104 STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF THE FOSSIL FUELS. 



When exhaustion was complete, the peat was dried and treated with 

 Steinol. He obtained four resins, three of which are soluble in hot 

 alcohol, but the fourth is soluble only in the Steinol. These are 

 from the denser peat. Analyses of the resins obtained from the 

 less dense peats show that they are not the same, though closely 

 related. The quantity of resinous material seems to be greater in 

 the lower part of a deposit ; and Mulder believed that it was formed 

 during the process of Vertorfung and not derived from the plants 

 directly. 



Smith^^^ utilized solvents in the study of some peats from Scot- 

 land. In his memoir, he summarizes the results obtained by Hune- 

 feld, Reinsch, Mulder and Jacobsen. He treated his peats with 

 naphtha and alcohol and obtained, as the result of several experi- 

 ments, 6 per cent, of a solid resin, black and with waxy fracture. 

 This material has : Carbon, 73.39 to 73.55 ; hydrogen, 10.78 to 10.49; 

 oxygen, not given. Smith says that such wax can be obtained from 

 peat by distillation, but the method of solution secures the crude 

 product as it exists in the peat. He cannot accept the suggestion 

 that the resinous material is due to chemical change but maintains 

 that it must be traced to the original plants themselves ; the increase 

 in proportion downwards is due to the waste of more easily decom- 

 posed materials while the resistant resins remain unchanged ; but in 

 a rnore advanced stage of chemical action, the resins themselves are 

 attacked and are removed in solution. 



In considering these experiments and others of similar character, 

 one cannot determine how much is resin and how much is paraffin 

 material. Graefe's method of treating with benzol gives an ap- 

 proximate determination of the waxes. Von Ammon states that 

 the Schieferkohle of Grossweil has 3.73 per cent, of material soluble 

 in benzol ; Kraemer and Spilker^^*' examined a considerable number 

 of peats, treating them with benzol and in some cases with toluol. 

 They obtained from 3 to 8 per cent, of wax, the quantity in Hoch- 

 moors being less than in other types. 



155 R_ Angus Smith, " A Study of Peat, Part I.," Mem. Manch. Lit. Phil. 

 Soc, III., Vol. v., .1876, pp. 303-331. 



156 G. Kraemer und A. Spilker, " Das Algenwachs und sein Zusammen- 

 hang mit dem Erdol," Bcr. d. Chcm. GcsclL, 1912, Bd. i, p. 1213. 



