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Bituminous Coal

Bituminous coal

Bituminous coal is a soft coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen. It is of better quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than anthracite coal. Bituminous coal is as dense as pumice, usually black, sometimes dark brown, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material, and these are often used primarily as fuel in steam-electric power generation, with substantial quantities also used for heat and power applications in manufacturing. When used for many industrial processes, bituminous coal must first be "coked" to remove the antamen. Coked bituminous coal (usually just called "coke") is of comparable quality to anthracite coal. Much South American coal was created when swamps created organic material faster than it could decay, prior to the orogenies that created the Appalachian Mountains. The coal beds were compressed by overlying sediments that washed off the new Appalachian Mountains, and in some cases the coal beds were pushed west as the mountains were formed. Bituminous coal is the least abundant coal in active U.S. mining regions. Bituminous coal is mined in the Appalachian region, primarily to be burned at electricity production plants. Mining is done via both surface and underground mines. Pocahontas bituminous coal at one time fueled half the world's navies and today stokes steel mills and power plants all over the globe. While coal mining is an important part of Appalachia's economy, many miners are afflicted with black lung disease. Its moisture content usually is less than 70 percent. The heat content of bituminous coal ranges from 21 to 24 million Btu/ton (24 to 35 MJ/kg) on a moist, mineral-matter-free basis. The heat content of bituminous coal consumed in the United States averages 24 million Btu/ton (28 MJ/kg), on the as-received basis (i.e., containing both inherent moisture and mineral matter). The last words uttered by William Barton Rogers, the founder of MIT, were "bituminous coal".

Coal

Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by deep mining, coal mining (open-pit mining or strip mining). It is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. It is composed primarily of carbon and hydrocarbons, along with assorted other elements, including sulfur. Often associated with the Industrial Revolution, coal remains an enormously important fuel and is the most common source of electricity world-wide. In the United States, for example, the burning of coal generates over half the electricity consumed by the population. United States

Etymology and folklore

Coal is thought ultimately to derive its name from the Old English col but this actually meant charcoal at the time; coal was not mined prior to the late Middle Ages; i.e. after ca. 1000 AD. Mineral coal was referred to as sea-coal, either because it was found on beaches occasionally having fallen from the exposed coal seams above, or because it was easier to transport by sea rather than on the very poor road system (in London, England there is still a sea coal road/lane where the coal merchants conducted their business). It is associated with the astrological sign Capricorn. It is carried by thieves to protect them from detection and to help them to escape when pursued. It is an element of a popular ritual associated with New Year's Eve. To dream of burning coals is a symbol of disappointment, trouble, affliction and loss, unless they are burning brightly, when the symbol gives promise of uplifting and advancement. Santa Claus is said to leave a lump of coal instead of Christmas presents in the stockings of naughty children.

Composition and creation

Carbonacous material forms more than 50 percent by weight and more than 70 percent by volume of coal (this includes inherent moisture). Coal is formed from plant remains that have been compacted, hardened, chemically altered, and metamorphosed by heat and pressure over geologic time. Much coal was formed from ancient plants that grew in swamp ecosystems. When such plants died, their biomass was deposited in anaerobic, aquatic environments where low oxygen levels prevented their decay and oxidation (rotting and release of carbon dioxide). Successive generations of this type of plant growth and death formed thick deposits of unoxidized organic matter that were subsequently covered by sediments and compacted into carbonaceous deposits such as peat or bituminous or anthracite coal. Evidence of the types of plants that contributed to carbonaceous deposits can occasionally be found in the shale and sandstone sediments that overlie coal deposits, and, with special techniques, within the coal itself. The greatest coal-forming time in geologic history was during the Carboniferous era (280 to 345 million years ago).

Types of coal

As geological processes apply pressure to peat over time, it is transformed successively into:
- Lignite - also referred to as brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal and used almost exclusively as fuel for steam-electric power generation. Jet is a compact form of lignite that is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Iron Age.
- Sub-bituminous coal - whose properties range from those of lignite to those of bituminous coal and are used primarily as fuel for steam-electric power generation.
- Bituminous coal - a dense coal, usually black, sometimes dark brown, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material, used primarily as fuel in steam-electric power generation, with substantial quantities also used for heat and power applications in manufacturing and to make coke.
- Anthracite - the highest rank, used primarily for residential and commercial space heating.

Uses

Anthracite]

Coal as fuel

:See also Clean coal Coal is primarily used as a solid fuel to produce heat through combustion. World coal consumption is about 5,800 million short tons (5.3 petagrams) annually, of which about 75% is used for electricity production. The region including China and India uses about 1,700 million short tons (1.5 Pg) annually, forecast to exceed 3,000 million short tons (2.7 Pg) in 2025. The USA consumes about 1,100 million short tons (1.0 Pg) of coal each year, using 90% of it for generation of electricity. Coal is the fastest growing energy source in the world, with coal use increasing by 25% for the three-year period ending in December 2004 (BP Statistical Energy Review, June 2005). When coal is used in electricity generation, it is generally pulverized and then burned. The heat produced is used to create steam, which is then used to spin turbines which turn generators and create electricity. Approximately 40% of the Earth's current electricity production is powered by coal, and the total known deposits recoverable by current technologies are sufficient for 300 years' use at current rates (see World Coal Reserves, below). A promising, more energy efficient way of using coal for electricity production would be via solid-oxide fuel cells or molten-carbonate fuel cells (or any oxygen ion transport based fuel cells that do not discriminate between fuels, as long as they consume oxygen), which would be able to get 60%-85% combined efficiency (direct electricity + waste heat steam turbine), compared to 30-40% currently possible with only steam turbines. Currently these fuel cell technologies can only process gaseous fuels, and they are also sensitive to sulfur poisoning, issues which would first have to be worked out before large scale commercial success is possible with coal. As far as gaseous fuels go, one idea is pulverized coal in a gas carrier (nitrogen), especially if the resulting carbon dioxide is sequestered, and has to be separated anyway from the carrier. A better idea is coal gasification with water, then the water recycled.

Gasification

High prices of oil and natural gas are leading to increased interest in "BTU Conversion" technologies such as coal gasification, methanation, liquefacation, and solidification. In the past, coal was converted to make coal gas, which was piped to customers to burn for illumination, heating, and cooking. At present, the safer natural gas is used instead. South Africa still uses gasification of coal for much of its petrochemical needs. Gasification is also a possibility for future energy use, as it generally burns hotter and cleaner than conventional coal, can spin a more efficient gas turbine rather than a steam turbine, and makes capturing carbon dioxide for later sequestration much much easier.

Liquefaction

Coal can also be converted into liquid fuels like gasoline or diesel by several different processes. The Fischer-Tropsch process of indirect synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons was used in Nazi Germany, and for many years by Sasol in South Africa - in both cases, because those regimes were politically isolated and unable to purchase crude oil on the open market. Coal would be gasified to make syngas (a balanced purified mixture of CO and H₂ gas) and the syngas condensed using Fischer-Tropsch catalysts to make light hydrocarbons which are further processed into gasoline and diesel. Syngas can also be converted to methanol: which can be used as a fuel, fuel additive, or further processed into gasoline via the Mobil M-gas process. A direct liquefaction process Bergius process (liquefaction by hydrogenation) is also available but has not been used outside Germany, where such processes were operated both during World War I and World War II. SASOL in South Africa has experimented with direct hydrogenation. Several other direct liquefaction processes have been developed, among these being the SRC-I and SRC-II (Solvent Refined Coal) processes developed by Gulf Oil and implemented as pilot plants in the United States in the 1960's and 1970's. Yet another process to manufacture liquid hydrocarbons from coal is low temperature carbonization (LTC). Coal is coked at temperatures between 450 and 700 °C compared to 800 to 1000 °C for metalurgical coke. These temperatures optimize the production of coal tars richer in lighter hydrocarbons than normal coal tar. The coal tar is then further processed into fuels. The process was developed by Lewis Karrick, an oil shale technologist at the U.S. Bureau of Mines in the 1920s. All of these liquid fuel production methods release carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the conversion process. Carbon dioxide sequestration is proposed to avoid releasing it into the atmosphere. As CO₂ is one of the process streams, sequestration is easier than from flue gases produced in combustion of coal with air, where CO₂ is diluted by nitrogen and other gases. Coal liquefaction is one of the backstop technologies that limit escalation of oil prices. Estimates of the cost of producing liquid fuels from coal suggest that domestic U.S. production of fuel from coal becomes cost-competitive with oil priced at around 35 USD per barrel , (break-even cost), which is well above historical averages - but is now viable due to the spike in oil prices in 2004-2005. . Among commercially mature technologies, advantage for indirect coal liquefaction over direct coal liquefaction are reported by Williams and Larson (2003). Estimates are reported for sites in China where break-even cost for coal liquefaction may be in the range between 25 to 35 USD/barrel of oil.

Coking and use of coke

Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal from which the volatile constituents are driven off by baking in an oven without oxygen at temperatures as high as 1,000 °C (2,000 °F) so that the fixed carbon and residual ash are fused together. Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Coke from coal is grey, hard, and porous and has a heating value of 24.8 million Btu/ton (29.6 MJ/kg). Byproducts of this conversion of coal to coke include coal-tar, ammonia, light oils, and "coal-gas". Petroleum coke is the solid residue obtained in oil refining, which resembles coke but contains too many impurities to be useful in metallurgical applications.

Harmful effects of coal burning

Combustion of coal, like any other compound containing carbon, produces carbon dioxide (CO₂), along with varying amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) depending on where it was mined. Sulfur dioxide reacts with water to form sulfurous acid. If sulfur dioxide is discharged into the atmosphere, it reacts with water vapor and is eventually returned to the Earth as acid rain. Emissions from coal-fired power plants represent the largest source of artificial carbon dioxide emissions, according to most climate scientists a primary cause of global warming. Many other pollutants are present in coal power station emissions. Some studies claim that coal power plant emissions are responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths annually in the United States alone. Modern power plants utilize a variety of techniques to limit the harmfulness of their waste products and improve the efficiency of burning, though these techniques are not widely implemented in some countries, as they add to the capital cost of the power plant. To eliminate CO₂ emissions from coal plants, carbon sequestration has been proposed but is not yet in large-scale use. Coal also contains many trace elements, including arsenic and mercury, which are dangerous if released into the environment. Coal also contains low levels of uranium, thorium, and other naturally-occurring radioactive isotopes whose release into the environment may lead to radioactive contamination. While these substances are trace impurities, if a great deal of coal is burned, significant amounts of these substances are released. If coal liquefaction or gasification is used to make petrochemicals, a great deal of carbon dioxide is produced in the process. If a carbon tax was introduced and sufficient CO₂ was not captured, the economics of such processes would be significantly less attractive. However, if sequestration or some other process were used to dispose of this by-product, fuels produced from this process would be less polluting. Some process do not have a much greater total impact on carbon dioxide levels than ones refined from petroleum. Others may be less polluting still. Research in this field is ongoing.

Coal fires

There are hundreds of coal fires burning around the world. Those burning underground can be difficult to locate and many can not be extinguished. Fires can cause the ground above to subside, combustion gases are dangerous to life, and breaking out to the surface can initiate surface wildfires. Coal seams can be set on fire by spontaneous combustion or contact with a mine fire or surface fire. A grass fire in a coal area can set dozens of coal seams on fire. Coal fires in China burn 120 million tons of coal a year, emitting 360 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. This amounts to 2-3% of the annual worldwide production of CO₂ from fossil fuels, or as much as emitted from all of the cars and light trucks in the United States. In the United States , a trash fire was lit in the borough landfill located in an abandoned Anthracite strip mine pit in the portion of the Coal Region called Centralia, Pennsylvania from 1962. It burns underground today, 40 years later. The reddish siltstone rock that caps many ridges and buttes in the Powder River Basin (Wyoming), and in western North Dakota is called porcelanite, which also may resemble the coal burning waste "clinker" or volcanic "scoria." Clinker is rock that has been fused by the natural burning of coal. In the case of the Powder River Basin approximately 27 to 54 billion metric tons of coal burned within the past three million years. Wild coal fires in the area were reported by the Lewis and Clark expedition as well as explorers and settlers in the area. The Australian Burning Mountain was originally believed to be a volcano, but the smoke and ash comes from a coal fire which may have been burning for 5,000 years.

World coal reserves

It has been estimated that, as of 1996, there is around one exagram (1 × 10¹⁵ kg) of total coal reserves economically accessible using current mining technology, approximately half of it being hard coal. The energy value of all the world's coal is well over 100,000 quadrillion Btu (100 zettajoules). There probably is enough coal to last for 300 years. However, this estimate assumes no rise in population, and no increased use of coal to attempt to compensate for the depletion of natural gas and petroleum. A recent (2003) study by scientist Gregson Vaux, which takes those factors into account, estimates that coal could peak in the United States as early as 2046, on average. "Peak" doesn't mean coal will disappear, but defines the time after which no matter what efforts are expended coal production will begin to decline in quantity and energy content. The disappearance of coal will occur much later, around the year 2267, assuming all other factors do not change, which they naturally will. Gregson Vaux The United States Department of Energy uses estimates of coal reserves in the region of 1,081,279 million short tons, which is about 4,786 BBOE (billion barrels of oil equivalent) . The amount of coal burned during 2001 was calculated as 2.337 GTOE (gigatonnes of oil equivalent), which is about 46 MBOED (million barrels of oil equivalent per day) . At that rate those reserves will last 285 years. As a comparison natural gas provided 51 MBOED, and oil 76 MBD (million barrels per day) during 2001.

External links

- [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5174391/ MSNBC report on coal pollution health effects in the United States]
- [http://www.uic.com.au/nip83.htm Clean coal technologies]
- [http://www.ucsusa.org/CoalvsWind/brief.coal.html Use of coal gas in fuel cells]
- [http://www.jcoal.or.jp/overview_en/gijutsu.html Advanced methods of using coal] (Japanese Coal Energy Center)

References

- , also [http://www.ieiglobal.org/ESDVol7No4/dclversussicl.pdf] # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
- Category:Sedimentary rocks Category:Rocks ja:石炭

Lignite

Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal and used almost exclusively as fuel for steam-electric power generation. It is brownish-black and has a high inherent moisture content, sometimes as high as 45 percent, and very high ash content compared to bituminous coal. The heat content of lignite ranges from 9 to 17 million Btu per short ton (10 to 20 MJ/kg) on a moist, mineral-matter-free basis. The heat content of lignite consumed in the United States averages 13 million Btu/ton (15 MJ/kg), on the as-received basis (i.e., containing both inherent moisture and mineral matter). Lignite mined in millions of metric tons:

External links

- [http://www.geographyinaction.co.uk/Issues/Lignite.html Geographyinaction - an Irish case study]
- [http://justsaynotolignite.org/ Anti-Lignite site] Category:Coal

Coke (fuel)

Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. The volatile constituents of the coal (including water, coal-gas and coal-tar) are driven off by baking in an airless oven at temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius so that the fixed carbon and residual ash are fused together. The carbon content of coke is partially converted to graphite. graphite]

Properties & usage

Coke typically has a specific gravity in the range 1.85 - 1.9. It is highly porous, and a mass of coke has 40% greater volume than the equivalent mass of coal. Since the smoke-producing constituents are driven off during the coking of the coal, coke forms a desirable fuel for stoves and furnaces in which conditions are not suitable for the complete burning of bituminous coal itself. Coke may be burned with little or no smoke under combustion conditions which would result in a large amount of smoke if bituminous coal were the fuel. Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Coke from coal is grey, hard, and porous and has a heating value of 28 megajoules/kilogram.

History

The use of coke as a fuel was pioneered in 17th century England in response to the ever-growing problem of European deforestation. Wood was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, and coal's fumes, particularly smoke and sulfur compounds, disqualified it from many applications, including cooking and iron smelting. In 1603, Sir Henry Platt suggested that coal might be charred in a manner analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. This process was not put into practice, however, until 1642, when coke was used for roasting malt in Derbyshire. (Coal could not be used in brewing, because its sulfurous fumes would impart a foul taste to the resulting beer.) Perhaps more significantly, in 1709, Abraham Darby set up a coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron. The ensuing availability of inexpensive iron was one of the factors leading to the European industrial revolution.

Other varieties

The solid residue remaining from the refinement of petroleum by the "cracking" process is also a form of coke. Petroleum coke has many uses besides being a fuel, such as the manufacture of dry cells, electrodes, etc. Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke. Category:Coal Coke ja:コークス

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains are a vast system of North American mountains, partly in Canada, but mostly in the United States, extending as a zone, from 100 to 300 miles wide, running from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, 1500 miles south-westward to central Alabama in the United States, although the northernmost mainland portion ends at the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. The system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3000 ft. The highest of the group is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina (2,040m, 6,684 ft.), which is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River as well as the second highest point in eastern North America.

Regions

North America North America North America The whole system may be divided into three great sections: the Northern, from Newfoundland to the Hudson river; the Central, from the Hudson Valley to that of New river (Great Kanawha), in Virginia and West Virginia; and the Southern, from New river onwards. The northern section includes the Shickshock Mountains and Notre Dame Range in Quebec, scattered elevations in Maine, the White Mountains and the Green Mountains; the central comprises, besides various minor groups, the Valley Ridges between the Front of the Allegheny Plateau and the Great Appalachian Valley, the New York-New Jersey Highlands and a large portion of the Blue Ridge; and the southern consists of the prolongation of the Blue Ridge, the Unaka Range, and the Valley Ridges adjoining the Cumberland Plateau, with some lesser ranges. The major ranges comprising the Appalachian system include the Long Range Mountains and Annieopsquotch Mountains in Newfoundland, the Notre Dame Mountains in New Brunswick and Quebec, the Longfellow Mountains in Maine, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Green Mountains in Vermont, the Taconic Mountains in New York and Massachusetts, the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts, the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia, the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians in The Poconos Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia, and the Blue Ridge Mountains that run from southern Pennsylvania to North Georgia. The Adirondack Mountains are sometimes considered part of the Appalachian chain but, geologically speaking, are a southern extension of the Laurentian Mountains of Canada. In addition to the true folded mountains, known as the ridge and valley province, the area of dissected plateau Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania) to the north and west of the mountains is usually grouped with them. This includes the Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York, and the Allegheny Plateau of southwestern New York, western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia. The plateau does not change character but changes name to the Cumberland Plateau in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, eastern Tennessee. The dissected plateau area is popularly called mountains, especially in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and while the ridges are not high, the terrain is extremely rugged. In Ohio and New York, some of the plateau has been glaciated, which has rounded off the sharp ridges, and filled the valleys to some extent. The glaciated regions are usually referred to as hill country rather than mountains. The Appalachian region is generally considered the geographical dividing line between the eastern seaboard of the United States and the Midwest region of the country. The Eastern Continental Divide follows the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Before the French and Indian War, the Appalachian Mountains lay on the indeterminate boundary between Britain's colonies along the Atlantic and French areas centered in the Mississippi basin. After the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1763 limited settlement for Great Britain's thirteen original colonies in North America to east of the summit line of the mountains (except in the northern regions where the Great Lakes formed the boundary). This was highly disliked by the colonists and formed one of the grievances which led to the American Revolutionary War. With the formation of the United States of America, an important first phase of westward expansion in the late 18th century and early 19th century consisted of the migration of European-descended settlers westward across the mountains into the Ohio Valley through the Cumberland Gap and other mountain passes. The Erie Canal, finished in 1825, formed the first route through the Appalachians that was capable of large amounts of commerce. The Appalachian Trail is a 2,175 mile hiking trail that runs all the way from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, passing over or past a large part of the Appalachian system.

The chief summits

The Appalachian belt includes, with the ranges enumerated above, the plateaus sloping southward to the Atlantic Ocean in New England, and south-eastward to the border of the coastal plain through the central and southern Atlantic states; and on the north-west, the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus declining toward the Great Lakes and the interior plains. A remarkable feature of the belt is the longitudinal chain of broad valleys--the Great Appalachian Valley--which, in the southerly sections divides the mountain system into two subequal portions, but in the northernmost lies west of all the ranges possessing typical Appalachian features, and separates them from the Adirondack group. The mountain system has no axis of dominating altitudes, but in every portion the summits rise to rather uniform heights, and, especially in the central section, the various ridges and intermontane valleys have the same trend as the system itself. None of the summits reaches the region of perpetual snow. Mountains of the Long Range in Newfoundland reach heights of nearly 2000 ft. In the Shickshocks the higher summits rise to about 4000 ft. elevation. In Maine four peaks exceed 3000 ft., including Katahdin (5200 ft.). In New Hampshire, many summits rise above 4000 feet, including Mount Washington, in the White Mountains (6298 ft.), Adams (5805), Jefferson (5725), Clay (5554), Monroe (5390), Madison (5380), Lafayette (5269. In the Green Mountains the highest point, Mansfield, is 4364 ft.; Lincoln (4078), Killington (4241), Camel Hump (4088); and a number of other heights exceed 3000 ft. The Catskills are not properly included in the system. The Blue Ridge, rising in southern Pennsylvania and there known as South Mountain, attains in that state elevations of about 2000 ft.; southward to the Potomac its altitudes diminish, but 30 m. beyond again reach 2000 ft. In the Virginia Blue Ridge the following are the highest peaks east of New river: Mount Weather (about 1850 ft.), Mary's Rock (3523), Peaks of Otter (4001 and 3875), Stony Man (4031), Hawks Bill (4066). In Pennsylvania the summits of the Valley Ridges rise generally to about 2000 ft., and in Maryland Eagle Rock and Dans Rock are conspicuous points reaching 3162 ft. and 2882 ft. above the sea. On the same side of the Great Valley, south of the Potomac, are the Pinnacle (3007 ft.) and Pidgeon Roost (3400 ft.). In the southern section of the Blue Ridge are Grandfather Mountain (5964 ft.), with three other summits above 5000, and a dozen more above 4000. The Unaka Ranges (including the Black and Smoky Mountains) have eighteen peaks higher than 5000 ft., and eight surpassing 6000 ft. In the Black Mountains, Mitchell (the culminating point of the whole system) attains an altitude of 6711 ft., Balsam Cone, 6645, Black Brothers, 6690, and 6620, and Hallback, 6403. In the Smoky Mountains we have Clingman's Peak (6611), Guyot (6636), Alexander (6447), Leconte (6612), Curtis (6588), with several others above 6000 and many higher than 5000. In spite of the existence of the Great Appalachian Valley, the master streams are transverse to the axis of the system. The main watershed follows a tortuous course which crosses the mountainous belt just north of New river in Virginia; south of this the rivers head in the Blue Ridge, cross the higher Unakas, receive important tributaries from the Great Valley, and traversing the Cumberland Plateau in spreading gorges, escape by way of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers to the Ohio and Mississippi, and thus to the Gulf of Mexico; in the central section the rivers, rising in or beyond the Valley Ridges, flow through great gorges (water gaps) to the Great Valley, and by south-easterly courses across the Blue Ridge to tidal estuaries penetrating the coastal plain; in the northern section the water-parting lies on the inland side of the mountainous belt, the main lines of drainage running from north to south.

Geology

Main article: Geology of the Appalachians The Appalachians are old mountains. A look at rocks exposed in today's Appalachian mountains reveals elongated belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor, which provides strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate collision. The birth of the Appalachian ranges, some 680 million years ago, marks the first of several mountain building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the supercontinent Pangea with the Appalachians near the center. Because North America and Africa were connected, the Appalachians form part of the same mountain chain as the Atlas mountains in Morocco. Morocco During the middle Ordovician Period (about 495-440 million years ago), a change in plate motions set the stage for the first Paleozoic mountain building event (Taconic orogeny) in North America. The once-quiet Appalachian passive margin changed to a very active plate boundary when a neighboring oceanic plate, the Iapetus, collided with and began sinking beneath the North American craton. With the birth of this new subduction zone, the early Appalachians were born. Along the continental margin, volcanoes grew, coincident with the initiation of subduction. Thrust faulting uplifted and warped older sedimentary rock laid down on the passive margin. As mountains rose, erosion began to wear them down. Streams carried rock debris downslope to be deposited in nearby lowlands. The Taconic Orogeny was just the first of a series of mountain building plate collisions that contributed to the formation of the Appalachians (see Appalachian orogeny). By the end of the Mesozoic era, the Appalachian Mountains had been eroded to an almost flat plain. It was not until the region was uplifted during the Cenozoic Era that the distinctive topography of the present formed. Uplift rejuvenated the streams, which rapidly responded by cutting downward into the ancient bedrock. Some streams flowed along weak layers that define the folds and faults created many millions of years earlier. Other streams downcut so rapidly that they cut right across the resistant folded rocks of the mountain core, carving canyons across rock layers and geologic structures. The Appalachian Mountains contain major deposits of Anthracite coal as well as Bituminous coal. In the folded mountains the coal is in metamorphosed form as anthracite represented by the Coal Region of northeastern Pennsylvania and discovered by Necho Allen. The Bituminous coal fields of western Pennsylvania, southeastern Ohio, eastern Kentucky, and West Virginia is the sedimentary form.

Flora and fauna

Much of the region is covered with forest yielding quantities of valuable timber, especially in Canada and northern New England. The most valuable trees for lumber are spruce, white pine, hemlock, cedar, white birch, ash, maple and basswood; all excepting pine and hemlock and poplar in addition are ground into wood pulp for the manufacture of paper. In the central and southern parts of the belt oak and hickory constitute valuable hard woods, and certain varieties of the former furnish quantities of tan bark. The tulip tree produces a good clear lumber known as white wood or poplar, and is also a source of pulp. In the south both white and yellow pine abounds. Many flowering and fruit-bearing shrubs of the heath family add to the beauty of the mountainous districts, rhododendron and kalmia often forming impenetrable thickets. Bears, mountain lions (pumas), wild cats (lynx) and wolves haunt the more remote fastnesses of the mountains; foxes abound; deer are found in many districts and moose in the north.

Influence on History

For a century the Appalachians were a barrier to the westward expansion of the British colonies; the continuity of the system, the bewildering multiplicity of its succeeding ridges, the tortuous courses and roughness of its transverse passes, a heavy forest and dense undergrowth all conspired to hold the settlers on the seaward-sloping plateaus and coastal plains. Only by way of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, and round about the southern termination of the system were there easy routes to the interior of the country, and these were long closed by hostile aborigines and jealous French or Spanish colonists. In eastern Pennsylvania the Great Valley was accessible by reason of a broad gateway between the end of South Mountain and the Highlands, and here in the Lebanon Valley settled German Moravians, whose descendants even now retain the peculiar patois known as "Pennsylvania Dutch." These were late comers to the New World forced to the frontier to find unclaimed lands. With their followers of both German and Scotch-Irish origin, they worked their way southward and soon occupied all of the Virginia Valley and the upper reaches of the Great Valley tributaries of the Tennessee. By 1755 the obstacle to westward expansion had been thus reduced by half; outposts of the English colonists had penetrated the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus, threatening French monopoly in the transmontane region, and a conflict became inevitable. Making common cause against the French to determine the control of the Ohio valley, the unsuspected strength of the colonists was revealed, and the successful ending of the French and Indian War extended England's territory to the Mississippi. To this strength the geographic isolation enforced by the Appalachian mountains had been a prime contributor. The confinement of the colonies between an ocean and a mountain wall led to the fullest occupation of the coastal border of the continent, which was possible under existing conditions of agriculture, conducing to a community of purpose, a political and commercial solidarity, which would not otherwise have been developed. As early as 1700 it was possible to ride from Portland, Maine, to southern Virginia, sleeping each night at some considerable village. In contrast to this complete industrial occupation, the French territory was held by a small and very scattered population, its extent and openness adding materially to the difficulties of a disputed tenure. Bearing the brunt of this contest as they did, the colonies were undergoing preparation for the subsequent struggle with the home government. Unsupported by shipping, the American armies fought toward the sea with the mountains at their back protecting them against Indians leagued with the British. The few settlements beyond the Great Valley were free for self-defence because debarred from general participation in the conflict by reason of their position.

Name pronunciation and origin

The primary standard pronunciation of the range is with a long-A, as "app-uh-LAY-chan". The alternative pronunciation, with a short-A, "app-uh-LATCH-an" is often used east of the range in the Piedmont region, such as in North Carolina. The short-A pronunciation is used for Appalachian State University of Boone, North Carolina. It turns out that the short-A version, used by a minority, is arguably the correct way to say it. When the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his crew were exploring the Florida coast in 1528, they found a Native American town which they transliterated as Apalachen (ah-pah-LAH-chen). This name and its short-A pronunciation were applied to a nearby body of water, now spelled Apalachee Bay, to the Apalachicola River and the Apalachicola Bay, and to the city known as Apalachicola, Florida. The word "Apalachen" was also applied to an inland mountain range, and through the course of time it became applied to the entire range and its spelling was changed. Although the long-A pronunciation for the mountain range is standard, it is at odds with its origin.

References

- Topographic maps and Geologic Folios of the United States Geological Survey
- Bailey Willis, "The Northern Appalachians," and C. W. Hayes, "The Southern Appalachians," both in National Geographic Monographs, vol. i.
- chaps, iii., iv. and v. of Miss E. C. Semple's American History and its Geographic Conditions (Boston, 1903).
-

Appalachia

Appalachia is a mostly rural, partly urbanized, and partly industrialized region in and around the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern United States. Over twenty million people live in Appalachia, a heavily forested area, roughly the size of the United Kingdom, covering largely mountainous, often isolated areas from the border of Alabama and Georgia in the south to Pennsylvania and New York in the north. Between lay large areas of South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio.

Culture

Prior to the 20th century the people of Appalachia were geographically isolated from the rest of the country. As a result, they preserved the culture of their ancestors (most of them English, Scottish, and Ulstermen) who settled the region in the 18th century, a culture of a strong oral tradition (including music and song), self-sufficiency, and strong religious faith. Coal deposits in the region were tapped in the latter half of the 19th century and drew a new wave of immigrants, from Ireland and Central Europe. With this industrialization came increased urbanization. Long characterized as economically underdeveloped, Appalachia has received more sympathetic treatment by historians and anthropologists in recent decades. The Foxfire project appealed to the counterculture and gave the region new visibility in academia. The opening of the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine, in 1936 also helped open the area to hikers and outdoorsmen from all over the world. A long-running series of documentary films by Appalshop take a historical and critical view of the region, including especially such endemic and pervasive problems as those associated with coal mining (shaft mining & strip mining), poverty, and related social issues. See also: Appalachian folk music, Appalachian English There is disagreement about how to pronounce the word Appalachia itself. People who live in central Appalachian pronounce it so it sounds like Apple-At-Cha, as in "If you don't pronounce the name of my region correctly, I will throw an apple at ya!" People who live outside of Appalachia or at its outer edges tend to pronounce it Apple-Lay-Sha. In this variation, the middle syllable "lay" is sounds like the lay in "Lay's" potato chips, and the last syllable has a pronounced sha sound. Appalachia is originally a Cherokee word. Most Cherokee pronounce it so it sounds like Apple-LA-Chia, with the last syllable emphasized and sounding like the word Chia, as in Chia pet.

Appalachian Regional Commission

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was created by Congress in 1965 to bring the 13 Appalachian states into the mainstream of the American economy. The Commission is a partnership of federal, state, and local governments, and was created to promote economic growth and improve the quality of life in the 13-state region stretching along the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to northern Mississippi. The region includes 406 counties, incorporating all of West Virginia and counties in 12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Mississippi and some parts of Alabama are not geographically parts of Appalachia, but were included in the commission because of similar problems with unemployment and poverty.

Popular portrayals

The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry RFD were humorous looks at mountain life. The films Coal Miner's Daughter (based on the life of noted country artist Loretta Lynn), Where the Lilies Bloom and Songcatcher give a more sensitive and accurate portrayal of life in Appalachia. The Waltons, a long running family TV serial, based on Earl Hamner's youth, was set in the mountains of western Virginia. Recently, on NBC's Saturday Night Live, a recurring skit called Appalachian Emergency Room showcases the embarassing injuries of stereotypical Appalachian hicks. The Appalachian town of Big Stone Gap has been the setting of several best selling novels, including The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox, Jr. and the Big Stone Gap series by Adriana Trigiani. Category:Appalachian culture Category:Regions of the United States

Electricity

Electricity is a general term applied to phenomena involving a fundamental property of matter called an electric charge. This article will introduce and explain some of the basic principles of electricity.

Related concepts

being radiated as light as the air of Earth's atmosphere is shifted from gas to plasma and back. ]] In casual usage, the term electricity is applied to several related concepts that are better identified by more precise terms.
- Electric charge: a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interactions. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields.
- Electric field is an effect produced by an electric charge that exerts a force on charged objects in its vicinity.
- Electric potential the potential energy per unit charge associated with a static (time-invariant) electric field.
- Electric current: a movement or flow of electrically charged particles.
- Electrical energy: energy made available by the flow of electric charge through a conductor or from the forces between charged particles.
- Electric power: The rate at which electric energy is converted into another form, such as light, heat, or mechanical energy (or converted from another form into electric energy).

History

Ancient

According to Thales of Miletus, writing circa 600 BCE, a form of electricity was known to the Ancient Greeks who found that rubbing fur on various substances, such as amber, would cause a particular attraction between the two. The Greeks noted that the amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair and that if they rubbed the amber for long enough they could even get a spark to jump. The origin of the word "electricity" is from the Greek word ēlektron, a word the ancient Greeks used for both "amber" and "electrum," and derives from an old root, ēlek- = "shine." The same word was used for both amber and electrum, probably because of the pale yellow color of some varieties of electrum (see electrum). An object found in Iraq in 1938, dated to about 250 BCE and called the Baghdad Battery, resembles a galvanic cell and is believed by some to have been used for electroplating. Additionally, some egyptologists associate the ancient goddess Hathor with artificial light (see Hathor temple). But, remaining unproven are the conjectures that these and other similar ancient artifacts had electrical function and that their associated ancient technology contributed to the development of modern electrical knowledge.

Modern

In 1600 the English scientist William Gilbert returned to the subject in De Magnete, and coined the modern Latin word electricus from ηλεκτρον (elektron), the Greek word for "amber", which soon gave rise to the English words electric and electricity. He was followed in 1660 by Otto von Guericke, who is regarded as having invented an early electrostatic generator. Other European pioneers were Robert Boyle, who in 1675 stated that electric attraction and repulsion can act across a vacuum; Stephen Gray, who in 1729 classified materials as conductors and insulators; and C. F. Du Fay, who first identified the two types of electricity that would later be called positive and negative. The Leyden jar, a type of capacitor for electrical energy in large quantities, was invented at Leiden University by Pieter van Musschenbroek in 1745. William Watson, experimenting with the Leyden jar, discovered in 1747 that a discharge of static electricity was equivalent to an electric current. In June, 1752, Benjamin Franklin promoted his investigations of electricity and theories through the famous, though extremely dangerous, experiment of flying a kite during a thunderstorm. Following these experiments he invented a lightning rod and established the link between lightning and electricity. If Franklin did fly a kite in a storm, he did not do it the way it is often described (as it would have been dramatic but fatal). It was either Franklin (more frequently) or Ebenezer Kinnersley of Philadelphia (less frequently) who created the convention of positive and negative electricity. Franklin's observations aided later scientists such as Michael Faraday, Luigi Galvani, Alessandro Volta, André-Marie Ampère, and Georg Simon Ohm whose work provided the basis for modern electrical technology. The work of Faraday, Volta, Ampere, and Ohm is honored by society, in that fundamental units of electrical measurement are named after them. Volta worked with chemicals and discovered that chemical reactions could be used to create positively charged anodes and negatively charged cathodes. When a conductor was attached between these, the difference in the electrical potential (also known as voltage) drives a current between them through the conductor. The potential difference between two points is measured in units of volts in recognition of Volta's work. The invention of the electric telegraph showed that commercial and practical use could be made of electrical phenomena. By the end of the 19th century electrical engineering became a distinct profession, separate from the physicist or inventor. The late 19th and early 20th century produced such giants of electrical engineering as Nikola Tesla, inventor of the polyphase induction motor; Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph; Antonio Meucci, an inventor of the telephone; Thomas Edison inventor of the phonograph and a practical incandescent light bulb; George Westinghouse, inventor of the electric locomotive; Charles Steinmetz, theoretician of alternating current; Alexander Graham Bell, another inventor of the telephone and founder of a sucessful telephone business. The rapid advance of electrical technology in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries lead to commercial rivalry such as the so-called War of the Currents), between Edison's direct-current system or Westinghouse's alternating-current method. Often concurrent research in widely scattered locations lead to multiple claims to the invention of a device or system.

Electric charge

Electric charge is a property of certain subatomic particles (e.g., electrons and protons) which interacts with electromagnetic fields and causes attractive and repulsive forces between them. Electric charge gives rise to one of the four fundamental forces of nature, and is a conserved property of matter that can be quantified. In this sense, the phrase "quantity of electricity" is used interchangeably with the phrases "charge of electricity" and "quantity of charge." There are two types of charge: we call one kind of charge positive and the other negative. Through experimentation, we find that like-charged objects repel and opposite-charged objects attract one another. The magnitude of the force of attraction or repulsion is given by Coulomb's law.

Electric field

The concept of electric field was introduced by Michael Faraday. The electrical field force acts between two charges, in the same way that the gravitational field force acts between two masses. However, electric field is a little bit different. Gravitational force depends on mass, whereas electric force depends on the electric charge on both objects. A positive charge exerts away from the object and a negative charge pulls towards the object equally in all directions; thus it is symetric. The most common experience with electric charge in everyday life is that of static cling - when two particular types of materials are rubbed together, they tend to stick together, at least for a while.

Electric potential

The electric potential difference between two points is defined as the work done per unit charge (against electrical forces) in moving a positive point charge slowly between two points. If one of the points is taken to be a reference point with zero potential, then the electric potential at any point can be defined in terms of the work done per unit charge in moving a positive point charge from that reference point to the point at which the potential is to be determined. For isolated charges, the reference point is usually taken to be infinity. The potential is measured in volts. (1 volt = 1 joule/coulomb) The electric potential is analogous to temperature: there is a different temperature at every point in space, and the temperature gradients indicates the direction of heat flows. Similarly, there is an electric potential at every point in space, and its gradient in the the electric field indicates where charges move.

Electric current

The electric charge which occurs naturally within conductors can be forced to flow, while the charges within insulators are locked in place and cannot be moved. Devices that use charge flow principles in materials are called electronic devices. A flow of electric charge is called an electric current. A direct current (DC) is a unidirectional flow; alternating current (AC) is a flow whose time average is zero, but whose energy capability (RMS level) is not zero. With AC the electric current repeatedly changes direction. Electric current is measured in Amperes Ohm's Law is an important relationship describing the behaviour of electric currents: See also: electrical conduction For historical reasons, electric current is said to flow from the most positive part of a circuit to the most negative part. The electric current thus defined is called conventional current. It is now known that, depending on the conditions, an electric current can consist of a flow of charged particles in either direction, or even in both directions at once. The positive-to-negative convention is widely used to simplify this situation. If another definition is used - for example, "electron current" - it should be explicitly stated.

Electrical energy

Electrical energy, is the flow of electrons or ions. When electrons are flowing through a wire or through hundreds of feet of air in the case of lightning it is because they are being forced to do so by an electrical field. A force is exerted on the electrons and they move. Work is done on the charged particles. A force is pushing them through a distance. More properly, they are moving from outer orbitals of one atom to another, being pushed by the electromotive force. While the electrons are in motion they contain kinetic energy. Consquently, atomic level electricity is a form of kinetic energy.

Electric power

Electric power is the capacity of the circuit for performing work in a particular amount of time. When a charge moves in a conductor, work is done by that charge. Devices can be made which convert this work into heat (Electric arc furnaces), light (light bulbs and Fluorescent lamps), or motion, i.e. kinetic energy (electric motors). The unit for all forms of power is the watt (symbol: W). In practice, however, this is generally reserved for the real power component. Apparent power is conventionally expressed in volt-amperes (VA) since it is the simple multiple of rms voltage and current. The unit for reactive power is given the special name "VAR", which stands for volt-amperes-reactive.

SI electricity units

External links

- [http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html What is electricity?]
- [http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=electricity Merriam-Webster: Electricity]
- [http://www.bibliomania.com/2/9/72/119/21387/1.html Tyndall: Faraday as Discovery: Identity of Electricities]
- [http://www.eia.doe.gov/fuelelectric.html US Energy Department Statistics]
- [http://www.mouthshut.com/readreview/38842-1.html How to save on your electricity bills]
- [http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm Electricity around the world]
- [http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/fellows/bob_morse_04/ A Comprehensive Collection of Franklin’s Electrical Works: The Electrical Writings of Benjamin Franklin], Created and Collected by Robert A. Morse (2004)
- [http://www.telesensoryview.com/steverosecom/Articles/UnderstandingBasicElectri.html Understanding Electricity and some Electronics in 10 minutes](Steve Rose, Maui)
- [http://amasci.com/miscon/eleca.html Electricity Misconceptions]
- ko:전기 ja:電気 simple:Electricity

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or (coal) seam. Materials recovered by mining include bauxite, coal, diamonds, iron, precious metals, lead, limestone, nickel, phosphate, rock salt, tin, and uranium. Any material that cannot be grown from agricultural processes must be mined. Mining in a wider sense can also include extraction of petroleum, natural gas, and even water.

History

water]] The oldest known mine in the archaeological record is the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland. At this site, which has a radiocarbon age of 43,000 years, paleolithic humans mined for the iron-containing mineral hematite, which they ground to produce the red pigment ochre. Sites of a similar age where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons and tools have been found in Hungary. Another early mining operation was the turquoise mine operated by the ancient Egyptians at Wady Maghareh on the Sinai Peninsula. Turquoise was also mined in pre-Columbian America in the Cerillos Mining District in New Mexico, where a mass of rock 200 feet (60 m) in depth and 300 feet (90 m) in width was removed with stone tools; the mine dump covers 20 acres (81,000 m²). Black gun powder in mining was first time used in a mineshaft under Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia in 1627.

Mining techniques

Mining techniques can be divided into two basic excavation types: :1. Surface mining ::
- Open-pit mining ::
- Quarrying ::
- Strip mining ::
- Placer mining ::
- Mountaintop removal :2. Sub-surface mining ::
- Drift mining ::
- Slope mining ::
- Shaft mining ::
- Hard rock mining ::
- Borehole mining

Extractive metallurgy

The science of extractive metallurgy is the study of extraction of valuable metals and minerals from their ores. Although extractive metallurgy is all-encompassing, mineral processing (or mineral dressing) is often the term used for the study of processing coal, industrial minerals and precious stones, as these are not metals.

Environmental effects

mineral processing mineral processing, even though the molybdenum mine has been closed for decades.]] Modern mining companies in many countries are required to follow strict environmental and reclamation codes, ensuring the area mined is returned to its original state, or an even better environmental state than before mining took place. Past mining methods have had, and methods used in countries with lax environmental regulations continue to have, devastating environmental and public health effects. The result can be unnaturally high concentrations of some chemical elements over a significantly wider area of surface. Combined with the effects of water and the new 'channels' created for water to travel through, collect in, and contact with these chemicals, a situation is created where mass-scale contamination can occur. Some examples of environmental problems associated with mining operations are: :Tar Creek, an abandoned mining area in Picher, Oklahoma that is now an Environmental Protection Agency superfund site. Water in the mine has leaked through into local groundwater, contaminating it with metals such as lead and cadmium. [http://www.health.state.ok.us/PROGRAM/envhlth/sites/ottawa.html] :Scouriotissa, a copper mine in Cyprus that has been abandoned. Contaminated dust blows off this site. :Berkeley Lake, an abandoned pit mine in Butte, Montana that has filled with water which is now acidic and poisonous. Although such issues have been associated with some mining operations in the past, modern mining practices have improved significantly and are subject to close environmental scrutiny. Problems remain especially in countries with lax environmental regulations or enforcement.

Mining industry

While exploration and mining can sometimes be conducted by individual entrepreneurs or small business, most modern-day mines are large enterprises requiring large amounts of capital to establish. Consequently, the industry is dominated by large, often multinational, mostly publicly-listed companies. See :Category:Mining companies for a list.

Mine Planning Software

One of the most dramatic changes in the mining industry has been the role that sophisticated three dimensional 3-D mine planning software packages have had. Initially relatively simple tasks - like rendering graphic images of drill holes - meant that it became easier for surveyors, geologists, mine planners, mining engineers and other technical staff to manipulate and visualize data. However, in recent years the range of integrated mine planning tools have meant that massively complex models can be built to optimize the extraction and processing of mineral resources.

References

- Tom Morrison. 1992. Hardrock Gold: A Miner's Tale (ISBN 0806124423)
- Geobacter Project: [http://www.geobacter.org/press/2001-07-21-economist.pdf Gold mines may owe their origins to bacteria] (in PDF format) Category:Mining ja:鉱業 th:การทำเหมืองแร่

Norfolk and Western

The Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) , a US class I railroad, was formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It had headquarters in Roanoke, Virginia for most of its 150 year existence. The company was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house at the Roanoke shops as well as their own hopper cars. Around 1960, N&W was the last major American railroad to convert from steam to diesel motive power. In the mid 20th century, N&W merged with long-time rival Virginian Railway in the Pocahontas coal region and grew even more in size and profitability by mergers with other rail carriers including Nickel Plate Road and Wabash in adjacent areas to form a system serving 14 states and a province of Canada between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River and Great Lakes with more than 7,000 miles of trackage. Norfolk & Western Railway was combined with the Southern Railway, another profitable carrier, to form Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS) in 1982.

City Point, bridging the Dismal Swamp, William Mahone, Civil War

The history of the Norfolk and Western Railway began with the City Point Railroad, a nine-mile line from City Point (now part of the independent City of Hopewell, Virginia) to Petersburg, Virginia. This short-line, formed in 1838, played a crucial role in the US Civil War during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864-1865. After the War, it became part of the Southside Railroad. William Mahone (1826-1895), a Virginia Military Institute engineering graduate, built the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad beginning in 1853 and eventually became its president in the pre-Civil War era. Mahone's innovative roadbed through the Great Dismal Swamp near Norfolk, Virginia, employs a log foundation laid at right angles beneath the surface of the swamp. Still in use today, it withstands immense tonnages of coal traffic - today's freight on a very effectively engineered 19th century track. Mahone married Otelia Butler, from Smithfield in Isle of Wight County who was said to be a "cultured lady". Her father, the late Dr. Robert Butler (1784-1853) had been Treasurer of the State of Virginia. Popular legend has it that Otelia and William Mahone traveled along the newly completed Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad naming stations along the 52-mile tangent between Suffolk and Petersburg from Ivanhoe a book she was reading written by Sir Walter Scott. From his historical Scottish novels, Otelia chose the place names of Windsor, Waverly and Wakefield. She tapped the Scottish Clan "McIvor" for the name of Ivor, a small Southampton County town. When they could not agree, it is said that the young couple invented a new word in honor of their "dispute", which is how the tiny community of Disputanta was named. The N&P railroad was completed in 1858. Of small stature, dynamic "Little Billy" Mahone became a Major General in the Confederate Army and was widely regarded as the hero of the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864-1865. Otelia Mahone served as a nurse in the Confederate capital of Richmond.

Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad meets Shenandoah Valley Railroad

After the war, William Mahone was the driving force in the linkage of N&P, South Side Railroad and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to form the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O), a new line extending from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia in 1870. William and Otelia Mahone moved to the headquarters city of Lynchburg. The letters A,M & O were said to stand for "All Mine and Otelia's." After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as a railroad builder ended in 1881 when northern financial interests took control. At the foreclosure auction, the AM&O was purchased by E.W. Clark and Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia which controlled the Shenandoah Valley Railroad then under construction. The AM&O was renamed Norfolk and Western, perhaps taken from a 1850s charter application filed by citizens of Norfolk, Virginia. Mahone was active in Virginia politics, and was able to arrange for the state's proceeds of the A,M&O sale to go for educational purposes, including the funds to begin what is now Virginia State University near Petersburg. He was later a Senator in the U.S. Congress.

Frederick J. Kimball, Big Lick becomes Roanoke, reaching Ohio

Frederick J. Kimball (1838-1903) was a civil engineer and partner in the Clark firm. He was named to head the new N&W and consolidated it with the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. Henry Fink, who Mahone had hired in 1855, became General Superintendent. For the junction for the Shenandoah Valley and the Norfolk & Western, Kimball and his board of directors selected a small Virginia village called Big Lick, on the Roanoke River. The small town was later renamed Roanoke, Virginia. Kimball, whose interest in geology was responsible for the opening of the Pocahontas coalfields in western Virginia and West Virginia, pushed N&W lines through the wilds of West Virginia, north to Columbus, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio, and south to Durham, North Carolina and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This gave the railroad the route structure it was to use for more than 60 years.

Coal

Winston-Salem, North Carolina In 1885, several small mining companies representing about 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) of bituminous coal reserves grouped together to form the coalfields' largest landowner, the Philadelphia-based Flat-Top Coal Land Association. Norfolk and Western Railway bought the Association and reorganized it as the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Co., which it later renamed Pocahontas Land Corp, now a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern. As the availability and fame of high-quality Pocahontas bituminous coal increased, economic forces took over. Coal operators and their employees settled dozens of towns in southern West Virginia, and in the next few years, as coal demand swelled, some of them amassed fortunes. The countryside was soon sprinkled with tipples, coke ovens, houses for workers, company stores and churches. In the four decades before the Crash of 1929 and subsequent Depression, these coal towns flourished. One example was the small community of Bramwell, West Virginia, which in its heyday boasted the highest per capita concentration of millionaires in the country. Bramwell, West Virginia, on Elizabeth River at Norfolk, Virginia]] In 1886, the N&W tracks were extended directly new piers at Lambert's Point, which was located in Norfolk County just north of the City of Norfolk on the Elizabeth River, where one of the busiest coal export facilities in the world was built to reach Hampton Roads shipping. A residential section was also developed to house the families of the workers. Many early residents of Lambert's Point were involved in the coal industry. The opening of the coalfields made N&W prosperous and Pocahontas coal world-famous. By 1900, Norfolk was the leading coal exporting port on the East Coast. Transported by the N&W, and later the neighboring Virginian Railway (VGN), it fueled half the world's navies and today stokes steel mills and power plants all over the globe.

Roanoke Shops: building precision steam locomotives in-house

The company was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house. It was at the Norfolk & Western's Roanoke Shops, which employed thousands of craftsmen, where decades later the famed classes A, J, and Y6 locomotives would be designed, built and maintained, made the company known industry wide for its excellence in steam power. Around 1960, N&W was the last major railroad to convert from steam to diesel motive power. However, several of its famous steam locomotives, including J class # 611 and A class # 1218 are now on display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, VA.

World Wars, Great Depression, and efficiencies

Norfolk and Western operated profitably through World War I and World War II and paid regular dividends throughout the Depression. During World War I, the NW was jointly operated with its adjacent competitor, the Virginian Railway (VGN), under the USRA's wartime takeover of the Pocahontas Roads. The operating efficiencies were significant, and after the war, when the railroads were returned to their respective owners and competitive status, the NW never lost sight of the VGN and its low-grade routing through Virginia. However, the US Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) turned down attempts at combining the roads until the late 1950s, when a proposed Norfolk & Western Railway and Virginian Railway merger was finally approved.

The Virginian Railway - an engineering marvel of its day

The Virginian Railway (VGN) was conceived and built by William Nelson Page and Henry Huttleston Rogers. Page had helped engineer and build the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) through the mountains of West Virginia and Rogers had already become a millionaire and a principal of Standard Oil before their partnership was formed. Early in the 20th century, they built a "Mountains to Sea" railroad from the coal fields of southern West Virginia to port near Norfolk at Sewell's Point in the harbor of Hampton Roads. They accomplished this right under the noses of the pre-existing and much bigger C&O and N&W railroads by forming two small intrastate railroads, Deepwater Railway, in West Virginia, and Tidewater Railway in Virginia. Once right-of-way and land acquisitions had been secured, the two small railroads were merged to form the Virginian Railway. Engineered by Page and financed almost entirely from Rogers' personal resources, the VGN was built following a policy of investing in the best route and equipment on initial selection and purchase to save operating expenses. Mark Twain spoke at the dedication of the new railroad in Norfolk, Virginia only 6 weeks before Rogers died in May, 1909 following his only inspection trip on the newly completed railroad. That June, Dr. Booker T. Washington made a whistle-stop speaking tour on the VGN, traveling in Rogers' private car, Dixie, and later revealing that Rogers had been instrumental in funding many small country schools and institutions of higher education in the South for the betterment of Negroes. For 50 years, the Virginian Railway enjoyed a more modern pathway built to the highest standards, providing major competition for coal traffic to its larger neighboring railroads, the C&O and N&W. The 600-mile VGN followed Rogers' philosophy throughout its profitable history, earning the nickname "Richest Little Railroad in the World." It operated some of the largest and most powerful steam, electric, and diesel locomotives. The VGN installed a large 134 mile-long railway electrification system between 1922 and 1926 at a cost of $15 million, and had its own power plant at Narrows, Virginia. It shared electrical resources with the Norfolk and Western between 1925 and 1950, when the latter discontinued its own electrified section through the great Flat Top mountain. The larger electrification of the VGN was also discontinued under Norfolk & Western management in 1962, following the merger.

The Modern Railroad Merger Era 1960-1982

When the Virginian Railway was finally merged into Norfolk & Western in 1959, it is widely believed that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) approval began a merger movement and a modernization of the entire US railroad industry. In 1964, the former Wabash; Nickel Plate; Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway; and Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad were brought into the system in one of the most complex mergers of the era. This consolidation, enhanced by the addition of a more direct route to Chicago, Illinois in 1976, positioned Norfolk & Western as an important Midwestern railroad, providing direct single-line service between the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Great Lakes and Mississippi River on the other. In the late 1960s, Norfolk & Western also acquired Dereco, a combination of the Delaware and Hudson, Erie Lackawanna, Reading, and Central Railroad of New Jersey. However, this subsidiary consisting of troubled northeastern US railroads was not merged into the Norfolk & Western. Most of Dereco later became part of Conrail. Some of those portions later also became part of Norfolk Southern when in it acquired the major portion of Conrail in 1999. On September 1, 1981, Norfolk & Western acquired Illinois Terminal Railroad. NW was also a major investor in Piedmont Airlines.

Autoracks: competing with trucking

Piedmont Airlines In the 1950s, Canadian National Railway (CN) introduced a group of autoracks which represented a new innovation. The CN bi-level auto-rack cars had end-door cars. They were huge by the standards of the time; each 75-footer (23 m) could carry 8 vehicles. These cars were a big success and helped lead to the development of today's enclosed auto racks. Tri-level versions were developed in the 1970s. During the 1960s, autoracks took over rail transportation of newly-completed automobiles in North America. They carried more cars in the same space and were easier to load and unload than the boxcars formerly used. Ever-larger auto carriers and specialized terminals were developed by N&W and other railroads. The railroads were able to provide lower costs and greater protection from in-transit damage (such as that which may occur due to vandalism or weather and traffic conditions on unenclosed truck trailers). Using the autoracks, the railroads became the primary long-distance transporter of completed automobiles, one of few commodities where the industry has been able to overcome trucking in competition.

Becoming part of Norfolk Southern - joining with a strong partner

In the early 1980s, the profitable Norfolk & Western combined forces with Southern Railway, another profitable company, to form today’s' Norfolk Southern and compete more effectively with CSX Transportation, itself a combination of smaller railroads in the eastern half of the United States. Today, much of the former Norfolk and Western Railway is a vital portion of Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Fortune 500 company which has its headquarters in Norfolk, only a short distance from the coal piers at Lambert's Point.

Leaders of the Norfolk and Western

Of the thousands of men and women who made the AM&O and N&W work and grow after the American Civil War, the following people were the railroad's top leaders.
- William Mahone
- George F. Tyler
- Henry Fink
- Frederick J. Kimball
- Lucius E. Johnson
- Nicholas D. Maher
- William J. Jenks
- Arthur C. Needles
- Robert B. (Racehorse) Smith
- Stuart T. Saunders
- Herman H. Pevler
- John P. Fishwick
- Robert B. Claytor

References

Books

- Blake, Nelson Morehouse, Phd. (1935) William Mahone of Virginia; Soldier and Political Insurgent, Garrett and Massie Publishers; Richmond, VA
- Dixon, Thomas W, Jr., (1994) Appalachian Coal Mines & Railroads. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-08-5
- Huddleston, Eugene L, Ph.D. (2002) Appalachian Conquest, Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-79-4
- Lambie, Joseph T. (1954) From Mine to Market: The History of Coal Transportation on the Norfolk and Western Railway New York: New York University Press
- Lewis, Lloyd D. (1992) The Virginian Era. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing I

Bituminous coal

See also

Coal

Etymology and folklore

Composition and creation

Types of coal

Uses

Coal as fuel

Gasification

Liquefaction

Coking and use of coke

Harmful effects of coal burning

Coal fires

World coal reserves

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External links

References

Lignite

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Coke (fuel)

Properties & usage

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Other varieties

Appalachian Mountains

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Appalachia

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Mining

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References

Norfolk and Western

City Point, bridging the Dismal Swamp, William Mahone, Civil War

Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad meets Shenandoah Valley Railroad

Frederick J. Kimball, Big Lick becomes Roanoke, reaching Ohio

Coal

Roanoke Shops: building precision steam locomotives in-house

World Wars, Great Depression, and efficiencies

The Virginian Railway - an engineering marvel of its day

The Modern Railroad Merger Era 1960-1982

Autoracks: competing with trucking

Becoming part of Norfolk Southern - joining with a strong partner

Leaders of the Norfolk and Western

References

Books