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Mining History Association 16th Annual Conference, June 16-20, 2005 Lackawanna Heritage Valley Center Scranton, Pennsylvania
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Finding Uses for Anthracite Finding the deposits was easier than finding commercial uses for anthracite. Philip Ginter gave a piece of the anthracite he had discovered to Col. Jacob Weiss at Fort Allen (now Weissport). Weiss took it to Philadelphia and confirmed it was coal. Then Weiss, Charles Cist, John Nicholas, and Michael Hillegar formed the Lehigh Coal Mining Company, the first anthracite company. In 1803 they shipped two boatloads down the dangerous Lehigh River to Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the coal was difficult to ignite and therefore could not be sold. In 1808, Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre successfully burned anthracite on a grate in his fireplace. Stoking the fire by adding more coal kept the fire going. Gradually anthracite became accepted as a premium, clean burning, and “smokeless” home heating fuel. Philadelphia was the first market outside the anthracite region. During the War of 1812, shipments of British coal were cut off and anthracite gained new markets including New York. Well-to-do customers paid $25 per ton for the fuel.
In 1838, David Thomas used anthracite in iron furnaces at the Lehigh Crane Iron Company in Catasauqua. The successful use of anthracite for iron making sounded the death knell for many of the small charcoal furnaces dotting the Eastern Seaboard.
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Charles A. Ashburner, “The Anthracite Coal Fields of Pennsylvania,” Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 11 (New York: AIME,1883) 136-159. Samuel Thomas, “Reminisces of the Early Anthracite Iron Industry,” Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 30 (New York: AIME, 1900) 901-928. George W. Harris, “Anthracite Washeries,” Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 36 (New York AIME, 1906) 610-625. Andrew Roy, “A History of the Coal Miners of the United States from the Development of the Mines to the Close of the Anthracite Strike of 1902,” (Columbus, OH: J. L. Trauger Printing Company, 1907). W. G. Whilden, “Steep Pitch Mining of Thick Coal Veins,” Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 49 (New York: AIME, 1915), 698-722. “Coal Miners Pocketbook,” Eleventh Edition, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1916. “Report of the Pennsylvania Department of Mines: Part I – Anthracite, 1917,” (Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1919). CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE SCRANTON MEETING PAGE |