The Romance of Modern Chemistry

CHAPTER XII NATURE’S STORES OF FUEL IT is all very well to be able to make fire, but our achievements in this direction would be of little use if Nature did not supply us liberally with combustible substances or fuels. So far as combination with oxygen and production of heat and light are concerned, a great many substances might be called fuels, but the name is generally restricted to those which contain the element carbon in some form, and which are obtained in large quantities on or under the surface of the earth. Some reference has already been made to these carbonaceous fuels, but much more remains to be said on this inter- esting topic. The process of combustion is perhaps the most fundamental chemical change with which we are acquainted, and to our modern world, with all its travel, industry, and social life, the production and maintenance of fire are almost as essential as air and water are to the human body. In some cases the fuels supplied by Nature are available directly for man’s use without any other than the simplest treatment. Wood and peat, for example, need only to be cut and dried before they are in condition for burning, while in the case of coal the only necessary preliminary is the cutting and raising to the surface. These three fuels, wood, peat, and coal, represent three stages in the history of the vegetable world. Living 131