XXV111 REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. 



physical properties are entirely different. This is due not only to the 

 amount of water contained in the lignite, amounting to from ten to 

 twenty per cent of its weight, but also to the fact that it is the product 

 of a different period of geologic time, and it may be that the develop- 

 ment of the bituminous matter differs in some way in the two. Therefore 

 in any intelligent effort to make it available for fuel, these considera- 

 tions must be taken into account and proper allowances made for them. 

 In Europe, where fuel is scarcer than here, lignites of much poorer 

 quality than our average deposits are successfully used, not only as fuel 

 for domestic purposes but also for smelting. 



The fact that lignites have not been used in the United States is 

 taken by some as an evidence of their worthlessness, but if we turn to 

 Europe we find that their usefulness is of the highest character. From 

 the Jahres Berichte der Chemischen Technologic,* by Dr. R Wagner 

 (1855 to 1889), I have had a careful compilation made of the progress 

 of the lignite industry in Germany. From this we learn that although 

 the German lignites are inferior to those of Texas, as proved by nu- 

 merous chemical analyses, they are in use for every purpose for which 

 bituminous coal is available, and for some to which such coal is not 

 suited. Their principal use is, naturally, as fuel. They are used in 

 the natural state, or u raw," in places for household purposes, and also 

 to a very large extent in Siemens' regenerator furnaces ; and, even in 

 connection with coke made from the lignites themselves, as much as 

 forty to seventy per cent of raw lignite is used in the smelting of iron 

 ores in furnaces of suitable construction. 



Raw lignites are also used in the conversion of iron into steel by the 

 Bessemer process, but require a small addition of coke for this purpose. 



For general fuel purposes, however, the lignites are manufactured 

 into briquettes, or coal bricks, of different sizes, by pulverizing them, 

 evaporating the surplus water, and compressing them under presses 

 similar to those used in the manufacture of pressed brick. Many of 

 the German lignites contain as much as thirty to forty per cent of 

 water, and the heat which is necessary to drive this off acts on the 

 chemical elements of the lignite and develops the bituminous matter 



* This work is a yearly review of the progress of applied chemistry and chemical indus- 

 tries in Germany. It gives accurate descriptions of all new processes and reviews all pub- 

 lications on subjects connected with the application of chemistry to manufactures, and is also 

 devoted to everything connected with the science of chemistry itself. It is of the highest 

 authority. 



