LIGNITE (ante), named from lignum, wood, a kind of coal, resembling„ probably the condition of hard coal when in a state of transition or process of manufacture. It has no definite chemical composition.. Some beds present a decidedly ligneous structure in the.upper layers, and a truc conl character below. When wOod is buried in water or earth, it decomposes bv the slow process of oxidation, or eremacausis, with the for mation of carbureted hydrogen, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, water, petroleum, etc., after a time leaving a denser, darker substance. After a long time it becomes black and exhibits a pitchy, somewhat conchoidal fracture. It is then lignite. This kind of coal is'cliietly found in the cretaceous and tertiary formations, and in some localitiea forms immense beds, equal, perhaps, in extent to the beds of the carboniferous period. Lignite occupies an intermediate position between peat and hard and bituminous coal, and in' favorable conditions in the process of ages peat -will become lignite, and the latter will be converted into bituminous coal or anthracite. It is probable that most of the coal in China and India is more or less lignitic in its nature, as is the ease of that of western America. Lignite is found also in Greenland and arctic America, and also in Central and South America. In Europe lignites have been mined for a long time, and are used not only for heating dwellings and other domestic purposes, but for g-enerating steam in locomotives and furnaces. The following analyses indicate the variable composition of lignite. One specimen from France contained, in round numbers, the following proportion of constituents: Carbon, 70; hy-drogen, 6; oxygen, 18; nitrogen, 1; ashes, 5. Another specimen, also from France, contained, carbon, 64; hydrogen, 4.6; oxygen, 17; nitrogen 1; ashes, 13.4. Another specimen from Switzerland contained, carbon, 70; hydrogen, 5; oxygen, 20.5; nitrcwen,
1.3; ashes, 3.2. Another specimen from Siberia contained, carbbn, 47.5; hydrogen,a4.5; oxygen, 32; nitrogen, 1; ashes, 15. Another specimen from Germany contained, car bon, 70; hydrogen, 3.2; oxygen, 7.6; nitrogen, 1; ashes, 15.5. The last specimen show& a considerably less proportion of oxygen than the others, but that of carbon is scarcely greater than in the other specimens. It is to, be presumed that its heating power does not differ much from theirs. The principal deposits of lignite in the United States are in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Wyoming, and Alaska. In New Mexico the beds are all iu the cretaceous formation, and chiefly in the lower portion. In Colorado and Wyoming the beds occupy a space not less than 50,000 sq.m., the strata varyin7 in thickness from 1 to 30 feet. Many of these lignites are now mined in Colorado, and they resemble in quality the best brown coals of the old world. Some lignites, as in Trinidad, and in Utah, near Salt Lake City, are capable of being coked and used in smelting. The lignites of California are cretaceons, and many of them finds their way to Sall Francisco. On the coast of Oregon the lignites belong to the tertiary period, and have been mined for several years. An analysis of a specimen of coal from 'Mount Diablo, Cal., by II. S. -Munroe of the N. Y. school of mines, gave the following results: Carbon, 59.724; hydrogen, 5.078; oxygen; 15.697; nitrogen, 1.008; sulphur, .3.916; water, 8.940; ash, 5.637. A lignitic anthracite from Sonora gave, carbon, 84.103 hydrogen, 0.852; oxygen, 2.137; nitrogen, 2.80; sulphur, 0.229; water, 5.191; ash 7.204. This is evidently a superior coal, considered as a lignite. There are occasionally seams of lignite along the Atlantic coast in tertiary formations, mingled more or less with clay.