St. Paul daily globe., 1893-05-22
WHEN COAL WAS FIRST USED.
Wood and Charcoal Were the
Fuels Which Preceded 1t.

Wood and Charcoal Were the
Fuels Which Preceded 1t.
Contemporary Review.
Though coal has been employed for
centuries in the manufacture of salt on
the shores of the coalfields, wood had
hitherto continued to be the fuel at the
inland salt works. The use of coal at
Nantwich is mentioned as a novelty in
1856; DroWich 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 substl-
tuition 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 III 1870, led
to the gradual decline and final eXttnc-
ton of manufacture of salt on the coast.
The only traces now remaining OF this
once fourishing industry exist in such
names as HoWdon Pans OH the Tyne,
Prestonpans on the Forth, Saltcoats in
Ayrshire, and Saltpans in Arran and
Kintyre, or In the Scottish proverb,
Garry salt to Dysart," synonymous
with the English Garry coal to New
CASTLE"
In no branch of industry was the
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 were perse-
vered in throughout the seventeenth
century. But for prolonged 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 remained
unsolved. Wood and charcoal still held
the field in the smelling furnaces, and
all hope of ever seeing coal substituted
for them had we'll nigh died out. In
1856 Sir John Pettus, in his Essays on
Words Metallick," concludes his OBJ
servations regarding sea coal and pit
coal with the remark: "They are not
useful to metals"
The unpromiSing prospect, however.
soon began to brighten. Immediately
after the revival of lead and copper
minirg, which took place about 1922
having probably been more or less in
abeyanc- since the Interruptions asca-
stoned 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 ores came to be smelted with
coal. The extraction Of silver from lead
with coal was accomplished by Mr..
Lydal IN 1897. and the same individual
appears to have been the first to sue
cessfuly employ coal in the smelling of
tin, in 1705.
The ores of iron proved more refrac-
tory, no substantial and permanent sue
cess in smelling them with coal being
obtained till near the middle of the
eighteenth century, when the manu-
facture of charcoal iron had dwindled
to very small proportions-in fact, was
dying out for want of fuel.
1t then at length became an accom-
plished fact at Coalbreokdale Iron
works in Shropshire. The success was
at first ascribed to the Shropshire coal,
but probably the employment of a
strong blast had great deal to do with
it. From this the coal became the life
of the iron manufacture. The cidevant
dropping trade became rapidly revived.
and the latter part of the eighteenth
century saw coal iron furnaces in sue
cessful operation throughout the king
dom.