W.T. Delihant, President of the Standard Washed Coal Company

via superitch.com

From the 1904 Vanity Cartoon Book, Illinoisans As We See ‘Em, comes a smoking gun in the form of the self-paid caricature of Chicagoan W.T. Delihant, President of the Standard Washed Coal Company. Delihant, holding a piece of coal and a magician’s wand, with a goldfish bowl of water nearby, proudly fancied himself as a “Sleight of Hand Performer”, just like today’s coal companies distract the public from the dangers of Climate Destabilization, with their own sleight-of-hand promises involving uninvented & mythological Clean Coal Technology.