Fourth Of July Research Paper

Tradition. People thrive on the idea of doing the same activities over and over again for their own enjoyment and pleasure. Whether it be attending the same Fourth of July picnic every year, baking with family members for holidays, or simply taking an afternoon walk every Sunday, people love to keep their own traditions going. Along with their customary traditions, people also have other traditions they may not even realize due to the tradition’s lack of significance to the person. What people do not realize is, although they are not as special as a Fourth of July picnic, traditions can be as simple as buying and using the same resource to heat their house. Thousands of people in Pennsylvania alone use coal to heat their houses and continue …show more content…
The general term “coal” is broken into 4 categories: anthracite, bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite. Bituminous coal, otherwise known as soft coal, is the most abundant rank of coal (SOURCE). 50% of the coal produced in the United States is bituminous coal found especially in Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. All coal is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but bituminous coal is 77-87% carbon, meaning it will burn quicker. Bituminous coal has the second highest heating value per ton behind anthracite but above both sub-bituminous and lignite coals. Bituminous coal is broken down into two categories: thermal coal and metallurgical coal. Thermal coal, otherwise known as steaming coal, is the type of coal used to fuel steam locomotives and provides energy for many power plants. Bituminous coal is burned to create steam to generate electricity for the locomotives and turbines to work properly and efficiently. The other type of coal, metallurgical, is nicknamed the “Coking Coal” because it is a primary necessity when creating iron or steel. Coke, which is the main ingredient to steel making, is a porous, hard black carbonic rock that is created by heating bituminous coal without air to extremely high temperatures through the process of pyrolysis. Bituminous coal has purposes other than that of generating electricity, creating heat, and making steel as well. Bituminous coal is used in cement manufacturing, for it is needed to heat the limestone, shale, clay, slate and other materials together to create the cement. The carbon in coal can also be used in water and air purification machines and kidney dialysis machines, can be used as a reinforcement material in construction, mountain bikes, and tennis rackets, and finally can produce silicones and silanes, which are used in water repellants, resins, cosmetics, hair shampoos and

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