is drawn out. The process is not an economical one, much of the inside coal being always consumed to waste before the inner portions have been coked. A method has been adopted at the Clyde iron works in Scotland, by which a part of this waste is obviated. A mound is built up of a circular form around a central chimney of brick, which may be 3 ft. square at the base and rise 3 or 4 ft. from the ground. Openings of the size of a brick are left at intervals in its sides, for the passage of the gases, and from the lowest of these the coal around is so piled that flues extend through it to the circumference of the heap. The diameter of the mound maybe 20 ft., and its ashes 4 ft., sufficient with the cover of ashes and cinders to reach above the top of the chimney. The heap is lighted by burning coals thrown into the chimney, from which the flames reach through the aperture. In four or five days, when the mound has become thoroughly on fire, the apertures on the outside and the top of the chimney are closed with plates and ashes, and the heap is left to cool for three days, after which the coke is drawn out. It is the practice now in Europe to utilize the heat produced in making coke. At some chemical works salt is made by using the waste heat; in blast furnaces the air has been heated from the same source, and in many others the heat from the burning of the escaping gases is used to increase the heat of the coking oven itself. Many of these are in use on the continent of Europe. A species of coke called "charred coal" is now used in place of charcoal in the manufacture of tin plates. It is made by spreading fine coal on the red-hot floor of a reverberatory furnace to the depth of four or five inches. Much gas is given off and ebullition takes place, producing a spongy mass which is removed after an hour.
COKE, Natural. At the coal mines of the lias formation, on both sides of the James river, and near Richmond, Va., beds of natural coke of good workable quality are met with, interstratified with the slates, sandstones, fire clay, and coal. On the N. side of the river is a bed 5 ft. thick, which lies slightly inclined toward the west. Several vertical shafts cut it, the deepest about 207 ft. below the surface. The coke is of a nearly uniform character, and is heavier than common coke, vesicular in texture, and of a dull black color. The volatile ingredients of the coal are almost wholly wanting, and the coke does not differ in its properties and appearance from much of the more compact artificial varieties. Twenty feet above the coke, the agent which effected this change, and also altered the beds of fire clay and slate, is seen in an intercalated layer of trap rock of 15 to 30 ft. in thickness. Immediately beneath the trap is a bed of carbonaceous fire clay and cinder 5 ft. thick, baked and hardened by the action of the trap. Under the coke bed is another stratum of indurated fire clay, and beneath this one of coal elates 20 ft. thick. Another carbonaceous bed is then cut by the shaft; this is a thin layer of half-coked coal. Twenty feet below this is another coal bed of the usual bituminous composition, its structure unaltered.
COKE, Sir Edward, an English jurist, born at Mileham, Norfolk, Feb. 1, 1552, died at Stoke Pogis, Buckinghamshire, Sept. 3, 1633. Nothing of particular interest is related of his school days at the grammar school in Norwich, or in the university of Cambridge. He left Cambridge without taking a degree, and at the age of 20 commenced the study of law at an inn of chancery, where he spent a year in acquiring a knowledge of the forms of writs and proceedings in courts, and then entered upon the study of general jurisprudence in the Inner Temple. He was called to the bar a year before the expiration of the time prescribed for legal studies (at that time seven years), in 1578, and was soon after appointed reader (lecturer) of Lyon's Inn (an inn of chancery), which office he held three years, and so distinguished himself by his lectures that he gained much repute for legal learning. Within that time he rose to the highest rank in the profession by his argument in Shelley's case, the most celebrated case relating to real estate which is to be found in the English reports. He was thenceforth employed in most of the important cases in Westminster, was successively elected recorder of Coventry, then of Norwich, and lastly of London, and was appointed reader (law professor) of the Inner Temple. In 1592 he was, at the instance of Lord Burleigh, appointed solicitor general, and the following year he was returned to parliament as the representative of Norfolk, and was chosen speaker of the house. In 1594, the office of attorney general becoming vacant, Coke expected to succeed to it in regular course, but was unexpectedly met by a formidable claimant, Francis Bacon, backed by the influence of the earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth resisted the solicitation of her favorite, and appointed Coke; but it was the commencement of bitter hostility between the rivals, which, with alternating success, was ultimately disastrous to both. In 1598 Coke lost his first wife, to whom he had been married 16 years, and within four months married Lady Hatton, a wealthy young widow, who within a year bore to him a daughter, but refused to take his name, being always known as Lady Hatton. In 1600 he published the first of the 11 parts of his reports. The other parts were published in the following reign. The preface is characteristic of the author. He proposes no diminution of the student's labor by any facility which his reports are to furnish. "My advice to the reader," he says, "is that in reading of these or any new reports, he neglect not in any case the reading of the old books of years reported in former ages, for assuredly out of the old fields must spring and grow the new corn." In his subsequent works he often reiterates the same advice. He did not encourage the use of abridgments, except
