Part I. Report of progress in 1869, by J. S. Newberry, chief geologist. Part II. Report of progress in the second district, by E. B. Andrews, assist. geologist. Part III. Report on geology of Montgomery County, by Edward Orton, assist. geologist.

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take some additional analyses, to see if there was in the coal as much
iron as the revealed sulphur would require to form the bi-sulphide. Prof.
Wormley undertook the careful examination of this question, and his
results, which are altogether new to science, not only reflect upon him
the highest credit, but promise to be of great economic value.
All the authorities on the subject of coal have hitherto supposed the
sulphur to be chemically combined with iron in the form of a bi-sulphide
of iron (Fe S2). Prof. Dana, in his recent great work on Minerology
expresses a doubt in regard to this in the following paragraph, page 756:
" Sulphur is present in nearly all coals. It is supposed to be usually
combined with iron, and when the coal affords a red ash on burning,
there is reason for believing, this true. But Percy mentions a coal from
New Zealand, which gave a peculiarly white ash, although containing
from 2 to 3 p. c. of sulphur, a fact showing that it is present not as a
sulphide of iron, but as a constituent of an organic compound. The discovery by Church of a resin containing sulphur (see Tasmaoite, p. 746),
gives reason for inferring that it may exist in this coal in that state,
although its presence as a constituent of other organic compounds is
quite possible."
By an examination of Prof. Wormley's table of analyses of the Lost
run coal, it will be seen that in no case is there iron enough in the coal
to take up in combination all the sulphur. In No. 27, the sulpher is 1.01
per cent. Adopting for the combination of the bi-sulphide of iron the
proportion given by Prof. Dana, viz., iron 46.7, and sulphur 53.3, in 100
parts, the sulphur in No. 27 would require 0.884 per cent. of iron, whereas
Prof. Wormley finds only 0.09 per cent. This 0.09 per cent. of iron would
only require 0.102 per cent. of sulphur to make the usual iron pyrites,
and there are consequently 0.908 per cent. of sulphur elsewhere in the
coal than in combination with iron. This excess of sulphur must be
both in the volatile matter and in the coke. The coke retains 0.50 per
cent. of sulphur. This shows that part of the sulphur is in permanent
combination with the fixed carbon of the coal.
The average loss of sulphur in reducing all the coals from Lost run to
coke is 56 per cent.
Another marked illustration of the disproportion of sulphur to the iron
in a bituminous coal is found in the analysis of a coal from Washington
county. The coal is a white ash coal, and the sample analyzed had been in
the cabinet of Marietta college for fourteen years, and showed none of the
usual tendency to disintegrate from a change of the bi-sulphide to the
sulphate of iron, a salt which, in crystallizing, breaks the coal by its expansion.
The sample was found by Prof. Wormley to contain only 0.390 per
cent. of iron, but 3.330 per cent. of sulphur. There should have been
but 0.445 per cent. of sulphur, if the sulphur were limited to a bi-sulphide
of iron. The coke retained 1.82 per cent. of sulphur.
These analyses are of the highest practical importance. In coals for gas