That version of the story goes something like this: On July 1, 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan departed from Lae, New Guinea in Earhartâs Lockheed Electra 10, on what was to be the longest portion of Earhartâs highly publicized round-the-world flight.
The youngest coal is not even coal yet -- peat. Peat is a traditional fuel in parts of the world, like Ireland, where it is cut from the earth, dried, and burned for heat. The energy content of peat is quite low. Young coal is called lignite, and is soft and brown, not much different than dried peat.
Coke is carbonized coal, a product produced by baking coal in a heated oven. By using a process that allows the impurities in the coal to be burned off, while not allowing the carbon content of the coal to burn, the coal is turned into coke. The impurities burned off were actually the volatile matter contained in the coal, such as tars, oils and gases. When burned, coke generated an intense amount of heat but produced very little smoke, qualities that made it an ideal fuel for use in producing iron and steal. During the 1880's, coke began to replace charcoal in the making of steel at foundries in the United States.