142 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
The good missionaries were fully capable of describing the coals 
which were supplied to Pekin, since they there erected a furnace or 
stove, in which they experimented on the properties of those combus- 
tibles ; particularly with reference to the ordinary domestic uses, and 
for te warming of apartments and the purposes of their palseatnayie 
» Among the people of Pekin three kinds are in use. 
1. That employed by the blacksmiths... It yields more flame than the 
other qualities; is more fierce, but is subject to decrepitate in the fire ; on 
which account, probably, the blacksmiths use it pounded in minute 
— 
.2. A harder and stronger coal, used for culinary purpasesy giving 
out more flame than the other sorts so employed ; it is less quickly con- 
sumed, and leaves a residuum of gray ashes. There are several gra 
dations of these. The best are hard to break, of a fine grain, a deep 
black color, soiling the hands less than the others. It sometimes is sufli- 
ciently siliceous to give fire with steel. Others have a very coarse 
grain, are easily broken and make a bright fire, leaving a reddish ash. 
Another species crackles or. decrepitates when first placed on the fire, 
and falls down, almost entirely, in Beales, which close the — of 
the air, and stifle the fire. ° 
3. A soft, feeble burning coal, giving out less heat than the ond class; 
consuming more quickly, it breaks with greater facility, and in general 
is of deeper black than the sorts previously mentioned. It is common- 
ly this description which, being mixed with coal-dust and a fourth part 
of clay, is employed to form an artificial and ceconomical fuel. This 
being moulded in the form of bricks and balls is sold in the shops of 
Pekin. Wagon-loads.of coal dust are Pistia to that mp for ad — 
purpose. 
The coal merchants. have also an ie diat eat leowene oe 
classes 2 and 3. 
We cannot in this place recite fhe numerous details which are far: 
nished by these intelligent Fathers. Suffice it to add, that nearly all 
of the properties and applications are now in every-day use in the 
United States, and are familiar to all. They are, in fact, the natural 
results suggested by qualities possessed in common by the combustibles 
of remote parts of the same globe. Even the modern method of warm- 
ing all the apartments of our dwellings, which we view as the result of 
Superior practical and scientific investigation, was in use, with little de- 
viation, centuries ago by the Chinese. Many a patented artificial. fuel 
compound both in Europe and America, has been in practical omen 
in China at least a thousand years. 
adhe’ ite.—Another description of ‘coal eboiindingy about thirty. 
legs fom oko bt which wa act then a sch goer use there 
