Home PageAbout MindatThe Mindat ManualHistory of MindatCopyright StatusWho We AreContact UsAdvertise on Mindat
Donate to MindatCorporate SponsorshipSponsor a PageSponsored PagesMindat AdvertisersAdvertise on Mindat
Learning CenterWhat is a mineral?The most common minerals on earthInformation for EducatorsMindat ArticlesThe ElementsThe Rock H. Currier Digital LibraryGeologic Time
Minerals by PropertiesMinerals by ChemistryAdvanced Locality SearchRandom MineralRandom LocalitySearch by minIDLocalities Near MeSearch ArticlesSearch GlossaryMore Search Options
The Mindat ManualAdd a New PhotoRate PhotosLocality Edit ReportCoordinate Completion ReportAdd Glossary Item
Mining CompaniesStatisticsUsersMineral MuseumsClubs & OrganizationsMineral Shows & EventsThe Mindat DirectoryDevice SettingsThe Mineral Quiz
Photo SearchPhoto GalleriesSearch by ColorNew Photos TodayNew Photos YesterdayMembers' Photo GalleriesPast Photo of the Day GalleryPhotography
╳Discussions
💬 Home🔎 Search📅 LatestGroups
EducationOpen discussion area.Fakes & FraudsOpen discussion area.Field CollectingOpen discussion area.FossilsOpen discussion area.Gems and GemologyOpen discussion area.GeneralOpen discussion area.How to ContributeOpen discussion area.Identity HelpOpen discussion area.Improving Mindat.orgOpen discussion area.LocalitiesOpen discussion area.Lost and Stolen SpecimensOpen discussion area.MarketplaceOpen discussion area.MeteoritesOpen discussion area.Mindat ProductsOpen discussion area.Mineral ExchangesOpen discussion area.Mineral PhotographyOpen discussion area.Mineral ShowsOpen discussion area.Mineralogical ClassificationOpen discussion area.Mineralogy CourseOpen discussion area.MineralsOpen discussion area.Minerals and MuseumsOpen discussion area.PhotosOpen discussion area.Techniques for CollectorsOpen discussion area.The Rock H. Currier Digital LibraryOpen discussion area.UV MineralsOpen discussion area.Recent Images in Discussions
EducationThings I can do with coal?
11th Aug 2018 05:28 UTCSky Sanchez
11th Aug 2018 05:35 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager
11th Aug 2018 07:10 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager
(i) Guess you can label it, add a catalogue no. and store it in a drawer with your other minerals !! :-)) ;
(ii) Create a coal mining display !! :-)) ;
(iii) Pulverise it and use it in scenery or as part of scale model coal mine in a model train display, fill a model coal tender etc !! :-)) ;
(iv) incorporate it into a piece of modern art ! :-)) ;
(v) photograph it and add it to Mindat;
(vi) as Alfredo said, if it is very compact you could carve/shape and even polish it.
I often dig up bits in my backyard ... but I just dig it back into the soil (reduces my carbon footprint !! :-)) )
On a more serious note, the following paper discusses a number of uses of coal, although you will need more than a handful of coal - a whole mine would help: (... :-)) ... )
https://www.usea.org/sites/default/files/052014_Non-fuel%20uses%20of%20coal_ccc236.pdf
11th Aug 2018 22:28 UTCAlysson Rowan Expert
Town-gas production; methane production; coal-tar production, coking, hydrogen extraction, SO2 extraction etc.
Some grades of coal can be pulverised and used as a pigment.
Other grades may be cracked (by anaerobic heating and quenching) in order to produce a tarry wood preservative.
Crushed coal can be used as a mild abrasive for grit-blasting.
Finely crushed coal can be used as an inert colourant in concrete.
As Keith suggested. it can be used in model making. It doesn't work well as a filler/pigment in acrylic resins though.
28th Aug 2018 19:33 UTCMatt Ciranni
29th Aug 2018 02:00 UTCDoug Daniels
29th Aug 2018 21:11 UTCOwen Lewis
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you place a chunk of coal in a wood furnace
> that is hot enough, will it ignite, or does it
> need to be crushed or powdered first?
For some of us at least, it's amazing how, well within a lifetime, what was once common public information, taught in schools etc.,
simply disappears from (or never even enters) the memory banks of so many. Amber has proved to have been associated with some sites of human habitation for around 600,000 years. Given the common geological association between the laying down of amber seams and of coal seams, it's hard to imagine that those human groups that knew of amber did not also know of coal.
I was born in my maternal grandparents' house in 1941. That world was much as my grandparents would always have known it. Central heating in the UK was to be found only in a few public buildings and almost never in homes. Heating in the rooms of a house was either by an open coal fire in the room or, increasingly post about 1945 electric fires in which a metal and ceramic element was heated red-hot by the flow of electricity through it. Day-rooms were heated but bedrooms almost always not - one. We still had but no longer used my grandparents' covered bed warming pans (made of copper and with long wooden handles) into which the dying coals from the day-room fires would be placed and taken to the bedrooms to be put in beds to warm them up - but these had been replaced by ceramic hot water bottles, filled with freshly boiled water that were safer and could be kept in the bed with one during the night.
Finally, the 'range' in the kitchen on/in which food was cooked (in one grandparents home) use a slow-burning fuel (to which we shall return) and heated all the hot water for the household. Alternatively, as in my other grandparents home , the household's hot water was obtained using a small closed furnace dedicated solely to that function. Coal burns well in an open fire, the better ventilated, the hotter the burn. And, as already pointed out elsewhere, in the burning of coal several valuable substances are wasted.
As already pointed out, several valuable gas and oil substances are lost. The trick, developed in the 19th C is to heat coal with no supply of air. in this way the gas and oil products are driven out of the coal and can be collected and refined. The solid material remaining is a 'special' fuel that is well suited to burning in a very low supply of air. The name of this special fuel may have varied from place to place but in GB it was generally called 'coke'.
Coal fires run reasonably hot and need to be 'open fires' for which there is a good air draft. Domestic furnaces are 'closed fires which need to have only a minimal air supply for the combustion of the special fuel used. Coke either will not burn at all or else burns very badly as fuel in an open fire.
My parents bought their first home as a 'new build' in 1947. Coal fire in the living room, electric fire in the dining room and coke boiler in the kitchen. In 1959, they designed a new home to their specification. This had gas-fired, ducted air central heating to all rooms and, for the living room only, a fireplace fitted with an electrical unit made to resemble a flaming coal fire.
30th Aug 2018 01:14 UTCStephen Turner
I have an ongoing conversation with my 8 yo whenever he starts the 'what am i getting for Christmas' routine. I tell him a lump of coal of course then launch into an explanation of how useful a lump of coal is - for heating and cooking food and if he really applies some heat and pressure maybe some diamonds. But with the last 'promotion' of coal he was actually starting to think it might be pretty cool to have a lump of coal, so i might actually have to find some.
Thanks to all for the additional utilities of coal which i can add to the next conversation.
31st Aug 2018 15:36 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager
-------------------------------------------------------
> Of course you can always give lumps of coal to bad
> kids for Christmas!
>
That might backfire if the child is a budding geologist... ;-)
31st Aug 2018 16:30 UTCKevin Hean
5th Sep 2018 04:25 UTCDonald B Peck Expert
15th Sep 2018 15:24 UTCTim Holtz
16th Sep 2018 04:34 UTCDoug Daniels
16th Sep 2018 18:38 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager
17th Sep 2018 03:45 UTCDoug Daniels
18th Sep 2018 15:56 UTCSteve Hardinger 🌟 Expert
18th Sep 2018 17:21 UTCDonald B Peck Expert
19th Sep 2018 10:55 UTCalice jordan
1. Expel Pesticides
2. Keep Cut Flowers Fresh
3. Use as Mulch
4. Keep Bathrooms, Fridges and More Fresh
5. Zap Rust off of Cast Iron
6. Save Linens, Books, and the sky is the limit from there
be that as it may, for parlor gas-let go air focal warming to all rooms and, for the family room just, a chimney fitted with an electrical fireplace {https://sortedforyou.com/best-electric-fireplace} made to take after a flaring coal fire.
20th Sep 2018 02:41 UTCDoug Daniels
Mindat.org is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 29, 2024 06:33:19
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 29, 2024 06:33:19