' AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 433 



Tiually. It is burned in lamps for light, notwithstanding its unpleasant 

 odor, 



Paraffine is another property obtained from coal, which possesses the power 

 of resisting the action of highly concentrated alkalies and acids, and potas- 

 sium even, at a boiling temperature. Its flame is brilliantly white, and 

 deposits no soot. Its transiucency and lubricating quality recommend it 

 for numerous technical applications. A ton of Cannel coal will yield 

 thirteen pounds, besides thirty pounds of lubricating oil, saturated with 

 paraffine, which surpasses all other fatty substances as an anti-frictional, 

 A Mr, Young, in England, now supplies London weekly with eight thousand 

 gallons of this valuable substance. 



Kerosene oil is a product of the distillation of Bituminous coal, and has 

 «ome into use as a source of light. It is exceedingly rich in carbon, and 

 produces a fine light, does not vaporize, and is consequently not explosive. 

 When not ignited it emits an empyreumatic odor, which is not perceived 

 during combustion. 



When coal is placed in tight iron retorts, and heated to redness by ex- 

 ternal fire, the high heat decomposes the coal enclosed, producing a great 

 many compounds, the principal of which are coke, or the solid residue of the 

 €oal, a black oil known as coal tar, water, several compounds of ammonia, 

 among which are sulphurous acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, carbonic acid, 

 carbonic oxide, heavy carburetted hydrogen, light carburetted hydrogen, 

 or olefiaat gas, and a vapor known as sulphuret of carbon. There are 

 likewise traces of numerous other substances. One cubic foot of light 

 carburetted hydrogen consumes in its combustion two cubic feet of oxygen, 

 and generates one cubie foot of carbonic acid. This produces sufficient 

 heat to raise 2,500 feet of air from sixty to eighty degrees, 



Bj different degrees of temperature products of an entirely different 

 character are produced. The lower you cause the temperature to be, the 

 less gas and the more liquid will be formed ; and the higher the tempera- 

 ture, the greater will be the quantity of gas. Distillation may be greatly 

 facilitated by allowing a jet of heated hydrogen gas to be admitted into 

 the retort. In this manner the liquids are distilled in an atmosphere of 

 hydrogen, and thus preserved from igneous decomposition, while the hydro- 

 gen takes up a large portion of the ammonia and sulphur contained in the 

 coal. 



It would be really difficult to find a matter of so great importance to the 

 public as the procurement of a proper oil for the purpose of lubricating 

 machinery. Man's works are all inanimate, and made as near as may be 

 in imitation of the works of the Almighty ; and it is an incontestible fact 

 that the nearer the imitation approaches, the nearer we must arrive at per- 

 fection. Who does not know that God never made an animal without sup- 

 plying his joints with a lubricator, and not only so, but likewise an oily 

 substance externally, perfectly adapted to the density of the element in 

 which he intended it to move ? Who will deny, then, that all mechanism 

 [Am, Inst,] 28 



