oil [No. 2] offers another characteristic feature; if after being drawn off and distilled, and if in this latter process the more volatile or first proceeds, say one half of the quantity acted upon, be set apart and the remaining half exposed to a low temperature, there will soon appear in this part of the distilled oil small flakes of a white, odorless, and light substance which is a compound of carbon and hydrogen [paraffine]. The familiarity with the subject, somewhat remarkable in view of the early date of his patent, which Butler exhibits cannot fail to strike the reader. This inventor was however unfortunate in the idea of trying to make at the same time oil and gas-in endeavoring to reconcile two antagonistic processes.

In 1841, Sept. 4, Count de Hompesch of Prussia* specified certain "improvements in obtaining oils and other products from bituminous matters."+ It is well known, he says, that oils may be obtained from these substances but from the imperfection of the processes now used the quantity obtained is small, the quality inferior, and the smell noxious. My invention consists in an improved process, whereby I increase the quantity, improve the quality, and remove or greatly modify the smell. I have found by experiment, he continues, that the oil from shale, &c., possesses three different characters which may be called essential oil, intermediary fat oil, and thick oil, and these oils I separate by means of peculiar apparatus-which he describes in detail. In distilling shales heat is applied until the temperature reaches 100° R. 257° F., at which temperature essential oil will pass over. The charge, after having been subjected to this temperature for half an hour, is pushed forward in the retort which is now subjected to a heat of 200° R. 482 F., by which increased heat the intermediary or fat oil is obtained. After having subjected the charge to this increased temperature for half an hour the workmen again pushes the charge further on in the retort where it becomes of a red heat; the vapor now given off yields the thick oil. The carbonization is now complete; and I obtain these three separate oils by the gradual increase of the heat; and I effect this distillation without decomposition of the substance, the vapors escaping from the retort as fast as they are formed.

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The essential oil is separated from the fat oil by exposing the mixture to a current of steam by which the more volatile oil is carried off. The oil [fixed] thus prepared must be filtered and is then ready for application to all kinds of machinery, being very fat, works without friction and leaves no sediment. The essential oil is collected and subjected to further treatment.

The specification of Du Buissont for improvement in the distillation of bituminous substances, is an almost literal translation of Selligue's last patent. Indeed, Du Buisson tells us that the extensive works at Autun, Department of the Saone and Loire, France, are partly his property and that he has the management of them as chemist. He affirms moreover that the most important results have there been attained results which place the distillation and treatment of schistus among the most useful and productive of chemical manufactures.

Since we have already extracted largely from Selligue's specification it is unnecessary to cite more of it here. It is a little curious that this most important patent is not mentioned in Dr. Antisell's "list of English Patents" (p. 141).

The well known attempts to prepare paraffine and oils from peat§ need not be discussed here. Another patent, not mentioned in Dr. A.'s list, is that of

*Specification No. 9060 of the English Patent Office.

In a "memorandum of alteration," dated July 5, 1842, de Hompesch claims the right of distilling "bituminous schists, shales, or slates, or other rocks or minerals containing bitumen or bituminous substances."

‡ Dated June 23, 1845. Specification No. 10,726 of the English Patent Office. Antisell, p. 85; compare Rees Reece's patent dated Jan. 23, 1849. Specification 12,436 of the English Patent Office.

AM. JOUR. SCI-SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXX, No. 89.--SEPT., 1860.

George Michiels.* It is peculiarly interesting since a portion of it relates to the preparation of oils from caking coals. Michiels proposes in fact to prepare coke from bituminous coals, and from mixtures of such coals with anthracite, by moistening the powdered coal with water and introducing it—in charges of six tons-into brick retorts furnished with ordinary condensing apparatus and other appliances. The retorts are then heated as if it were intended to produce gas, with this difference, that the temperature for the first fifty hours should not exceed nascent red heat, or 964° F.; after that time it should be increased progressively until it attains a clear red heat, which would be about the ninety-sixth hour, I should remark, continues Michiels, that about the sixtieth hour I shut off the communication between the retort and the condensor by closing the hydraulic valves, and at the same time open the valve on top of the retort, &c., so as to allow the air to enter, which burns the hydrocarburets [now being evolved] and the products of that combustion heat the retort, &c. in passing through the flues which surround the retort. I thus obtain coke, ammoniacal liquors and liquid hydro-carburets. These "hydro-carburets" were repeatedly distilled by M. in order to obtain as much light volatile oil as possible, A heavy yellow oil of density 0-911, or lower, was also obtained which according to M. will be found applicable to many useful purposes, and is suitable for his principle object of turning into gas.

Further on (p. 15 of his specification) Michiels explains that this oil is well adapted for manufacturing gas upon a small scale, since the gas prepared from it requires no purification, and since it can be used in any of the ordinary apparatus for making gas from camphene, oil, or resin. In a word, he proposed using it just as rosin oil is now so largely employed by private gasworks in this country, or as Boscary and Butler had used the same coal-oil before him.

We passt to a consideration of the well known labors of Mr. James Young of Glasgow. From evidence brought forward in the trial already cited it appears that Mr. Young's attention was called in 1847 to a mineral oil [petroleum] found exuding from a coal pit at Riddings in Derbyshire. From it he obtained a good lubricating oil which he continued to prepare as long as his supply of petroleum lasted. Occupied as he was with the subject it can surprise no one that he should soon have turned his attention to the distillation of the highly bituminous mineral of Torbane-hill, now known as Boghead coal in England and in this country, which was introduced to public notice in 1850.§ From this substance Young was enabled to prepare a much larger amount of oil per ton of mineral than had been obtained by any of his predecessors. To the discovery of the vast source of an admirable raw material which the Boghead mine furnished is evidently due the immense increase in the production, and of course consumption, of coal-oil which immediately ensued. To this we say, more than to anything else is to be attributed the rise and progress, during the past few years, of the almost innumerable manufactories of coal-oil on the continent of Europe and in our own country. From the impetus thus given, a branch of industry which had long been, comparatively speaking, of only local importance soon attained an enormous development.||

* Granted April 30, 1850. Specification No. 13,066 of the English Patent Office. Making no pretence, be it understood, that we have been able to collect all that has been published upon the subject before 1850.

Patent dated Oct. 7, 1850.

According to Mr. T. G. Barlow, London Journal of Gas Lighting, iii, 519. We cannot, in this connection, forbear quoting the following pertinent remarks from Lord Campbell's charge to the jury in the case- -Young v. White and others (see London Journal of Gas Lighting, iii, 521)—already cited.

"And this brings me to an observation," says his Lordship, "which I meant to make, and which I should have been sorry if I had forgotton, which is this-that it was the discovery of this Boghead coal that seems to have given the great value

Let it be distinctly understood that we would in no wise detract from the real merit of Mr. Young. Uniting, as he does, no small share of chemical knowledge with the cautious, untiring energy of his countrymen, few men could have been found better qualified to grasp the golden opportunity of which he so fortunately availed himself. His name must ever remain associated with those of the distinguished observers from whose labors this most important branch of industry has resulted. It is Dr. Antisell only whom we blame for his incorrect and partial "history." When, for example (on p. 14), Dr. A. tells us that: "only since the year 1850 has the manufacture of paraffine from pit-coal, turf and bituminous shales succeeded as an art. The first inanufacture was that of James Young in Manchester, by whose process, from 100 parts of Cannel-coal 40 per cent of oil and 10 per cent of paraffine could be obtained." He makes a statement which is grossly exaggerated-if not entirely at variance with fact-as our readers must already have perceived.

We willingly quote what follows: "In thus showing [i. e., dogmatically asserting] that the practical manufacture of oils from coal is due to James Young, it may not be amiss to call attention to what it was which he produced from coals by distillation. He claimed the production of paraffine oils-not the production of naphtha or benzule [benzol?], nor naphthalin, but paraffine and its congeners: this involves the slower distillation of coals at a lower temperature than had been hitherto effected, and this novelty in practice was followed by the novel result of a copious production of isomeric liquid hydrocarbons; so that really two great results were first demonstrated, practically by the operation of Young's process, namely-1st, That coal was a material from which liquids could be manufactured economically, as tar, bitumens, and schists had been hitherto employed; and 2nd, That the liquids so formed were paraffine-containing compounds." Having merely to suggest that the sentence might have been more tersely put. For in truth it means only-if it means anything-that in the opinion of Dr. A., Mr. Young was the first person who distilled coal [on a manufacturing scale?] at comparatively low temperatures. What Dr. Antisell's private views regarding "low temperature" or "practical" may be, we are ignorant. But we do know that when, 30 years ago, Reichenbach distilled quantities of coal of 75 lbs. weight each, and exercised the greatest care in maintaining the temperature of his retort at as low a degree as was adinissible, as he has most minutely described in the memoirs which we have already cited;-when he obtained paraffine and eupion as results of his operation; he most certainly demonstrated the practicability and the manner of preparing both paraffine and "paraffine-oil."

All this however does not appear to satisfy Dr. A. in the least degree, who repeatedly assures his readers that the manufacture of oil from coal dates from the patent of Mr. Young. Since our author has seen fit to dwell at length upon this point and to devote so much space to its discussion we may be pardoned for referring to it here.

As is well known the term "coal" is applied in common language to a great variety of mineral combustibles no two kinds of which are precisely alike while some sorts are exceedingly unlike others. The term is at best merely conventional; used, in lack of any better one, to designate substances with the real nature of which we are still almost entirely ignorant.

to paraffine, because until then I do not find it was obtained in such quantities as really were of any considerable value; but the Boghead coal now being discovered, and this schist or coal being discovered, which is of very rich quality, and having a great deal of what is the essential part of the paraffine; from that time it has become much more important; and that may explain why, although the mode of obtaining paraffine was before well known, it should not have been put in practice because it would not appear that it could be put into practice with much profit or benefit, unless you had such a substance as Boghead coal on which you could operate." In confirmation of this view compare also: Payen, Précis de Chimie Industrielle, 4e Ed.. Paris, Hatchette. 1859. t. ii, p. 685.

With the flint-like anthracite of Wales, the beautiful Albert coal*—but a step removed from asphaltum-of Hillsboro, New Brunswick; our common lignites, frequently shading into peat, and the bituminous shales as frequently passing by insensible gradations into common slate, as points upon its extreme limit, we have within the circumference of the circle an infinite number of substances, shading into each other by scarcely perceptible degrees,-all of which are, in technological language at least, varieties of coal. The "amplitude of variation" which this species, or rather this term, enjoys is indeed so great that it would be a matter of no small difficulty to choose any single member of the medley as a central point, or even to conceive of an ideal coal to which all other varieties should be referred. In attempting any such selection a native of one of our sea-board states would assuredly lean towards anthracite; the South-German towards his excellent lignites; the Scotchman towards his cannel; while Newcastle would claim a proverbial right of precedent. We would, for our own part, vote for the last named, or some other good caking coal, capable of furnishing both gas and serviceable coke, and of being used for an infinite variety of purposes. Starting from this then as a type, observe, that as we pass towards the cannels, the different varieties of coal become better and better suited for the manufacture of gas or oil, . e., they contain more and more hydrogenous compounds. The appearance of the mineral meanwhile approaching more and more closely to that of slate, while at the same time the value of the fixed carbonaceous residue becomes less and less, soon ceasing to be "coke" at all, but rather a more or less carbonaceous slate. At length a maximum of hydrogenous matter is reached as in the case of Boghead coal, a slaty substance, the fixed residue from the distillation of which is a slightly carbonaceous stone, valueless as fuel and useful only, as a substitute for bone-black, for purposes of disinfection or decolorizing liquids, uses to which the residues of the French shales have long been applied. Beyond this maximum, as the amount of gas and oil-producing substances diminishes, and the amount of earthy matter increases,-taking the place of the fixed carbon in our typical caking coal, we pass into "bituminous shales," and these become less and less bituminous until at length we reach common clay slate containing no organic matter whatsoever. We have here traced no fancy sketch. That the "cannel coals" thus gradually pass into "bituminous shales" is now well enough known, at least to gas engineers and other practical observers. It would not for that matter be exceedingly difficult to obtain a continuous series of specimens exhibiting this almost insensible gradation. Now did Mr. Young devote his attention to the distillation of caking coals similar to our typical Newcastle? By no means! On the contrary we find him occupied with a mineral which was called indifferently "shale" or "coal," until it was in 1853 decided in a Scottish court that it should henceforth be legally known as coal.t

On page 18 of Dr. A.'s work the following remark occurs. "In one respect they [bitumens] differ from coal. In no case can an organic tissue or structure be demonstrated when they are examined under the microscope. Viewed in this light the mineral found at the Albert mine, New Brunswick, should be classed as a bitumen since Dr. J. Leidy was unable to detect any trace of structure in its mass." We cannot understand the motive of our author in thus again dragging to light this negative result, for it is perfectly well known to the scientific men of America that Prof. J. Bacon detected the existence of vegetable structure in the interior of masses of the Hillsboro coal. See Reports on the Geological Relations, chemical analyses, and microscopic examination of the coal of the Albert Coal Mining Co., situated in Hillsboro, Albert Co., N. B., by Chas. T. Jackson, M.D. New York: printed by Nesbitt, 1851, p. 30; compare this Journal, [2], xiii, 276.

We had supposed, when the above was written, that the decision of this court had been sustained. That in this we were mistaken appears from the following, which we extract from a statement in a late number of the London Journal of Gus

We would cast no reflection upon the judgment rendered in this famous suit. Looking at it as a mere matter of equity, depending upon the business relations of the parties at issue, this verdict was in our own opinion, just. But the fact of this mineral being, or not being, called a coal, does not in the least degree prevent it from being also a shale; and that it is more nearly related to the shales than to the coals is believed by a large proportion of those who are intimately acquainted with it, be they scientific or practical men. We have no space to discuss at greater length this quibble of Dr. Antisell's-which, however excusable it might have been in a retained attorney or solicitor of patents, is anything but becoming to the chemical professor or the historianbeing content to refer the reader to the published reports of the trial just mentioned. We will here cite only a few lines descriptive of Selligue's mineral: "The quantity of oily matter in these shales is very variable and often very

Lighting (Jan. 17th, 1860. vol. ix, p. 41), received as this article is going through the press.

"SETTLEMENT OF THE GREAT TORBANE-HILL CASE.

We have been favored with the following particulars connected with the well known case, the Bathgate or Boghead Gas Coal alias the Torbane-hill Mineral,' which has lasted upwards of seven years, having passed through several phases in the Supreme Law Courts of Scotland and England. A compromise was finally come to on Wednesday last, the eleventh current. It is embodied in a minute of agreement between Mr. and Mrs. Gillepsie of Torbane-hill, of the first part, and Messrs. James Russel and Son, and James Russel, Esq., of Blackbraes, of the second part.

The preamble of the minute of agreement, which itself consists of twelve articles, is as follows:

The said parties, considering that disputes and differences have arisen between them and a lengthened litigation has taken place, with respect to the missives of agreement for a lease of certain minerals in the lands of Torbane-hill, entered into betwixt the said first party hereto on the one part, and the said company of James Russel and Son, and individual partners thereof, on the other part, and dated the 30th of March and 1st of April, 1850; and both parties being now desirous that the said litigation should be brought to an end, and all disputes and differences between them amicably adjusted and settled, they have agreed, and hereby mutually agree and bind themselves as follows:'

The first two articles provide that the actions at present depending shall be abandoned, as a consequence of the execution of the minute.

The third article provides that each party pay their own expenses.

The fourth article, which has for title Name of Mineral,' is both an important and curious one--important in a scientific point of view, and curious as illustrative of the pertinacity with which either party have clung to their own views. The article is as follows:-'Whereas the second party have been, and are, working in the said lands of Torbane-hill, and disposing of, under the name of Bathgate or Boghead gas, parrot, or cannel coal, a mineral which they, the second party, deemed and deem to be a parrot or cannel coal, and which the first party deemed and deem to be a new mineral substance, having an argillaceous base, and to be of so peculiar a nature as to constitute it in truth a new and very peculiar variety of bituminous schist, slate, or clay, and have been for some time in use to call 'the Torbane-hill Mineral'; it is hereby agreed that, throughout the remainder of these presents, where the mineral in question is named, it shall be called for the sake of brevity the disputed mineral.'

Article fifth relates to the subject of a portion of Torbane-hill which was reserved from the operation of the mineral lease, and by this article 'the disputed mineral,' as we now call it, contained in the reserved portion of the estate, may be worked or let by the proprietors, without the danger of any obstruction being offered by the second party in the agreement."

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*From Dufrénoy et Elie de Beaumont's Explication de la Carte Géologique de la France. Paris, Imp. Royale, 1841. t. i, p. 673.