Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Under the United Kingdom

In order for everyone to understand this story, it is necessary to review the origin of coal mines in a few sentences. In geological time, when the spheroid of Earth was forming, it was surrounded by a thick atmosphere impregnated with water vapor and saturated with carbonic acid.The vapors gradually condensed into a torrential rain that seemed to splash down from the necks of billions and billions of soda bottles.This is actually a carbonic acid liquid, which rushes down to a viscous and very weak earth, which is suddenly or slowly deformed by the combined action of the sun's heat and the heat of the earth's inner matter, Formed the semi-fluid state.Since the internal heat has not yet accumulated to the core, the not-so-thick, incompletely hardened crust allows it to overflow through its pores.From this a vegetative phenomenon arose--which no doubt might also have been produced on the surface of Venus or Mercury, the inner planets more closely approximated than the ground of this luminous planet.

The land of the still unstable continent is therefore covered with endless forests.Carbonic acid, suitable for the development of the vegetable kingdom, was then extremely plentiful.So, the plants developed in the form of trees.Not a single herb.Here and there were great expanses of trees, no flowers, no trees, a drab face, and therefore far from being able to support any life.The earth was not ready for the emergence of the animal kingdom. This is the composition of the pre-flood forest in the time of Noah.Dominating there is the vascular cryptogam class.Reed wood, various species of horsetail, scale wood, various giant stone pines with a height of 25 or 30 meters and a width of 1 meter at the base, ferns, whose impressions have been found in the mine of San Edienne. Great ratio of seal wood— —Only in the humblest specimens of the earth inhabited by man are recognizable analogues of the majestic plants of that time—very few species, but growing tall and large, and the forests of that age consisted only of these Made of plants.

The roots of those trees were then submerged in an endless lagoon thinned out by a mixture of fresh and sea water.They greedily absorb the carbon that they decant out from the atmosphere little by little, but they are still unable to adapt to the operation of life. It can be said that they are destined to be stored in the interior of the earth itself in the form of coal. In fact, it was an era of frequent earthquakes. Those earthquakes caused by internal fluctuations and deep effects suddenly changed the unstable contours of the earth's surface.Here, the swollen places became mountains; there, the deep pits were filled by the ocean or sea.Whole forests then sank into the crust of the earth, passing through the constantly moving strata until they found a point of support, and thus formed the ancient soil of granitic rocks, or by sinking, formed extremely solid piece of

The geological composition of the earth's interior is actually in this order: above the ancient strata are newly added strata composed of Paleozoic strata, followed by Mesozoic strata, in which the coal bed is in the lower layer, then Tertiary strata, and on top These are ancient and modern alluvial strata. At that time, there was no river bed capable of holding the condensed water that is produced everywhere on the earth, and this water in its rush strips the constituents of schist, sandstone, and calcareous rock from the barely formed rock.The water flowed over the peaty forest, leaving behind components of the soil that would feed the coal fields.Over time—over millions of years—these soils hardened, layered up, and enclosed whole sunken forests in conglomerate, schist, dense or easily Under the thick geological formation of broken sandstone, gravel, and gravel.

What's going on in this huge cauldron of plant material accumulated at several different depths?A real chemical operation, a distillation.The carbon contained in these plants was all bound together, and coal was formed bit by bit under the dual action of tremendous pressure and the high temperature generated by the heat of the interior that was so close to it at that time. And so, with this slow but irrepressible reaction, one kingdom replaced another.Plants turned into ore.The plants that first lived in vegetative life by their vital sap were petrified.Certain incompletely altered substances enclosed within this vast flora left their imprint on other products of more rapid mineralization, as if pressed upon them with immeasurably strong hydraulic pressure. .At the same time, some shells swept away by the water, some plant-shaped animals, such as starfish, coral bones, stone swallows, fish, and lizards, also left their clear impressions on the still soft coal, as if "Draw an amazing stroke."

Moreover, it must be noted that all those plants in which impressions have been found belong to species still extant in the equatorial regions of the globe.From this it can be concluded that at that time, everywhere on the earth was equally hot, whether the heat was brought by warm currents, or whether it was felt on the surface of the earth by the heat from the ground penetrating through the hard shell with holes.This can be used to explain how the carbon-bearing formations formed under all the latitudes of the earth. Pressure appears to play an important role in the formation of carbon-bearing formations.In fact, the different varieties of coal used in industry all come from the intensity of pressure.Therefore, in the bottom few layers of the coal mine, anthracite is mined. In this kind of coal, there are almost no volatile substances and the carbon content is the largest.In the highest layers, on the contrary, lignite and fossil wood, the substances with the least carbon content, emerge.Between these two layers, according to the degree to which the formation is under pressure, veins of graphite, fat or lean coal are seen, and it can even be asserted that the peaty bog formations have not been completely altered due to lack of sufficient pressure.

Thus, the origin of coal mines found in several places on the earth is as follows: during geological time, vast forests were engulfed in the earth's crust, and then, under the influence of pressure and heat, under the action of carbonic acid, accompanied by Time completes mineralization. Yet nature, always so generous, has not swallowed enough forests to feed millennia.Someday there will be a shortage of coal - that's for sure.If some new fuel doesn't replace coal, machines all over the world will have to face a stubble period.If it were not for Greenland, there would be a perpetual sheet of ice covering the carbonaceous deposits around the Baffin Island Sea, and sooner or later there would be no carbonaceous deposits, and mining in those places would be almost impossible.This is an inevitable fate.The coalfields in the United States, which are still extremely rich today, such as the Salt Lake coalfield, the Ogeron coalfield, and the California coalfield, will one day be in short supply.So will the coal mines of Breton and St. Laurent, the deposits of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri.Although North America has ten times as many carbon-bearing deposits as all deposits in the world, within ten centuries the behemoth with its industrial million mouths will swallow the last coal on earth.

The Old Continent has been known to feel coal-starved faster.There are many combustible deposits in Abyssiny, in Ninatal, on the Zambezi, in Mozambique, in Madagascar, but their regular mining is extremely difficult.Burma, China, Cochin China, Japan, Central Asia, where the combustible mineral deposits will be exhausted soon.The British would surely have exhausted the considerable reserves of coal produced beneath Australia before the United Kingdom ran out of coal.By then, the hollowed-out carbonaceous veins of Europe had long since been abandoned. Let us make an estimate by the figures of coal consumption since the discovery of the first coal beds.600,000 hectares of coal fields in Russia, Saxony and Bavaria; 150,000 hectares in Spain; 150,000 hectares in Bohemia and Austria.The Belgian coalfield, which is 40 miles long and 3 wide, also has 150,000 hectares. These coalfields stretch under the ground of Liege, Namur, Mons and King Charle.In France, the coalfields are located between the Loire and the Rhone, at the banks of the Quai, Saint-Étienne, Givaux, Urbinal, Blanche, Creuzot-Gard, Allais, Grand-Combet Mining sites - Mining sites from Avellon to Oban - Coal bunkers in Cameron, Bassac, Gressac - Anzain, Valenciennes, Lens, Bedouin in the north about 350,000 hectare.

There can be no doubt that the richest country in coal is the United Kingdom.Apart from Ireland, which has an almost absolute lack of combustible minerals, the United Kingdom has enormous carbon-bearing wealth - but like all wealth, it is depleted.Among all kinds of coal fields, the most important is the Newcastle coal field, which is located underground in Northumberland County, with an annual output of 30 million tons of coal; that is, nearly one-third of the coal consumption of the United Kingdom and two-thirds of the coal production of France. times more.In the coalfields of the Swazi area, where miners are concentrated in Cardiff, Swan Sea, and Newport, 10 million tons of the precious coal that bears this name are produced every year.In the Midlands, the coalfields of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire are all being mined, producing less but still considerable coal.At last, in this part of Scotland between Edinburgh and Glasgow, between these two seas so sunken by the waves; stretches one of the greatest veins of mines in the United Kingdom.The total number of these different coal fields will not be less than 1.6 million hectares, and the annual output of this black fuel can reach 100 million tons.

But that's nothing!To satisfy the needs of industry and commerce, the consumption of coal will increase to exhaust these wealth.It is not necessary to wait until the end of the third millennium of the Christian era.In Europe the miners' hands would empty the warehouses that, according to a reasonable imagination, contained the heat of the ancient sun. Taking account of the increasing consumption of coal, here is the final statistic of when this combustible ore was exhausted in Europe: France after 1140 England 800 years later Belgium 750 years later Germany 300 years later Based on the calculation of 5 billion tons per year, in the United States, ore deposits can provide coal for 6,000 years.

At the time when this story happened, one of Scotland's most important coal fields was hollowed out due to excessive mining.In fact, the coal mines of Aberfoyle lie in this area, stretching between Edinburgh and Glasgow, under a moderately sized piece of land, ten or twelve miles, under which the engineer James Starr had for so long led the Works there. And for 10 years, the mines had to be left behind.Despite explorations to depths of 1,500 or 2,000 feet, no new veins could be found, and when James Starr left he was convinced that even the poorest veins had been dug. So in this case, the discovery of a new coalfield deep beneath the UK would obviously be a dramatic event.Could the information announced by Simon Ford be of this nature?This is what James Starr was thinking about.It is also what he hopes. In short, was there another corner of this fertile black India calling upon him to conquer again?He likes to think so. The second letter had clouded his mind for a time on this point, but he no longer considered it now.Besides, the old foreman's son was there, waiting for him as agreed.Therefore, anonymous letters no longer have any value. The engineer just stepped onto the pier.The young man walked towards him. "Are you Harry Ford?" James Starr asked him urgently, straight to the point. "Yes, Mr. Starr." "I don't even recognize you, boy! Ah! Ten years have passed. You're grown up!" "I, I recognize you," answered the young miner, hat in hand, "you have not changed, sir. You are the same you who embraced me at the Dorchard coal bunkers on the day we parted! It will never be forgotten, these thing!" "Put your hat on, Harry," said the engineer, "it's raining heavily, and politeness shouldn't cause a cold." "Would you like us to take shelter from the rain, Mr. Starr?" asked Harry Ford. "No, Harry. There's no time. It's going to rain all day and I'm in a hurry. Let's go." "At your command," replied the young man. "Tell me, Harry, how is Father?" "Excellent, Mr. Starr." "What about mother?..." "Mother is fine too." "It was your father who wrote me a letter asking me to go to Yale Mine?" "not me." "But Simon, did Ford send me a second letter to cancel this appointment?" asked the engineer urgently. "No, Mr. Stahl," replied the young miner. "Yes!" replied James Starr, not mentioning the anonymous letter. Then, he said: "Then can you tell me what old Simon wants me to do?" he asked the young man. "Mr. Stahl, my father insists on speaking to you himself." "But you know that? . . . " "I know." "Well, Harry, I'll leave you alone. On your way, because I'm anxious to talk to Simon Ford—yes, where does he live now?" "In the mine." "What! At the Dochart coal bunker?" "Yes, Mr. Starr," answered Harry Ford. "What! Did your family leave the old mine after the project was over?" "Not a day, Mr. Stahl. You know your father. He was born there, and there he will die!" "I get it, Harry... I get it! The coal mine where he came from! He won't leave it! Are you happy there then? . . . " "Yes, Mr. Starr," replied the young miner, "for we love each other so sincerely, and we don't need much!" "Well then, Harry," said the engineer, "on the road!" So James Starr followed the young man through the streets of Callander. After 10 minutes, the two left the city.

---

Notes: