a4 Anthracite Coal of Rhode-Island. 
ciently ignited to decompose the water; while, on the contra~ 
ry, in the actual combustion of this coal, this water is not dis- 
tilled away, in any considerable degree, but is decomposed, 
because the fuel is brought, in the first instance, into contact 
with other fuel, in a state of intense - ignition, ‘for which r rea- 
son the decomposition of the water and 
of hydrogen, commence, from the very first, and the continu- 
ance 0 Ba s decomposition is insured, beeause the saqueous va- 
pour m s through successive layers of i arbon, 
with which the furnace is, more or less, Slants Sulll am Selinct 
to think, that there is a smal n of combined water in 
= Rhuvie-tsiona anthracite, whieh, although not decom- 
posed by the heat communicated, externally, through an iron 
tube, by a charcoal fire, is decomposed, by the more mtense 
heat which this coal itself, whale burning, ane 
Whether these reasonings are correct or not, 0 prac- 
tical importance, as regards the use of the Rhode-Islana coal 
in domestic. economy, and in the arts; for, when it has not 
been previously dried, it dams not only with intense ignition, 
but with abundant flame. 
To those who are not ope with chemical facts, it may 
not be amiss to remark, that much of the flame of most kinds 
of fuel arises from the combustion of the hydrogen gas, whieh 
decomposed water evolves, and that ignited earbon always 
decomposes this fluid with energy. 
Of this fact, m ————ee When a 
fire e engine dashes a shower of w ate quantities, 
at a time, upon a building, anaes aah great fury, the flame, 
instead of being diminished, is, for the moment, increa 
sometimes darting up in a vast volume, with the first affusion 
of the water. The red hot carbon, is here the decomposing 
agent, attracting to itself the oxygen of the water, and flying 
away with it, in the form of carbonic a“ gas, while the hy- 
pe is let loose, and taking fire, to the volume of 
flame.. Ie dis vente be then ——. on in tlie, the tem- 
perature is lowered, both by contact and by the formation of 
ee ceases to decom mpoensie water as the fire 
eclines. 
fore presume, that oe “oa raised in this case which 
is now obtai i ‘ 
» 
