Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-03-25
WHEN COAL WAS FIRST USED
Heard of as Fuel as Far Back as 1885,
Preceded by Wood and Charcoal


Heard of as Fuel as Far Back as 1885,
Preceded by Wood and Charcoal
Though coal had been employed for
centuries in the manufacture OF salt on
the shores Of the coal fields, wood had
hitherto continued to be the fuel al
the inland salt works. The use OF
coal at Nantwich is mentioned as
novelty in 1856; and, according to the
Contemporary Review, at Droitwich
wood fuel and leaden pans were in
use up till 1851. In this era the
sea salt manufacture was in the
zenith of its prosperity. But the
substitution of coal for wood in the
inland salt trade, aided by the dis
covery of rock salt, which took place
accidentally in boring for coal in
Cheshire, 1870, led to the gradual de-
cline and final extinction of the
manufacture Of salt on the coast
The only traces now remaining of this
once flourishing industry exist in such
names as HowdonpaDs on the Tyne,
Prestonpans on the Forth, Saltcoats
IN Ayrshire, and Saltpans in Arran
and Kintyre, or in the Scottish prov
erb, Garry salt TO Dysart" synony-
nous with the English ''Carry coal
to Newcastle" In no branch of in
dustry was the scarcity of wood more
keenlv felt than in the smelling OF
metalliferous ores. Continued efforts
to accomplish this with coal began
Immediately after the accession OF
James l. and were persevered In
throughout the seventeenth century
But for a long period the new fuel
proved highly intractable, and scheme
after scheme ended in failure and
disappointment.
After eighty years of oft-repeated |
trials the tantalizing problem re-
NAMED unsolved. Wood and char
coal still held the field in the smeit-
ing furnaces and all hope of ever see-
Ing coal substituted for them had
well nigh died out In 1886 Sir John |
Pettus, in his Essays on Words |
Metallick, concluded his observations
regarding sea coal and pit coal with |
the remark "These are not useful |
to metals" The unpromising pros
rects, however, soon began to brighten.
Immediately after the revival Of lead |
and copper mining, which took place |
about 1692-having probably been
more or less In allegiance since the III
terruptions occasioned by the civil |
wars, when
The fisher left his skiff to rock
On Tamars glittering waves
The rugged miners rushed to war
From Mendip's sunless caves.
these cares came to be smelted with |
coal. The extraction with silver |
from lead with coal was accomplished |
by Mr.. Lydal in 1897, and the same
individual appears to have been the
first to successfully employ coal IN the
smelling of tin. in 1905. The ores of |
iron proved more refractory, no SUBJ
stantial and permanent success in /
smelling them with coal being OBJ
tanned till near the middle of the |
elghteeth century, when the manu-
facture Of charcoal iron had dwindled |
to very small proDort:ons-in fact
was dying out for want of fuel. 1t
then at length became an accom-
paished fact at the Coalbrookdale Iron
Works in Shropshire. The success
was at first ascribed to the Shropshire
coal, but probably the employment of
a strong blast had a 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 fur
naces in successful operation through.
out the kingdom.