The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1893-05-05
WHEN COAL WAS FIRST USED

When 1t Was Brought Into General Ser
vice in England.
Though coal has been employed for
centuries in the manufacture of salt on
the shores of the coal fields wood had
hitherto continued to be the fuel at the
inland salt works. The use of coal at
Nantwich is mentioned asa novelty in
1866; at Droitwich wood fuel and leaden
pans We're used up till 1851. In this era
the sea-salt manufacture was in the
zenith of its prosperity. But the sub
stitution of coal for wood in the inland
salt trade, aided by the discovery Of
rock salt which took place accidentally
in boring for coal in Cheshire, led
to the gradual decline and final extinc-
ton of the manufacture of salt on the
coast. The only traces now remaining
of this once fiourishing industry exists
in such names as Howdon Pans on the
Tyne. Prestonpans on the Forth, Salt
coats in Ayrshire, and Saltcoats in Ar
ran and Kintyre, or in the Scottish
proverb, Garry salt to Dysart," synon-
ymous with the English Garry coal to
Newcastle"
In no branch of industry was tho
scarcity of wood more keenly felt than
in the smelling of metalliferous ores.
Continued efforts to accomplish this
with coal began Immediately after the
accession of James l. and We're perse-
vered in throughout the seventeenth
century. But for prolonged period
the new fuel proved highly intractable,
and scheme after scheme ended in fail
ure and disappointment.
After eighty years of oft repeated
trials the tantalizing problem remained
unsolved. Wood and charcoal still
held the field in the smelling furnaces,
and all hope of ever seeing coal substi-
tuted for them had well-nigh died out
on Works Metallick," concluded his OBJ
servations regarding sea coal and pit
coal with the remark: These are not
useful to metals
The unpromising prospect, however,
soon began to brighten. Immediately
after the revival of lead and copper
mining. which took place about 1902
having probably been more or less in
abeyance since the Interruptions occa-
stoned by the civil wars when
The hsher left his SIX # to rock
On Tamars glittering waves:
The rugged miners rushed to war
From Mendip's sunless caves.
these ores came to be smeited with
coal. The extraction of silver from lead
with coal was accomplished by a Mr..
Lydal in 1897. and the same individual
appears to have been the first to sue
cessfully employ coal in the smelling
of tin in 1905.
The ores of iron proved more re.
fractory. no substantial and permanent
success in smelling them with coal be
ing obtained till near the middle of the
eighteenth century, when the manu-
facture of charcoal iron had dwindle6
to very small proportions-in fact, wai
dying out for want of fuel.
1t then at length became an accom-
plished fact at Coalbrookdale iron work,
in Shropshire. The success was at first
ascribed to the Shropshire coal, but
probably the employment of strong
blast had great deal to do with it.
From this the coal became the life Of
the iron manufacture. The ci-devant
dropping trade rapidly revived, and the
latter part of the eighteenth century
saw coal-iron furnaces in successful
operation throughout the kingdom
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