Show THE COAL SUr PlY there Is no immediate immediata of it its running out oat the enormous consumption sur option of coal and its ultimate result the exhaustion I 1 of the supply have frequently been referred to by way of warning and admonition there is ot of course courie a limit to the amount of coal that man can obtain from th the e crust of the earth the con editions under which the carboniferous depo deposits siti were made and the localities where they can be found and worked are known and it is not unlikely that alint within a few centuries mankind will have bave to look elsewhere for the mechanical energy which is now derived from the burning of coal I 1 but the situation is ia not quite so desperate says youths companion as it has sometimes been represented petroleum for instance is beginning to be used in the place of coal many persons connect petroleum with coal in their minds supposing that the two are always found in the same localities and are necessarily related to one another in their origin but this is not so petroleum is far more widely distributed than coal coal is found principally in one kind of strata namely the so called carboniferous formation but petroleum or rock oil exists in in many different strata and the famous laus russian sian chemist dr Mend elieff believes believer that it is constantly being formed in the interior of the earth by the action of the water which slowly leaks downward upon metals contained in the heated core of the globe in this respect then petroleum differs greatly from coal because the latter ignot is not now being formed at least not in any considerable quantity while petroleum if the theory just stated is correct is ia a constant product of the inner activity of the planet but it is not likely that we shall be compelled to resort solely to petroleum when our coal supplies have been e ex x I 1 hausted for science is continually opening up for us new sources of e energy in in nature electricity holds fort forth h some as yet indefinite aromi promises which scientific men think may revolutionize the mechanical ch anical world it is not likely then that future generations erat ions will either freeze to death or abandon the machinery of civilized life when the last ton of coal has been lifted out of the rocks I 1 |