THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Mat 1, 1865. 



448 THE CANNEL COAL OF FLINTSHIRE. 



that either the fish must have been "a mighty large one," or the woman 

 uncommonly small. Old Izaak says, "The mighty luce, or pike, is 

 taken to be the tyrant, as the salmon is the king, of fresh waters," but 

 here is a tyrant before whom the pike would be obliged to succumb. 

 Should the Silurus take kindly lo his new home in the bosom of Father 

 Thames, and increase, multiply, and replenish the waters, we may well 

 inquire, " What would old Izaak "Walton say ? " 



THE CANNEL COAL OF FLINTSHIRE. 



Upon more than one occasion we have directed the attention of our readers 

 to the circumstances attendant upon the introduction into commerce of 

 the various liquids now so well known under the name of mineral oils. 

 The manufacture and use of these oils forms an era in commerce, both 

 on account of the effect which has been thereby produced upon certain 

 other branches of trade, and from the magnitude of the transactions 

 that have arisen in connection with the substances themselves. Not 

 more than twelve or thirteen years have elapsed since the mineral oils 

 began to be first known in trade. In 1850, Mr. James Young took the 

 patent which has since been the subject of, perhaps, the most expensive 

 litigation that ever attended the maintenance of patent rights, and 

 between the date of that patent and the present moment the whole 

 commercial history of these oils is comprehended. 



As the term " mineral oil " scarcely carries with it an explanation of 

 the character of the liquid to which it is applied, it may be as well to 

 explain that the liquids which bear this application are all extracted 

 either from a variety of petroleum, or bitumen, or from coal ; it is more 

 particularly in reference to the latter kind of mineral oil that we pro- 

 pose to offer some brief remarks. The Leeswood cannel coal, of Flint- 

 shire, is particularly interesting. At the time when Mr. Young obtained 

 his patent, the question of usefully applying the various liquids pro- 

 duced by the chemical treatment of some natural petroleums was 

 beginning to excite considerable attention. Mr. Young had himself 

 succeeded in utilizing a petroleum in Derbyshire, until, indeed, he 

 finally exhausted the supply ; and, both in France and in England, 

 many attempts had been made to turn to profitable account the pro- 

 ducts of the distillation of the schales of Autun and Dorsetshire. About 

 1851 or 1852, a fresh impulse was given to this subject by the importa- 

 tion of the Burmese or Rangoon petroleum, which, although it had 

 been known from the earliest times, and had been seen and chemically 

 examined in Europe, had never before then been introduced in any 

 commercial quantity ; and the discovery of the now noted mineral, 

 known as the Boghead cannel coal, near Bathgate, in Scotland, addeJ 



