History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 152

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152 HISTORY OP TEXA8.

now, although comparatively few factories
are run solely for their production, as was
formerly so largely the case, the amount
manufactured as by-products is very large.
These substances are the results of distilling
the lignites in the same manner in which gas
is produced from bituminous coal, and the
product consists of gas, water, tar, ammonia,
coke and ash. The tar contains paraffine and
mineral oils, as well as being the basis for
the aniline dyes for the production of which
great quantities are used.
Powdered coke from lignites is used in the
manufacture of gunpowder, of blacking and
for filters, and is substituted in many places
for the more costly boneblack.
Finally, lignite is used very successfully in
the place of boneblack in clarifying sugar.
In this, as in all uses of lignite, reference
must be had to the particular kind of lignite
to be employed.
Just as bituminous coals vary, and that
from one locality proves more suitable for
certain purposes than that of another seam at
no great distance, so the lignites differ and
the characteristics of each must be studied
in order to ascertain for which of these many
uses it is best adapted.
With such evidence as this before us-the
results of fifty years of experiments and trial
ending in successful operation in all these
various uses of lignites-there can remain no
shadow of doubt of the adaptability of the
great lignite fields of Texas, and other parts
of America as well, to meet the wants of the
people for cheap fuel.
The ease and cheapness of mining, the
small cost of preparation, and its value when
prepared, will enable it to compete/with wood
in the best wooded portions of the State, with
coal in close proximity to the coal mine, and

it will prove of inestimable value in those
localities in which it is the only fuel.
Bituminous Coal.-The work of the survey
during the past two years has resulted in
fully determining the limits of the central
coal fields, in ascertaining the number, thickness
and dips of the workable seams of coal,
and in approximately mapping their lines of
outcrop.
The coal measures consist of beds of limestones,
sandstones, shales and clays, having
an aggregate thickness of some 6,000 feet.
The dip of these beds is very gentle, averaging
less than forty feet to the mile in one
seam and about sixty-five in another, and is /
toward the northwest or west. Very little
disturbance has been noted in it beyond a
few slight folds and small faults. These two
facts-slightdip and undisturbed conditionare
of great importance in the mining of the
coal. Two seams of workable coal have been
found. None of the other seven seams observed
are of sufficient thickness to be of
economic value.
The central coal field is divided by a strip
of Cretaceous south of the line of the Texas
& Pacific Railway. The two divisions thus
formed have been named after the principal
rivers which cross them-the Brazos coal
field, or Northern, and the Colorado coal
field, or Southern. In the Brazos coal field
both of the workable seams of coal are found.
Coal seam "No 1" first appears at the
surface in Wise county, some eight miles
southwest of Decatur. It outcrops in a
southwestern direction nearly to the southwest
corner of the county, when it turns
more sharply west and appears in the south-.
eastern portion of Jack county. It crosses
into Palo Pinto county near its northeastern
corner and its outcrops appear in a southsouthwest
direction entirely across this county

152

MITOY P EXS

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History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. (Book)

History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties.

Book containing a brief overview of the state of Texas and more specific focus on six specific counties, with extensive biographical sketches about persons related to the history of those places. An alphabetical index of persons who are included follows the table of contents at the front of the book.

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Lewis Publishing Company. History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties., book, 1893; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29785/m1/157/ocr/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .

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