Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-05-06
WHEN COAL WAS FIRsT USED.
Wood and Charcoal Were the Fuels Which
Preceded 1t.

IreCeueu IL.
Though coal had 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 1891. In this
era the sea-salt manufacture was in
the zenith of its prosperity. But the
substitution of coal for wood in the in
land salt trade, aided by the discovery
of rock salt, which took place accident
ally in boring for coal in Cheshire in
1870, led to the gradual decline and
final extinction of the manufacture of
salt on the coast. The Snly traces now
remaining of this once fiourishing in
dustry exist in such names as Howdon
Pans on the Tyne, Prestonpans on the
Forth, Saltcoats in Ayrshire and Salt
pans in Arran and Kintyre, or in the
Scottish proverb Garry salt to Dysart,"
synonymous with the English, Garry
coal to Newcastle"
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 We're perse-
vered in throughout the seventeenth
century. But for a 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 re-
manned unsolved. Wood and charcoal
still held the field in the smelling fur
naces, and all hope of ever seeing coal
substituted for them had well-nigh died
out. In 1856 Sir John Pettus, in his
ESSAYS on Words Metallick, " concludes
his observations 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 1922
having probably been more or less in
allegiance since the interruptions occa-
stoned by the civil wars, when
The fisher left his slSif to rock
On Tamar's glittering waves;
The rugged miners rushed to war
From Mendins sunless caves,
these ores came to be smelted with
coal. The extraction of silver from
lead with coal was accomplished by a
Mr.. Lydal in 1897, and the same indi-
vidual appears to have been the first to
successfully employ coal in the smelt-
ing of tin, in 1908.
The ores of iron proved more refrac-
tory, no substantial and permanent
success in smelling them with coal be-
ing obtained till near the middle of the
eighteenth century, when the mama
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 Coalbrooltdale 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 e,-Contemporary
Review.
-Judge-"You are here on a charge
of stealing wood, and are liable to pay
a fine. Do you plead guilty or not
guilty?" Prisoner - That depends,
your honor, whether the fine is a big
~ a.,