Chemical Examination of Bituminous Coal. 869 
Arr. XIX.—Cheinical examination of Bituminous Coal from 
the pits of the Mid Lothian ‘Coal Mining Company, south 
_ side of James River, fourteen miles from Richmond, Vir- 
- ginia, in Chesterfield County; by B. Situman, Pyafesso# of 
Chemistry, &c. in Yale College, and O. P. Hugsarn, Professor 
of Chemistry, &c. in Dartmouth College. 
‘Turer specimens of fair average quality, not selected for any 
apparent superiority, were taken from a hogshead of the coal, 
sent by the President of the company, A. S. Wootpriner, Esq., 
and experiments were made upon portions of these samples indis- 
criminately taken. 
Physical Characters.—The coal is in the fresh fractured sur- 
face of a jet black color ; lustre, resinous and splendent ; fractnre, 
slightly conchoidal ; splits easily, parallel to surfaces of deposition 
which are strongly marked; the’ two sets of islines considerably 
distinct in large masses and in small specimens very distinct, 
showing a rhombic structure, in several specimens before us, 
making with each other angles of 78° and 102°. 
Thien 4 is another series of faces, very lustrous and spleridabs; 
that also intersect at angles of 78° and 102°. These two series 
of faces cross each other and the surfaces of deposition, and give 
rise to two rhombohedra that incline in opposite directions. By 
these the coal is intersected so frequently as to divide it into lay- 
ers of a line in thickness in one direction. ‘The coal is compact, 
and the specific gravity of three samples taken as above, was 
B. 1312 
C. 1,284 
3. 3877-.3= at A 292, “Bae er. water being 1. 
No. 1. Sixty three and a half grains were coked for two and 
a half hours, in an iron bottle in a draft furnace, and the gaseous | 
products were collected dry over mercury. 
a. All the jars of gas, eighteen in number, were examined by 
caustic potassa.;. the: digeonia acid was thus absorbed, and was 
equal to 80 cubic inches, or bes ad parts, being two fifth parts of 
the volume of the gas. 
b. Binoxide of nitrogen gave in jar 1, a slight redness, thus in- 
dicating oxygen gas. 
Vol. xtit, No. 2.—Jan.—March, 1842. 47 
