The Story of a Piece of Coal: What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes

Martin, Edward A. (Edward Alfred), 1864-1943Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7

Word count: 245K words
Chapters: 25

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Story of a Piece of Coal: What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It GoesAuthor: Martin, Edward A. (Edward Alfred), 1864-1943,Language: English, Class: TN: Technology: Mining engineering, Metallurgy, Release Date: Jun 28, 2004

Editor's review

This book uses an apparently ordinary object—a piece of coal—as a thread to connect geological origins, mining processes, and industrial uses into a short popular history of science. The author, Martin, was an early twentieth-century British popular science writer, and the writing carries the composure and orderliness of that era: first explaining what coal is and how it was formed from ancient plants over long geological ages, then describing how humans discovered, mined, and transported it, and finally discussing where coal went in industry and daily life. Unlike modern energy textbooks, it does not pile up data; instead, it blends mineralogy, geology, and industrial history through narrative and examples, in plain language, making it suitable as an introductory reader for understanding coal and early industrial civilization. Because it was written early, the book does not address contemporary issues of carbon emissions and energy transition, and readers need to supplement that background themselves. When reading, one can treat it as a window onto the style of science popularization at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, gaining basic knowledge about coal while also sensing the era's optimistic attitude toward natural resources.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Middle school students and general readers interested in geology, minerals, and basic energy knowledge
Popular science enthusiasts who want to understand the origins of coal and the history of early mining industry
Readers practicing English reading who prefer short nonfiction English works
Collectors of public-domain popular science literature and readers interested in early scientific writing styles

Not a good fit for

Professional readers who need contemporary energy policy, carbon emissions, and new energy data
Learners expecting a systematic textbook-style knowledge framework and abundant charts
Readers who only want a Chinese translation and are unwilling to engage with the English original

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and first chapter first to grasp the book's main narrative line from origins to uses, then read selectively according to interest.
When encountering geological terms, use a dictionary or encyclopedia for reference; there is no need to verify every word, so as to maintain reading rhythm.
After finishing, read a contemporary popular science article on coal and energy transition to compare the differences in perspective across a century.
If using it for English learning, excerpt two or three descriptive long sentences from each chapter for intensive reading and imitation writing.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with no background knowledge?

Yes. The book is mainly narrative, with low terminology density, and the author explains concepts in a broken-down way, so readers with no background can follow along. Some geological terms may need to be looked up in a dictionary, but checking as you read does not affect overall understanding.

Is the content of the book outdated?

The basic descriptions of coal formation and early mining techniques still have reference value, but the book does not address contemporary issues such as carbon emissions, clean energy, and energy transition. Reading it as a historical popular science book and supplementing it with modern materials will make it more complete.

Is this a Chinese book or an English book?

This is an English public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg, and the language is English. Readers can read the original directly or use it with a dictionary or translation tool.

How long does it take to read this book?

The length is not long; it is short popular science. At half an hour per day, it can usually be finished within a few days. If doing intensive reading and looking up words, the time will be correspondingly longer, and it can be read in sections by chapter.

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About the author

Martin, Edward A. (Edward Alfred), 1864-1943 Author · 1864–1943

Edward A. Martin (1864–1943), full name Edward Alfred Martin, has very limited biographical information available in public sources, and even his birth and death years are known only from bibliographic records. The library holds just one work by him, The Story of a Piece of Coal: What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes. As the title suggests, the book takes coal as a concrete starting point and offers a popular-science account of its nature, origins, and uses, combining informative content with readability for general readers. Writing of this kind typically links geology, mining, and utilization in clear language, helping readers understand the natural and industrial background of an everyday resource. Because public information is limited, the author's full career, nationality, and other writings cannot be confirmed; this introduction therefore relies only on the available bibliographic data and the work's title, without speculating about biographical details.