All About Engines

328 All About Engines is coal being produced. In a few places peat is growing, but it is inferior to coal as a fuel and is being formed in so few places that there is no hope of it ever rendering the same service as coal. So far as scientific men can tell, the quantity of coal in the world is limited ; no more is being produced, and when the known fields are worked out other forms of fuel, if there are any, will have to be used, or the world will be a cold and dreary place indeed. Save for water there may be no source of power left. The hum and buzz of the factory will be hushed, and the great blast furnaces will fall to pieces—a few perhaps remaining like decayed monuments standing amid a scene of desolation and recalling a greatness that has passed away. To no people in the world is the supply of coal of more importance than it is to those who live in the British Isles. Their commanding position in manufactures and commerce is built upon rich coal- fields, which are slowly but surely becoming ex- hausted. Before the eighteenth century coal was hardly ever used as a fuel. Charcoal was employed in the manufacture of iron until 1739, and the badly constructed grates rendered timber the only possible domestic fuel. Then the improvements in the manu- facture of iron, the steam engine, and the inventions of new textile machinery led to an enormous increase in its consumption. For at least a hundred years we continued to use coal without any thought as to how long it would last. Not until 1857, when Pro- fessor Edward Hull published his book on the subject,