ABSTRACT
Any form of coal tar, its residual compounds or its wastes, found as ground-surface residuals, seeps, pools, or in the subsurface boring or trenching samples of formerly industrialized sites, should be considered as prima facie evidence of the presence of some form of coal distillation or coal carbonization. Most of these activities were carried out to convert coal to more readily utilized, more economic, and cleaner forms of energy for application to the human existence or to industrial production. As coal or other organic matter was roasted (pyrolyzed) for release and capture of its gases, the science of organic chemistry developed to exploit these unique treasures. Organic chemists were practically unknown until after the turn of the nineteenth century, but the 1854 discovery that the tar fractions were indeed distillable organic £uids changed that situation.
