Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/588

 552 ANTHRACITE account which we find of the use of anthracite in the United States was in 1768-'9, when it was used by two blacksmiths from Connecticut named Gore. One of these brothers, Jude Obadiah Gore, related the facts to Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkesbarre, who subsequently commu- nicated them to Silliman's " Journal " and Haz- ard's " Register." In 1776 coal was quarried from the Baltimore bed near Wilkesbarre and the Smith mine near Plymouth, and taken down the Susquehanna in arks to the government arsenal at Carlisle. This trade was continued during the revolutionary war, and anthracite was used by the blacksmiths and gunsmiths of the lower Susquehanna from that time forth; but from the difficulty of making it burn it was not used for domestic purposes till 1808, when Judge Fell succeeded in burning "stone coal " in a grate of his own construction. An- thracite was sold in the vicinity of "Wilkesbarre to the smiths at $3 a ton, and in Marietta, on the lower Susquehanna, at $8 to $9 a ton from 1810 to 1814. This was probably the first successful use of anthracite for general purposes in the world. The earliest record of the production of anthracite in France, as given by Taylor, is in 1814; while Mr. Blakewell, an English geologist, says the Welsh coals were "inferior" and not used for domestic purposes in 1813, and but "little used" in 1828. The northern or .Wyoming coal field is naturally di- vided into two regions, the Lackawanna and the Wyoming, and these into several districts. The Lackawanna region includes the districts on the Lackawanna creek, which empties into the Susquehanna at Pittston. The districts are the old or original Lackawanna, at and around Carbondale, the Scranton, and the Pittston. Around these centres the early developments of the Lackawanna region were made, and collieries clustered. The Carbondale district was opened in 1829 by the Delaware and Hud- son company's canal and railroad ; the Scran- ton district by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, in 1854; and the Pittston district by the Susquehanna canal in 1843, and the Pennsylvania coal company's railroad in 1850. The production of the Wyoming or northern coal field in 1871 was 6,481,171 tons. Of this amount 2,867,598 tons was sent from the Wyoming region, and 8,613,573 from the Lackawanna. There are now (1873) nine rail- roads and two canals employed in transporting coal from these regions. The coal beds in the Wyoming portion extend to K (fig. 1), but in the Lackawanna the number is less, extending only to H or I. The coal of the entire field is an- thracite. The first or southern and middle anthracite fields are the next in size and im- portance, and in order of development. Their topography and geology differ materially from the northern field, as shown by fig. 2 from Lesley. The valleys in which the coal exists are comparatively narrow, while both anticli- nals and synclinals and the strata of the meas- ures are more abrupt than those of the former. This field terminates in the east on the Lehigh river, in a single point or synclinal trough. In the west are two terminal points or prongs, which are wide apart at their extremities near the Susquehanna. Its extreme length is 73 m. to the end of the Dauphin or south fork, and 10 m. less by the Lykens Valley or north fork. Its mean breadth is 2 m., and its maximum, at Pottsville, 5 m. The number of coal beds is greater in this than in any of the other anthra- cite fields. The coal of the E. end is hard an- thracite ; of the Lykens Valley fork, semi-an- thracite ; and of Dauphin fork, semi-bituminous. The middle anthracite field is divided longitu- dinally by the Locust mountain anticlinal, over which the coal beds connect at several points. It is divided into two regions. The Mahanoy re- gion is 25 m. long, with a mean breadth of nearly 2 m. Its basins are narrow and deep, and the strata abrupt. The Shamokin or northern part, not shown in fig. 2, is 20 m. long, with a mean breadth of 2 J m. The basins are wider, of less depth, and the strata of less inclination, than the former. The highest bed in this field is K. The coal is generally anthracite, except at the W. extremity, where it is semi-anthracite. The earliest records we find of the existence of coal in the southern and middle coal fields are those on Scul's map of Pennsylvania and Fa- den's "Atlas of North America" (1810-'17). The first discovery for practical purposes, how- ever, was made in 1791 by a hunter named Philip Ginter on the Lehigh end of the south- ern coal field, and on the site of the since fa- mous Lehigh coal quarry at Summit Hill. In the following year the "Lehigh Coal Mine Company " was formed by 'Robert Morris, J. Anthony Morris, Cist, Weist, Hillegas, and others, who secured 6,000 acres of land and opened the quarry the same year (1792) to test the character and value of the coal. In 1798 a charter was obtained by this company for a sluice navigation on the Lehigh, and in 1803 six arks with 600 tons of coal, from the Sum- mit Hill quarry, were started down the river ; but only two, with less than 100 tons each, reached Philadelphia. The city authorities purchased the coal to supply a steam engine used at the water works, then in Broad street ; but it could not be made to burn, probably because it was tried in large lumps, and was broken up to gravel the walks of the grounds. In 1806 another ark load was taken to Phila- delphia with no better success. It appears, however, from a brief account of "The Dis- covery of Anthracite on the Lehigh," in the memoirs of the historical society of Pennsyl- vania, written by Dr. T. C. James of Phila- delphia, who had visited the mines, that he had commenced using stone coal in the winter of 1804, and, having laid in a supply from this and the former cargoes, continued to use it to the day of publication in 1826. About this time (1800) William Morris, whose mines were near Port Carbon, Schuylkill county, took a load of coal to Philadelphia, but did not succeed in selling