Submitted
 27 Aug 2002 
Copyright © 2002 by owner.
Standard citation procedures apply.
Posted 
 02 Oct 2002 


 

My Favorite Mineral

                 

            I am not the sort of person who gives much thought to favorites of this sort or that.  My favorite food, favorite music, or favorite movie is whatever I happen to be in the mood for at the moment.  My favorite car is whatever appears to be the best combination of price, efficiency, reliability, handling, utility, and comfort for my current and foreseeable needs.  My favorite color depends on what the color is for—brown is lovely for chocolate, but not my first choice for asparagus.

            If pressed to choose a favorite anything, my decision is typically governed more by utilitarian concerns than by aesthetics; I find I can muster no more than a passing enthusiasm for trinkets.  On the other hand, diamonds, sapphires, and rubies have their utilitarian applications.  Galena made the first radios possible.  Mica is valuable as an electrical insulator, and gold as a non-corroding conductor.  And without hematite and bauxite, our modern industrial world could not exist.  Yet none of these stands out in my mind as the sine qua non of minerals.  To me, choosing a favorite mineral is like choosing a favorite vitamin—all are important, and each is indispensable in some respect.  Perhaps, then, in my search for what I could identify as a clear favorite, I can be forgiven for pushing the limits of the conventional criteria for what qualifies as a mineral.

            I would not select a sparkling bauble that, for a few moments, lures the eye to its seductive, translucent depths.  Nor would I choose a gleaming precious metal which for millennia has incited base emotions in the hearts of men.  Rather, I would opt for one that has been the source of comfort, and even of fond memories.  It would be the one that warmed my boyhood home and my neighborhood school during the frigid Februarys of the early 1950s.  It would be the one that once brought snorting locomotives and majestic steamships to life and whisked them, and their passengers and cargoes, to mysterious destinations beyond my own familiar world.  It would be the one that fed the furnaces and powered the machinery that made it possible for millions of men and women to earn a livelihood, and to produce material abundance and widespread prosperity with seemingly magical ease and efficiency compared to any previous age.  It would be the one that even now fires the boiler that makes the steam that turns the generator that makes the electricity that runs the computer that magically turns my thoughts into intelligible squiggles on a screen or a sheet of paper—none other than the "black diamond."

            Coal is a product of decomposed plants of bogs of the Carboniferous Period, subsequently compressed and hardened under layers of sediment for hundreds of millions of years.  It was probably first employed as a fuel by the Chinese around 200 BCE.  However, it was not used as such in Europe until about the 13th century CE, when people who lived near outcroppings of the funny black rock discovered that it offered some advantages over wood as a fuel for their hearths and smithies.  Then in the 18th century, coal's importance skyrocketed, when development of the steam engine triggered the Industrial Revolution, and ultimately provided the power to obviate civilization's ages-old dependence upon forced labor.

            As minerals go, coal is arguably the humblest of the lot.  Pretty and clean it is not.  Extracting it from its subterranean hiding places is dangerous work and can deface the land.  The gritty clouds resulting from its careless use are unsightly and unhealthful, and it leaves mountains of ash as a waste product.  Yet despite its faults, what other single mineral has provided so much comfort and utility, and powered the unprecedented advance of industry, not to mention the culture it supports?  Indeed, what other mineral has played so significant a role in the liberation of mankind from slavery?  No glittering trinket can claim such an accomplishment.

NOTES:

This undergraduate paper was submitted on 27 August 2002 for academic credit in Geology: Understanding Earth.

As an academic paper it is unusual, in that the assignment was not for a scholarly discourse, but rather a personal revelation.  As a preliminary essay, its purpose was not to demonstrate acquired knowledge and expertise, but rather to acquaint the instructor with the student's background (if any) in, and attitudes about, geology, under the assigned title.  While many in the class chose to write about birthstones or brilliant-hued minerals, my choice was a bit different.  In addition, the essay is not of the usual scholarly form.  It does not straightforwardly present a thesis, develop it, and hammer it home, but rather makes its point by entertaining.  For half its length, the text meanders in a lazy stream of nostalgia, leisurely inviting the reader into my own world for a few moments.  Only after the reader has been seduced does the piece make its statement.

The paper employs a loose MLA format.  It was originally written using Microsoft Works®, and has been converted to web format using Microsoft Word®.


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