II 





IS 



rind of the nut is mlud IB water for smnl month*, titan beatta upon 

 rteae with pien of heavy wood, and afterward, nibbed with the 

 Md until UM urterOMdiate substance U oonpletely separated from the 

 . The rind of forty rang* nuU mpjJio. bout ix 

 of the fibre. This fibre constitutes the coire, which 

 far QM in the MUD* way u hemp or other fibrous 

 MM*. 



Thto material JIG mat tenacity. Indeed, Dr. Kozburgfa 



reuajrk*. that "coire is certainly the Tory best material yet known for 

 mhUe. oo account of ita s^srt elasticity and strength." The material 

 U rery buoyant, and wWl suited for making rope* of large diameter. 

 Until ohain-eabfes WOT introduced, all the ship* which navigated the 

 M* bad cable* mad* of thi* substance. The fibre* are rather 



'than injured by immenion in sea-water; but the smoothness 

 of the coire-eordage, though rery advantageous to 

 and the light line* of a ihip, render it less fitted for 



Thar* ha* been a branch of manufacture introduced within the laat 

 few yean in England, in which coire it employed rather differently 

 than in the shore-described instance* ; thi* u for the production of 

 rug*, druggets, mat*, mntting. iiiiUiiaaM. and similar coarse goods. 

 Dampier mentioned two or three centuries ago the production of cluth 

 from such a material ; for he says, " I have been told by Captain KM<>\. 

 who wrote the ' Relation of Ceylon,' that in some place* of India they 

 make a sort of coarse cloth of this husk of the cocoa-nut, which U used 

 for nails. Myself hare seen coarse sailcloth made of such a kind of sub- 

 stance." Besides the actual wearing or plaiting of this material into textile 

 fabrics of a ooane kind it is used as a stuffing for mattresses, pillows, 

 and cushions. Dampier alluded to the use of the fibres to caulk the 

 seams of ships ; and Mr. Marshall speaks of the employment of them 

 in India in stuffing mattresses, cushions for couches, and saddles, as a 

 substitute for hone-hair. The availability of the material for such a 

 u to depend upon these qualities : that the coire U rery 

 tible ; that it does not harbour vermin, as home-hair would in 

 a warm climate ; and that it is free from offensive smell 



The quantity of coire now imported is large, but it cannot be 

 quite determined from the Board of Trade returns, in which it is 

 included with " jute, and other vegetable substances of the nature of 

 '. 



COKE, the solid residue obtained by the destructive distillation of 

 coal. It consists almost entirely of carbon, associated with a certain 

 quantity, usually small, of incombustible mineral matter, which is left 

 behind as ash when the coke in burnt. 



As an article of commerce, it is produced by partial combustion in 

 close chambers, or in heaps from which the free access of air is 

 excluded. Being composed almost entirely of carbonaceous matter, 

 coke is a fuel much purer and better adapted for use in smelting and 

 various other furnaces than raw or uncoked coal ; nnd as it is divested 

 of those constituent parts which produce most dark-coloured smoke, 

 it is especially preferred in cases in which it is necessary to avoid 

 the emission of smoke, as for the furnaces of locomotive engines. 

 The introduction of railways has occasioned a very large demand 

 for coke for this purpose, though its use in the manufacture of iron 

 has been diminished in some degree by the adoption of the hot-blast 

 for furnaces, by the aid of which uncoked coal may be used in lieu 

 of coke. 



The simplest mode of coking, which is still occasionally followed, is 

 to lay the coal in large flattened heaps, often containing 80 or 40 tons 

 each, in the open air, covering it with ashes and earth to confine the 

 heat, so that the mass of coal may be slowly burnt in a smothered 

 manner, men being employed during the process to renew the covering 

 wherever the Ire may begin to burn through too fiercely. The late Dr. 

 Ure, in describing various modes of making coke in Germany, noticed 

 both circular and oblong coking meiltn at mounds of this character, 

 the former being piled round a central chimney built of loose bricks. 

 towards which small horizontal flues are laid among the lumps of coal 

 forming the mound ; while in the latter vertical flues or chimneys are 

 provided by the insertion, while the mounds are forming, of wooden 

 stakes, which, when the whole pile is completed, are withdrawn, their 

 place being filled uu with readily combustible materials, to ni.l in 

 igniting the mass of coal. The exterior of these meilers is covered 

 with dork, or coal-dust, and clay. 



The best and most economical method of making coke U in close 

 orens, which are built in various forms. In some large establishim-nts 

 these orens are a hundred or more in number, each being a brick 

 structure eight or ten feet high, with a flat roof in which is an 

 for introducing the coal, and with another owning in front from which 

 to remove the coke. The orens bring placed side by si<li in a 

 continuous range, a railway is laid along their flat roof* by which 

 the coal is brought close to the charging -holes, while another, 

 running on a lower level, in front of the openings by whirh the 

 onke is taken out, affords facilities for its removal. I >r. Ure gare 

 details of various forms of coke-ovens, of which we nan only notice 

 the rery excellent kind adopted by the London and North- Western (at 

 that time the London and Birmingham) Railway Company for making 

 coke at the Camden-Town station, for the use of their locomotive 

 engines. Each of these ovens was, internally, of an elliptic form, 

 mnwuring 12 fcrt by 11 in the clear, and surrounded by brick-work 



S feet thick. The internal height was about 4 feet, the floor being 

 flat, bedded upon a thick stratum of concrete, and the roof in the form 

 of a flat dome. In the front of each oven was an opening about S feet 

 square, covered by a oast-iron door lined with fire-bricks, which slid up 

 and down by means of chains and counter- weight*. At the back of the 

 roof was an opening, capable of being wholly or partially closed by a 

 iiliding damper communicating with a horiiimtal flue which conducted 

 the smoke to a high chimney serving for the whole range of orens. 

 The orens were charged through the front opening with about three 

 tons and a half of coals, upon the top of which a little straw was thrown. 

 The oven being rery hot from its preceding charge, smoke began 

 immediately to rise from the mass, while the straw became ignited by 

 radiation from the dome. By the active combustion thus excited on 

 the surface of the coal the greater part of the smoke was consumed, all 

 that arose from the half -ignited coals having to rise through the fully- 

 kindled coals on the surface, which were freely exposed to the access 

 of air, both the furnace door and the flue being for a time left fully 

 open. As the operation proceeded, the fire burned regularly down- 

 wards, and the doors and dampen were gradually closed. After a 

 calcination of upwards of forty hours the doom and dampen ware 

 perfectly closed, by which means the mass was partially cooled, and 

 formed itself into prismatic concretions, somewhat resembling columnar 

 basalt ; when sufficiently cooled the furnace was opened, and the mass 

 of coke broken up with iron ban and thrown out upon the pavement 

 to be extinguished by sprinkling water over it. When the coking is 

 conducted in this manner a rery small quantity of unconsumed gas 

 and soot escapes, and the coals, if good, yield about 80 per cent, of 

 compact glistening coke, weighing about 14 cwt. per chaldron. The 

 more recent operations of the railway companies have led to the intro- 

 dm-tion of many improved processes in coke-making. In ordinary 

 coking-ovens the loss in weight is about 25, instead of 20 per cent., 

 but the bulk of the coal is increased about 25 per cent, by the process. 



The production of coke in the manufacture of coal-gas is noticed 

 under GAS-LIOHTIHO. 



In 1854 the London and North Western Railway company requested 

 Messrs. Woods and Marshall to institute a series of experiments, to 

 determine whether coal could advantageously be used in substitution 

 of, or in combination with, coke in locomotive engines. The experi- 

 ments were made with Hawksbury coal, dug from a pit near Coventry ; 

 it was selected on account of the proximity of the pit to the railway. 

 and also because the coal is hard, and possessed of other favourable 

 qiialiticfl. The main coal could be supplied in large lumps at the 

 Rugby depot for 9. M. per ton. Some of Mr. M'Connell's locomotives 

 were tried, alternately with Hawksbury main coal and with the best 

 coke. Under nearly equal circumstances in other respect*, a con- 

 sumption of 25 Ibe. of coke was found to equal that of 35 Ibs. of coal, 

 in working effect ; and 84 Ibs. of water were evaporated by 1 Ib. of 

 coke, against 5] Ib. by 1 Ib. of coal. In trials with various engines, 

 drawing various loads, the comparative results were nearly as above, in 

 some cases more favourable to the coke. The result of the experi- 

 ments showed that the use of coal in locomotives is quite practicable ; 

 that the engines, with coal fuel, have no difficulty in maintaining the 

 required speed and pressure of steam ; that the consumption, or rather 

 non-production, of smoke may be very nearly attained ; but that the 

 last-named advantage depends very much on the skill and attention of 

 the men employed, there being a necessity for a much more frequent 

 supply, and for smaller quantities at each firing. Taking the results 

 of one particular locomotive as an example, it was found that 1 ton of 

 coke did about as much work as 1 4 tons of coal ; but as the price of a 

 ton of the latter was 9t. 8rf., and that of the other 21., the money-cost 

 for a given amount of power produced was less in the coal to the 

 extent of nearly It. per ton. The experimenters found, however, that 

 the company possessed only a small number of one particular kind of 

 engine suitable for burning coal without producing smoke; and it 

 would become, therefore, a commercial question how far it wouM 

 be worth while to build new engines for the sake of ensuring 

 advantages. 



There has long been, and still is, a controversy among practical men, 

 not only concerning the relative qualities of coke and coal for use in 

 locomotives, but in furnaces generally. At Pellatt's glass-works, near 

 Black friara* Bridge, coke has been found to possess better qualities than 

 coal for heating the kilns : 18 cwt. of coke was found to produce as 

 much beating effect as 20 cwt. of coal. It has been found that, if a 

 little coal be mixed with a prr|x>n<l< rant quantity of coke, the glass 

 ingredients become relined many hours earlier, the effects are more 

 certain, there is less injury to the melting-pots, there is much less 

 emission 1 of nmoke, and there ia less cost by 24 per cent, than when 

 coal alone is used. The best coke is found to be obtainable from 

 Newcastle coal, the next best from Wigan, a third quality from 

 Bamtley, and a quality nearly as good as breeze from cannel coal. 

 The sooner coke is used after making, especially if gas-coke, the better. 

 It has been laid down by some manufacturers, that whenever a chaldron 

 of coke is sold at a lower price than a ton of small coal, it is cheaper to 

 use coke than coal. Many manufacturing establishments now mix coke 

 largely with their coal, thereby greatly lessening the emission of 

 smoke; but in the North, where coal is cheaper, and where smoke- 

 prevention is little thought of, coko is not much used in steam-engine 

 furnaces. Many persons object to the use of gas-coke, on account of 



