the constituent vegetation was deported by rivers and inundations . Tlie transporting rivers were themselves liable to inundations , like the Nile and the Ganges , and thus swept down the vegetation which , in quiet intervals , grew around and closed lip the deltas of tlie rivers . Many curious facts have been observed in the phenomena of the great rivers : of the earth which seem to strengthen this theory ; but the . singular ¦; evenness and uniformity of coal seam ' s are against it . We are rather inclined to combine parts of both theories ; but even then there are some characteristics of coal deposits which are not easy to account for . As moat diligent and careful researches are continually being made into the geoloyy of our-. coal-fields , we may yet learn particulars which may modify our theories in some directions and fortify them in others .. . « Theorise : is we may about the mode of its deposition , the practical value and potential issues of this mineral fuel are the same . Geologists are left to pursue their inquiries as they please , but merchants and mechanicians have a very different interest in coal . To them it is a vast bituminous bank , the spurco of power and the depository of wealth , jfon who cannot name one coal plant are making 1 large fortunes out of coal . They care nothing about how the seam was deposited , but only how it can be extruotod . To them , as to geologists , it is the philosopher ' s stone ; but only because it is convertible into gold , And it id perfectly astonishing to learn what fortunes have beqn coinod out of this black stono .. As there are cotton-lords at Manchester , so there are coal-lords at Newcastle . That town itself has , in one sense , arisen out of . eonl . It is the metropolis of coal :. it has on aristocracy of conl ; on' exchange , mansions , ships , factories , an Armstrong gun factory , railways , machinery , and multitudes-of human beings , oil of yvhom and all of which may be said to have grown out of the coal just as they are topographically situated upon it . Then as to mechanicians—what would they be without conlP Yot few , if any , of them have been aware of the awar . ing- amount of mechanical force stored up in a latent state in this dull and deadlooking substance Let vw instance this in tho results of a calculation made by Professor Rogers , ami as concisely aa may bo . TaUo an acre of coals ( of the best kind ) according to surface measurement , having-a thickness of four feet , and you find its product will bo about five thousand tons . This possesses a roserve of mechanical strength which , when properly developed by the application of it as fuel , would bo equal to tljo life labours of more than one thousand six hundvoil men . Now , tivko a square mile of one such single coalbod , and it contains thvoo million tons of fuel , which , is equivalent to tho labour of one million men labouring- through twenty yfinrs of thoir ripe strongth . Assuming 1 that ton millions , of tons out of the luinunl ooal produce of . British coal-mines are applied to the productions " of mechanical power , then our country annually summons to her aid the mineral equivalent of throe million threo hundred thousand fresh men pledg-ocl to exert their fullest strength through twenty years , Reducing this to one year , wo find that Eng-hviid's actual annual expenditure of power generated by the wo of epnl can
be represented by that of sixty-six million able-bodied labourers But if we go so far as to convert the entire latent strength resident in the whole amount of coal annually produced by our coal-mines into its equivalent in human labour , then , by the same process-of calculation , we shall find-it to be more than the labour of four hundred million strong men , or more than double the number of adult males now upon the globe ! Said we not truly that coal is perhaps the most valuable of all our natural possessions ? To what extent do we . possess this mineral fuel absolutely and comparatively ? Arid at what rate are we now actually and annually extracting it ? Putting all our British coal deposits together , we have in Great . Britain about' 5 , 4 OG square miles of coal area , while France has only 984 , Belgium , 510 ; Russia , 100 ; Prussia , 9 G 0 ; and Spain , 200 square miles . As to area , therefore , we stand very high in comparison with other principal countries . But it is possible to approximate to the solid contents of available coals in these areas ; and then we find that the British islands contain ( upon an average thickness of thirtyrfive feet of good coal ) a total of about 190 , 000 , 000 , 000 tons . France , with beds of about the thickness of sixty feet , has 59 , 000 , 000 , 000 tons . Belgium , averaging the stime thickness , holds 30 , 000 , 000 , 000 tons . The ratio of these estimated quantities of coal , making Belgium the unit , would be as follows : —Belgium , one ; France , less than two '•; British islands , rather more than iive : that is , Britain lias five times the coal possessions of Belgium , and more than double those of France—^ -leaving quality wholly out of consideration . All these together sink into insignificanceas compared with the vast coal fields of America ; but we cannot now do more than refer to them . Our present business lies at home , and near to it . In quality of coal we are very fortunately endowed , as . well as in quantity . The best bituminous or caking coal in the world lies in the great coal field that underlies Newcastle , and stretches far into Durham and Northumberland . It , is curious that Wallsend coal is known and priced all over the civilized world . It warms the Anglophobein France and in the United States . Men actually curse " perfidious Albion" and the " tarnation Britishers" while they warm themselves at : the fireside which Britain supplies . A collier ship is . the only argosy which cheers arid enlightens all nations by its freight . A coal-ship distinguishes England , a gun-ship France , a slaves-ship America—which of ,, these is the benefactor of the world ? Indirectly , perhaps , our black coal qnay prove the best friend of the blackmail . \ , ' . The fiommei-cjally interesting sights arid scenes associated with . tlie . mining and shipping of coal in the great northern coal field of our country , are unknown to nine tenths of England ' s inhabitants . They take in finite < pains to reach and traverse Rome and Naples , but they -might-learn-much more at arid around Newcastle and Durham . When the infatuated Pope totters , and iall . s . or flies from Borne , and Rome itself decays upon its own earlier ruins , our coal towns Will be flourishing , growing stronger , and extending further . Colliery establishments , tall engine chimneys , far-stretching tramways , trains of countless coal waggons , long rows of coalsheds . and screens and store-houses , and crowds of grim and dusky colliers will be our signs of carbonaceous prosperity , more significant , though less sightly , than the old ruinous columns and arches and churches of the ecclesiastical metropolis of papal Christendom . In the issue Newpastle will beat Rorne , The closing of our coal mines would be a far more terrible calamity than the major excommunication—that is the ultimatum of the Pope ' s power , as coal is the ultimatum of ours . With a line or two on our rate of mining we . must conclude . The supply is a fixed and unalterable quantity , its extraction is a quantity largely increased and , in prosperous ' times , increasing ' . The great northern coal lie id is the chief sourco of our best , household coal . Its nrea is from seven hundred to eight hundred square miles . The rate at'which it has been mined had augmented most wonderfully from a merely trifling ' beginning . In 1858 no less than ir > , S 5 : 3 , < LSi tons were delivered from Durham and Northumberland . Now a mining engineer , known tp us , has estimated that tho total merchantable " round" or good-sized coals which U'tm be extracted from this coal field ( abating loss , waste , &c ) , amounts to 1 , 251 , 232 , oO . Jj Newcastle chaldrons (« adh fifty-three hundredweight ) . A simple calculation , upon these data , leads us to the conclusion that , should the present rate of ininiutf proceed , tho whole amount will bo taken out in little more than three hundred years . If wo abate the rate to ten million tons annually , then tho period of exhaustion will bo three hundred and thirty-ono years . Thus , should tho demand and . extraction increase in the same ratio as they havo hitherto dono , this great coal field will bo hopelessly impoverished in the course of three oenturies . Another mining engineer has arrived at ) tho same result by an independent calculation . Tho totjil produce of coal every year from tho collieries of tho United Kingdom it * ( for 1858 ) no Itiss than 05 , Q 08 , GM ) tonn . . i-efe imy clover arithmetician put these sixty-five millions of tons in other mid equivalent forms , and the roHult would bo surprising , and almost surpassing 1 credit . Wo may take tfiis » s u text / ' or another article , in connection with tho anthracites and steam coals , which" are now of tho utmost national importance to ui ? . Stoam warfaro will turn more upon appropriate steam eonl titan most persons nro aware- or . We have mado particular research into our national possessions ot this kind ot'Iuul , and wo believe tjmtthe results are of somu national importance . Meanwhile , tho public tit lurgo are little nwaro that the lumual valuo of our annual produqo of , ooal amounts , at the marmot price , to no loss n sum than sia'toon millions it / itl a quarter / our money I Could wo arrive at tho consumer ' s prioo , and au . that to tho market value , tlio total would , ho indeed astonishing . Any
Untitled Article
ion The Leader andSaturday Analyst . [ Feb . 25 ; I 860 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 180, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2335/page/8/
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