New York Paper - Progressive Regional Carbonization of Coals (with Discussion)

Attention has been given to the sources and supply of the raw vegetal matter and the conditions of its submission to the process of sedimentation. An original and most valuable review has been made of the more important or significant chemical compounds originally contained in the organic dct,ris, and of the biochemical changes undergone by the latter during deposition. Consideration also has been given to the factors controlling the selective biochemical decomposition, in whole or in part, of this debris, and the deposition, as sediments, of the undecom-posed plant structures and compounds, together with more or less of the so-called "ulmic," or "humic," organic decomposition products in colloidal so1ution. Biochemical Changes End in Peat Formation The biochemical process terminates in the peat stage of coal formation, and with the cessation of this process organic sedimentation is completed. All subsequent changes result from geological causes and conditions. The deposits are in the form of peats of different types, organic muds, oozes, etc. They are essentially uncompressed and are wholly uncon-solidated, and their water content is great, amounting to over 85 per cent, near the surface of the deposit. Many of the chemical compounds remain as in the once living organisms; others are biochemically broken down and new ones formed. Geochemical and Geophysical Changes in Buried Deposits Subsequent Changes " Dynamochemical" The changes which subsequently take place through dehydration, lithification, and simultaneous progressive chemical alteration, by which organic sediments are advanced to brown lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, semianthracitic, and graphitic ranks, are geochemical and geophysical, and the process, which really is metamorphic,2 takes place under dynamic influences. In fact, the essential changes, including loading,