350 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



This brings us directly to the question as to what is 

 involved in carbonization — and by carbonization is 

 meant not simply the destructive distillation of organic 

 matter but the production at the same time of a strong 

 dense coherent mass, capable of being handled and suited 

 for use in either domestic or industrial appliances. Are 

 there any underlying principles which play a funda- 

 mentally important part in the production of coke? In 

 other words, is there a theory of carbonization applic- 

 able in a general way to coals of all types, the recogni- 

 tion or observance of which would enable us to attain the 

 utmost limit of possibility in the matter of coke forma- 

 tion? 



Let us review some of the existing theories. In the 

 old beehive oven the coal having a depth on the floor 

 of the oven of about 3 ft. was decomposed by the heat 

 of the burning gases which were discharged from the 

 coal into the upper part of the chamber. As the decom- 

 position proceeded dowmward, the gaseous products of 

 decompositions were obliged to pass upward through the 

 highly heated layers, thus undergoing secondary decom- 

 position. The carbon deposited on the surface of the 

 coke in this process of decomposition gave a silvery 

 lustre and was believed to play a part in the formation 

 of the cell structure of the product. 



Now, this is hardly to be credited with the designa- 

 tion of a theory. It is doubtless a description of some 

 things that take place upon or around the coke after it is 

 formed. It is distinctly silent as to what is going on 

 down in the coal mass at the zone of active decomposi- 

 tion. The fact of the matter is that the coals worked 

 upon in this fashion were for the most part from the 

 Connellsville region, and would be entirely indifferent 

 as to what theory was proposed for their coking prop- 

 erty. They would coke just as well under one theory as 

 another or under no theory whatever. 



EFFECT OF OXYGEN OX COKING 



AVe come next to a study of coals resulting from the 

 use of solvents which separate the coal without decompo- 

 tition into two portions, one of which has distinctly non- 



