Christmas Eve is upon us. It’s the night that Santa makes his worldwide run to reward good children with presents and bad ones with coal. Seeing as this rock has been given a spotlight during this time of year, I thought that it would be appropriate to write about it this evening.
Coal is a sedimentary rock that is formed by the compression of dead, rotted plant matter. Coal is somewhat of an example of a native element (that is, an element that is found in its pure, uncombined state in nature) A lump of coal contains nothing but the element carbon and a few impurities. Coal forms no crystals structure and is therefore amorphous (having no regular shape) Coal is soft and is black or blackish-brown in color.
Coal is known to form by the compression of dead plants or other plant matter such as wood. In many cases coal is thought to form when plants and other plantlike materials die in a waterlogged area where their supply of oxygen is limited. The plants rot very slowly and are eventually converted into peat by natural compression. Peat is a brown, spongy mass or rotted plant matter. More pressure eventually turns the peat into lignite. Lignite, or “brown coal,” is a brownish black form of coal that is very soft. Lignite is about 30% carbon with a great deal of water making up the rest of it. More pressure eventually turns into bituminous coal, which is harder than lignite but is still soft, leaving a black smudge upon everything that it touches. Bituminous coal is about 60% carbon in composition. Further pressure turns bituminous coal into the highest grade of coal, which is called anthracite. Anthracite is the hardest type of coal and has a very shiny surface. Anthracite is the highest quality coal, being composed of 90% carbon. The process of coal formation as described above is said to, by some scientists; take millions of years to occur. I, however, do not believe this because wooden bridges have been found in America in which parts of the bridge had been turned into coal. For those who want to know the scheme by which coal is classified is known as codification.
Coal has been used as a fuel for a very long time. Before the Industrial Revolution coal was used mainly by blacksmiths who used needed it to keep their forges hot enough to heat the metal that they worked with. Coal was also used to heat homes. Today some blacksmiths still use coal, but there are not as many blacksmiths around now as there used to be. Coal is not burned in people’s fireplaces anymore because it of its smoky scent and the fact the prolonged exposure to coal smoke (which contains potent gasses such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide) can lead to health risks. The primary use of coal today is as a fuel in power plants. Since coal is burned to make electricity one can say that it is still used to heat home, albeit indirectly. Coal is also burned to make coke, a substance which is used in metallurgy. Coal extracts are also used to make dyes, nylon, animal feedstock, and mint candies.
Coal is found in large deposits all over the world. In fact, there are very few places on earth that do not contain at least some coal. I have found a good deal of coal in the area where I live that was not mined, but was in its natural state.
The notion that Santa Claus punishes bad kids with a lump of coal has given the rock a poor reputation. In reality coal is a magnificent rock. Its sable color and broad usefulness make it a rock that I am glad to have. So, I wish a merry Christmas to all who read this, and if you are a blacksmith or a mineral collector I hope that you get some coal in your stocking!
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