Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1874 — The Danger of Wet Coal. [ARTICLE]

The Danger of Wet Coal.

People who prefer wetting the winter’s store of coal to lay the dust on putting it in their cellars do not, we believe, generally know that they are laying up for themselves a store of sore throats and other evils Consequent upon the practice. But so it is said to be. Even the firedamp which escapes from coal mines arises from the slow decomposition of coal at temperatures but little above that of the atmosphere, but under augmented pressure. By wetting a mass of freshly-broken coal and putting it into a warm cellar the mass is heated to such a degree that carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen are given off for long periods of time and pervade the whole house. The liability of wet coal to mischievous results under such circumstances may be appreciated from the. circumstance that there are several instances on record of the combustion of wet coalwhen stowed into the bunkers or holds of vessels.. And from this cause, doubtless, many missing coal vessels have perished.— London Medical Record. —The following are the number of letters in the alphabets of different nations: English, 26; French, 25; Italian, 20; Spanish, 27; German, 26; Slavonic, 42; Russian, 36; Latin, 22; Greek, 24; Hebrew, 22; Arabic, 28; Persian, 31; Turkish. 28; Sanscrit, 44; Chinese radical characters, 214. —ln the twenty-five years—lß4o-’73 there were 262,563 new houses built in London, and 6,578 new streets and seventy-one squares were formed. The length of these new streets. and squares exceeded 1,158 miles. . —A Inan in Jasper County, Ga., gathered from one grain of wheat 2,370 grains. His corn will average forty-five bushels to the acre.