British coal
PEAT
Much of the moorlands of Britain, and still more of those in Ireland, are soft and spongy to the tread. Dug into, they reveal a mass of black or dark brown substance, with a pulpy feel and a fibrous texture. It consists of soil mingled with half-decayed vegetable matter, the remains of reeds and sedges, moss and grasses. This material is peat, which can be used as a low grade fuel. It burns with a subdued heat, but is practically smokeless.
Some peat bogs are as much as fifty feet deep, and show an unusual form of stratification, different types of vegetation being found is successive layers. The water which oozes out of the bogs is tinted a deep brown. This is due to the presence of limonite (bog iron ore, a hydrated oxide of iron), a mineral which formed under the influence of decaying vegetation. In Finland and Sweden, this ore has been commercially worked, and in Ireland, the peat has been distilled to form producer-gas.
LIGNITE
The process which turns vegetation into peat continues. Its next stage is 'brown coal' or lignite. Continued further still, lignite forms coal on which our industries depended on so much. The various stages of the transformation produce different types of coal.
CANNEL COAL
Cannel ('candle') coal is so called because it burns with a bright flame. It doesn't soil the hands and breaks with a conchoidal fracture, and it has a misleading appearance of having been formed by the cooling-down of molten material. It is so hard and can be readily polished, that it has been used, like jet, for making ornaments.
BITUMINOUS COAL
Bituminous coal - wrongly named, as it contains no bitumin (pitch) is commonly used for domestic heating. It consists of layers, some of which are alternately bright and dull, and is so soft as to soil whatever it touches. It contains a greater proportion of carbon than cannel coal.
ANTHRACITE
Anthracite coal contains a still greater proportion of carbon. Like cannel coal, it breaks with a conchoidal fracture and does not soil the fingers, but it has a greater lustre and burns with an almost invisible flame. It was chiefly used as steam coal.
GRAPHITE
Carbon in almost pure state occurs naturally as graphite (from the Greek word for 'writing') sometimes incorrectly called 'Black lead' because of its appearance. Mixed with clay, it forms the 'lead' of lead pencils, and is used in domestic polishes. The crystals of carbon are of course diamonds.
COAL GAS
Distilled coal generates coal gas, which used to provide a major source of heat and light in industry and at home. The residue from this process is coke - a material that does not occur in nature. Also produced in the distillation process is coal-tar, which has been used in numerous medicines, flavourings (!) soaps and dyes.
British coal
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