178 Stoux City Academy of Science and Letters. 
minations were made with each sample, and the tabu- 
lated result is the average. Not enough gas could be 
generated in this way to make photometric tests possibie, 
but the gas was burned in a dark room, with results that 
lead to certain conclusions mentioned later. 
Classification Considered from a physical stand- 
point these deposits, where bedded, can not strictly be 
termed lignites. Lignites, by definition possess a much 
more woody structure, a generally lighter color, and are 
considered to have undergone less complete alteration 
than these materials. Brown Coal is defined by Zincken® 
as follows: “Compact, more or less firm and solid 
masses, with traces of woody structure in parts. Struc- 
ture compact, lustre, dull or slightly shining; color from 
- brown to blackish brown, and with a greasy, shining 
streak. It is intermediate between earthy brown coal 
and pitch coal.” The Nebraska materials might better 
be classified under the head of brown coal, so far as their 
physical properties are concerned. The distinction is 
however not a sharp one, the names lignite and brown 
coal being used synonymously by many geologists and 
chemists. It was thought at the outset by the writer 
that the word lignite would convey a much more definite 
conception of the true status of these deposits and di- 
vorce the same from any association with the word 
“coal” which from the start the enthusiastic producers 
proclaimed their fuel. The classification on the basis 
of chemical composition makes no distinction between 
brown coal and lignite. In general, if the ratio of fixed 
carbon to volatile, combustible matter is greater than 1 
and less than 5, and when the water is less than 10 per 
cent., the coal is classed as bituminous. When the above 
ratio is less than 1, and the percentage of water is more 
than 10, the coal is classed as lignite. The analyses in 
Table II, Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 6 show the ratio of fixed 
carbon to volatile matter to be less than 1. No. 4 is appar- 
ently a better sample of fuel than the others, but in the 
determination of volatile, combustible matter it was 
treated in a different manner from the rest, only a low 
red-heat from a Bunsen burner instead of the heat from 
aCited by Dumble, E. T., in Report on the Brown Coal and Lignite 
of Texas: Geol. Survey of Texas, 1892, p. 50. 
