This article features the development of knowledge about coal and technological recycling evolution, which is based on researches included in the scientific literature collection of late XIX – early XX centuries. The collection is situated in the Coal Institute of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS), which is a department of the Federal Research Center for Coal and Coal Chemistry, SB RAS). The methods of historical and comparative analysis and consolidation have allowed the author to define the actual significance of the collection for exploration of the origins of the modern coal-chemistry. The collection offers descriptions of the oldest non-industrial coal production, the first experience of the industrial carbonization of stone coal, the development of the carbonization furnace structures, and the initial developments in the area of liquid fuel production from raw carbon matter. The research has revealed that valuable scientific results of chemical recycling of coal gave start to technological use of coal as a new branch in late XIX – early XX centuries. As the scientific role of the collection becomes more prominent, its sources should be included in relevant studies.