UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 27b 72D 
 
DANIELS & SMITH'S 
 
 Cheap Book Store, 
 Cor. Fourth ' Arch sts. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON THE USE OF 
 
 ANTHRACITE 
 
 IN THE 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 WITH SOME REMARKS 
 
 ON ITS 
 
 EVAPORATING POWER. 
 BY WALTER R. JOHNSON, A. M., 
 
 CIVIL AND MINING ENGINEER; PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL PHI- 
 LOSOPHY IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE ; LATE 
 PROFESSOR OF MECHANICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE FRANK- 
 LIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA; MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL IN- 
 STITUTION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SCIENCE j OF THE ACAD- 
 EMY OF NATURAL SCIENCE OF PHILADELPHIA ; OF THE 
 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOLOGISTS, &C. &C. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. 
 
 MDCCCXLI. 
 
T~A ?p 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by 
 
 WALTER R. JOHNSON, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES, 
 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The object of the following brief notices of an 
 important branch of our iron manufactures, is at 
 once to record in a permanent form and in a con- 
 nected view an account of the efforts which have 
 been made in different quarters to accomplish the 
 reduction of iron ores with anthracite, and to fur- 
 nish to many interested inquirers that information 
 which may, in some degree, guide future under- 
 takings in this department of the useful arts. To 
 the intelligent proprietors of the several works de- 
 scribed in the following pages, the writer's acknow- 
 ledgments are due for the prompt manner in which 
 their several establishments, and, when desired, the 
 records of their operations have been placed under 
 his inspection. 
 
 A like acknowledgment is due to those scientific 
 and practical gentlemen who have with so much 
 
 M13O416 
 
 *< 
 
 -<!*'' 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 liberality placed in his hands the results of expe- 
 rience on the heating power of anthracite and the 
 various forms of boilers. 
 
 The few inductions which he has ventured to 
 make, from the data herein detailed, will of course 
 be received with a proper understanding of the 
 number of facts on which they rest. 
 
 It has been the author's earnest desire to impart 
 only useful information, and he has accordingly 
 omitted all notice of trials on smelting with an- 
 thracite reputed to have been made in private, the 
 results of which have not been deemed sufficiently 
 important by their authors to give them publicity 
 or to warrant a farther prosecution of their labors. 
 
 In a more extended work on the general subject 
 of the manufacture of iron, for which he has been 
 for some years collecting the materials, the writer 
 proposes to place before the public, in a convenient 
 form, both the scientific and practical information 
 so much desired by all who are interested in the 
 various branches of this important department of 
 industry. 
 
 OCTOBER, 1841. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 SCARCELY any branch of art is more inti- 
 mately connected with the progress of civili- 
 zation than the manufacture of Iron. The 
 " precious metals " cannot be compared with 
 this material in real value and usefulness. As 
 it ministers to all those arts which convert 
 other productions of nature to the purposes of 
 man, it may claim to be the right hand of in- 
 dustry in all its forms and applications. The 
 warehouse, workshop and dwellings of some 
 countries are either supported, or covered, or 
 wholly built of this metal. Floating struc- 
 
2 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 tures, exceeding in magnitude the largest line- 
 of-battle ships, are formed of iron, and urged 
 by machines of gigantic proportions of the 
 same material. The rigging and ground-tackle, 
 not only of iron steamers but of many other 
 vessels, are now constructed mainly of wrought 
 iron. Our modern wonders of locomotion 
 could not possibly have existed in ancient 
 times. Furnaces and rolling-mills and ma- 
 chine shops, which could spring up only con- 
 temporaneously with large developments of the 
 iron manufacture, were essential to the pro- 
 duction of these astonishing results. 
 
 All who regard the manufacture of iron in 
 the light above presented, must hail every im- 
 provement in its production with interest and 
 pleasure ; and the application to this purpose 
 of a material, which, a short time ago, was 
 regarded as wholly useless in Europe, and of 
 which America had then made but a limited 
 use beyond domestic purposes, is naturally the 
 subject of much inquiry and speculation. 
 
 The main object of the following brief ac- 
 count of this branch of the iron manufacture 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 3 
 
 is, to state the facts, so far as known, relative 
 to its introduction and present state, with such 
 deductions as may be found useful in regard 
 to the construction and action of the several 
 establishments. The facts thus collected and 
 collated may, it is hoped, serve in some mea- 
 sure as guides to future practice, and, at least, 
 prove salutary indications of what is to be 
 avoided in the application of anthracite to this 
 important purpose. 
 
 A few years only have elapsed since the 
 introduction of anthracite into extensive use 
 for domestic purposes. A still shorter period 
 has passed since it was held to be a moot- 
 point whether or not this combustible could 
 be used for generating steam ; and even after 
 numerous stationary engines, particularly in 
 Philadelphia and its immediate neighborhood, 
 had been using this fuel for several years, it 
 was regarded by some as doubtful whether, in 
 steamboats and locomotive engines, it could be 
 substituted for wood. The problem of its ap- 
 plicability to the purposes of the founder, to 
 melt iron in the cupola, has been settled affirm- 
 
4 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 ativelj for some years as have all the other 
 points above referred to. For the forge-fire of 
 the common blacksmith it has been extensively 
 introduced. In our anthracite region no other 
 fuel is used for this purpose ; and for various 
 manufactures, such as lime-burning, malting, 
 &c., it has been put into considerable requisi- 
 tion. An object of not less importance, per- 
 haps, than any of the preceding, is its employ- 
 ment in the smelting of iron ore in the blast 
 
 o 
 
 furnace, and the converting of cast, into malle- 
 able iron, by refining, puddling and re-heating. 
 The making of iron with coke, so long prac- 
 tised in England, Scotland and Wales, as well 
 as on the continent of Europe, can hardly be 
 said to have yet come into practice in this 
 country. A number of attempts have, it is 
 true, been made to introduce this important 
 branch of manufacture, and, as was very natu- 
 ral, the state of Pennsylvania, abounding 
 throughout a vast portion of her territory with 
 bituminous coal, in immediate contiguity with 
 beds of iron ore and limestone, has been the 
 scene of most of those attempts. The legisla- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 5 
 
 ture of Pennsylvania, in 1836, passed an act for 
 the encouragement of the manufacture of iron 
 by mineral fuel, giving to the governor authority 
 to charter companies with ample powers in 
 regard to the amount of stock and quantity of 
 land, for the purpose of prosecuting this branch 
 of industry. In the same year, though not 
 under the privileges conferred by this law, a 
 quantity of iron was made with coke, by Mr. 
 F. H. Oliphant, of Fayette county, who sent 
 to the Franklin Institute samples of the metal 
 produced, and of the various materials em- 
 ployed at the furnace. It is understood, how- 
 ever, that this gentleman does not continue 
 the manufacture of iron by coke, probably 
 from the higher value set upon charcoal iron, 
 particularly for conversion into steel, which is 
 carried on at his establishment. It is also 
 probable that, in a region where wood is still 
 abundant and mining labor scarce, the econo- 
 my of using coke instead of charcoal may ad- 
 mit of some doubt, especially as the cost of 
 machinery and power, to supply blast for coke 
 i* 
 
g ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 furnaces, is generally greater than that required 
 for charcoal. 
 
 During the years 1835-36 and 37, furnaces 
 were erected at Karthaus and Farrandsville, 
 on the west branch of the Susquehannah river, 
 and at Frozen Run, near the Lycoming creek. 
 At the first of these establishments, several 
 hundred tons of pig metal were produced by 
 coke, but for want of .due discrimination in 
 the selection, and care in the preparation of 
 ores, the quality of the product was such as to 
 render it unsalable, and the works had the 
 farther disadvantage of being placed beyond 
 the reach of the present state improvements, 
 a circumstance, which rendered the transporta- 
 tion of supplies as well as of the metal, too 
 uncertain and expensive. The furnace at 
 Farrandsville was unfortunately placed in re- 
 gard to the ore, the latter being brought by 
 canal from Larrey creek and Bloomsburg, at 
 distances of twenty and one hundred miles. 
 The wealthy gentlemen, to whose liberal out- 
 lays the erection of this fine establishment is 
 due, have, it is understood, come to the deter- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 7 
 
 mination to dispose of the same, and thus to 
 relinquish the honor which the friends of our 
 domestic industry had hoped to see them 
 achieve ; namely, that of introducing the pro- 
 fitable manufacture of iron by means of the 
 bituminous coal of Pennsylvania. The fur- 
 nace at Frozen Run is well situated in regard 
 to ore, having a three feet bed of yellowish 
 white carbonate, as its principal reliance ; but 
 the beds of coal in the neighborhood have not 
 proved so valuable for immediate use, as the 
 heavy forests of timber growing above them ; 
 and hence the furnace was found at the last 
 visit of the writer (September, 1839) to be using 
 charcoal, and making therewith excellent pig 
 metal. In this brief reference to coke fur- 
 naces in Pennsylvania, it w r ould be unjust to 
 omit mentioning that of Lonakoning, situated 
 on George's creek, in Maryland, a few miles 
 south of the Pennsylvania line, and in the rich 
 coal basin lying between the Savage and the 
 Little Alleghany mountains. When visited^ 
 in the beginning of June, 1839, this furnace 
 was making about seventy tons per week of 
 
g ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 good foundry metal, and every thing betokened 
 a successful prosecution of its operations.* It 
 had, however, the misfortune to be situated 
 remote from any available line of public works, 
 
 * The principal bed of coal at Lonakoning is 14 feet 
 thick, of which 9 feet are worked. The ore is in differ- 
 ent seams, from 7 to 12 or more inches thick. The 
 limestone is four feet thick. All the materials are found 
 at higher levels than the trunnel head of the furnace. 
 The furnace has a diameter of 14 feet at the boshes, 
 which slope back 6 1-3 inches to the foot of rise. The 
 ore yields 33 per cent, of iron. The blast is supplied 
 by a steam engine, of which the cylinder has a diameter 
 of 18 inches, and an 8 feet stroke. The steam is gene- 
 rated in five boilers, 24 feet long and 36 inches in diam- 
 eter, at a pressure of 50 pounds per square inch. The 
 number of revolutions per minute was 12. The cylin- 
 der for blast is five feet in diameter, and of the same 
 length as the steam cylinder, viz. eight feet ; the same 
 piston-rod extending through both cylinders. The 
 quantity of blast was 3770 feet per minute, under a 
 pressure of 2 or 2 1-2 pounds per square inch ; demand- 
 ing at the latter tension, a force of 50.9 horse powers. 
 The engine is capable of exerting a force of 74 horses. 
 It injects daily 181 tons of air in making 10 tons of pig 
 iron, and burning the coke from 50 tons of coal. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 9 
 
 and accordingly the expense of bringing its 
 products to market, has paralyzed its operations. 
 
 On the south branch of Jennings's Run, a few 
 miles north-eastvvardly from Frostburg, and in 
 the same coal basin with Lonakoning, two large 
 blast furnaces, on the Welsh plan, for using 
 coke or bituminous coal, are now in progress. 
 
 In contrast with this slow progress and lan- 
 guishing state of the coke establishments, we 
 find that within little more than three years, 
 the anthracite furnaces have commanded the 
 attention of many enterprising parties, and 
 that already not less than eleven or twelve, 
 have, in Pennsylvania, been devoted to the 
 prosecution of this manufacture. Three or four 
 more are in contemplation, and will doubtless 
 be speedily erected. Four are either finished or 
 in progress at Stanhope, on the line of the Mor- 
 ris canal, in New Jersey. Those who have 
 clearly understood the character of anthracite, 
 as being the most dense form of mineral fuel, 
 have long perceived the importance of apply- 
 ing it to the smelting of iron. Its comparative 
 freedom from waste by transportation, and its 
 
10 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 little liability to change by atmospheric influ- 
 ences, have marked it as singularly favorable 
 for use in furnaces at a distance from the place 
 of its origin. But the more recent develop- 
 ments in the anthracite formations have proved 
 that it is not, in general, necessary to resort to 
 the expedient of carrying either the coal to the 
 ore or the ore to the coal, in order to be able 
 to make iron with anthracite. If either of 
 these courses of transportation were really ne- 
 cessary, the former would for the most part be 
 preferable, because the weight of ore necessary 
 to produce a given weight of metallic iron, is 
 in general greater than that of the anthracite 
 required for its reduction. Thus, of the rich 
 fossiliferous ore of Bloomsburg, from 2 to 2 1-4 
 tons are required to make one ton of iron, 
 while of Wilkesbarre anthracite, from one ton 
 and ten to one ton and twelve hundred weight 
 is the quantity demanded, including what is 
 necessary for heating the blast. When it 
 becomes necessary to use anthracite to pro- 
 duce steam power for blast, the amounts of 
 coal and ore are nearly equal, and the pro- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. \ J 
 
 prietj of one or the other course of convey- 
 ance, would then be determined by other con- 
 siderations. 
 
 But, to return to the uses of anthracite; it 
 is not merely in the smelting of ores, and the 
 production of pig metal, that our iron manu- 
 factures are now affording a profitable employ- 
 ment of this fuel. It has been satisfactorily 
 demonstrated, that the processes of puddling, 
 boiling, and, in subsequent stages of the pro- 
 cess, that of heating blooms, slabs and billets, 
 can all be effected by this fuel alone. This, 
 in fact, with its use in the smith's fire, carries 
 the metal through every stage, from the ore to 
 the manufactured article, with no other fuel 
 than anthracite. 
 
 As above hinted, our anthracites are like our 
 bituminous coal' deposites, largely intermixed 
 with iron ores, hitherto much neglected ; and 
 hence the establishment of anthracite iron- 
 works in Pennsylvania, with the exception of 
 limestone, involves no question relative to the 
 cost of transporting the raw material. The 
 methods of boiling and puddling with anthracite 
 
12 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 have, it is believed, like the smelting of ores 
 with the same fuel, been first invented in 
 this country.* They will doubtless be applied 
 
 * Dr. Geisenheimer's patent for smelting iron with 
 anthracite and hot Wast, was taken out, we believe, be- 
 fore any thing was effected, in that way, in Wales. This 
 patent is understood to have been bought up by Mr. 
 Crane, and is believed to be the only one, if any, which 
 can avail against the public use of this process in the 
 United States. 
 
 This patent of Frederick W. Geisenheimer bears date 
 19th December, 1833. We take from it the following 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE SCHEDULE. 
 
 " CLAIMS. First the application of anthracite coal, 
 exclusively or in part, in deoxidating and carbonating 
 iron ore as above specified and described. 
 
 Secondly the application of anthracite coal, exclu- 
 sively or in part, in combining iron, in a metallic state, 
 with a greater quantity of carbon ; if bar iron for steel, 
 if pig or cast iron for a superior quality, as above speci- 
 fied and described. 
 
 Thirdly the smelting or reducing of iron ore, so 
 deoxidated and carbonated by the application of anthra- 
 cite coal as aforesaid, into pig or cast iron. 
 
 Fourthly the refining or converting of iron ore, so 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. J3 
 
 to the conversion into bar iron of other pig 
 metal than that smelted with anthracite, and 
 thus a large demand for the combustible can- 
 not fail to be created. 
 
 Among the earliest attempts to use anthra- 
 cite for smelting iron, may be mentioned that 
 of certain members of the Lehigh Coal and 
 
 deoxidated and carbonated by the application of anthra- 
 cite coal as aforesaid, into malleable or'bar iron. 
 
 Fifthly the application of anthracite coal as fuel, 
 in smelting or reducing iron ore raw or roasted, but not 
 prepared by a previous separate process of deoxidation 
 and carbonation as above described, into pig or cast iron. 
 
 Sixthly Though I cannot and do .not claim an ex- 
 clusive right of the use of heated air for any kind of 
 fuel, nevertheless I believe to have a right to claim and 
 do claim the use of heated air, applied upon and in con- 
 nexion with the said principle and manner discovered 
 by me, to smelt iron ore in blast furnaces, with anthra- 
 cite coal, by applying a blast of air in such quantity, 
 velocity and density, or under such pressure, as the 
 compactness or density and the continuity of the anthra- 
 cite coal requires, as above amply and fully described 
 and illustrated." [Dated at the city of New York, on 
 the twenty-first day of November, 1833.] 
 
14 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 Navigation Company, who, in the year 1820, 
 erected near Mauch Chunk a furnace, intended 
 for that purpose. This was anterior to the 
 establishment referred to in the annexed table, 
 under the name of Mauch Chunk furnace. 
 The first attempt on the Lehigh resulted in 
 nearly the same manner as did a similar trial 
 at Vizille, on the borders of France and Swit- 
 zerland, under the charge of MM. Gueymard 
 and Robin, where it was attempted to use an- 
 thracite either alone or in connexion with 
 other fuel. This last, it is well known, \vas 
 abandoned in despair of rendering, by this 
 means, the manufacture of iron profitable, and 
 the outlay of one or two hundred thousand 
 francs was set down to the debtor side of profit 
 and loss.* As no succinct account of those 
 
 * An account by M. Gueymard, of the commence- 
 ment, progress and result of these experiments, was 
 published in the Annales des Mines, vol. iii., 3d series, 
 p. 71 ; and in the 4th volume of the same work, same 
 series, is contained another account of the same trials, 
 by M. Robin, by whom a part of the experiments were 
 superintended. The latter describes the furnace. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 15 
 
 trials has probably been published in this coun- 
 try, it will, perhaps, not be unacceptable to the 
 reader to have the following statements placed, 
 either for instruction or warning, in connexion 
 with our account of what has been accom- 
 plished in the United States. 
 
 M. Gueymard justly remarked that, at the 
 period when the trials at Vizille were made, 
 no precedent existed by which to solve the 
 most difficult and, perhaps, the boldest pro- 
 blem which the excitements of industry 
 throughout France, for the three preceding 
 years, had called into notice. England had 
 exhibited only two fruitless attempts to smelt 
 iron with anthracite ; and in these it was found 
 that, as long as the proportion of anthracite 
 did not exceed one fifth of the whole fuel, the 
 furnaces continued to work as usual, and the 
 iron remained grey ; but beyond this limit the 
 pig became white, the furnaces chilled and 
 were in danger of choking. 
 
 In making the experiments at Vizille, every 
 appliance then at the command of the iron 
 manufacturer appears to have been brought to 
 
IQ ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 bear upon the success of the undertaking. 
 The stack was of ample dimensions and ap- 
 proved form, corresponding, as will be seen on 
 inspecting the sketch given below, with fur- 
 naces elsewhere employed with success in 
 using coke. It was 10 feet 4 inches across 
 the boshes, 42 feet 8 inches from the bottom 
 of the hearth to the trunnel head, with a chim- 
 ney 14 feet above the latter ; and the pitch of 
 the boshes was 57. An engine of 80 horse 
 power was employed to furnish blast, the 
 pressure of which was sometimes urged as 
 high as 4 Ibs. to the square inch. The num- 
 ber and size of the nozzles were varied to suit 
 the exigencies of the case. Care had been 
 taken to avoid the destruction of the hearth, 
 boshes and inwalls, by forming them entirely 
 of the best fire-brick. The blast was com- 
 menced with coke from the coal of Rive-de- 
 Gier, and, with this fact, of which 10.71 per 
 cent, were ashes, excellent foundry iron was 
 produced. 
 
 The accompanying sketch, on a scale of 3-4 
 inch to ten feet, exhibits a section of the inte- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 17 
 
 rior of the furnace at Vizille, in which were 
 made the experiments on smelting with anthra- 
 
 T 
 
 2.13 
 
 cite, in 1827-8. From the bottom of the 
 hearth jB, to the trunnel-head T 7 , the height 
 
18 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 was 13 metres, or 42.65 feet. The square, 
 (creuset^) was a parallelepiped, 7.38 feet long, 
 2.13 feet wide, and 2.3 feet high. From this 
 rose the working section of the hearth, (ou- 
 vrage,) in which, above the top of the square,, 
 were placed the blast tuyeres. This section 
 was in the form of an inverted truncated cone, 
 5.9 feet high, 2.13 in diameter at the bottom, 
 and 3.94 at the top, where it joined the 
 boshes, (etalages,) which were in the form of 
 a truncated, eight-sided pyramid, 3.94 feet in 
 diameter at the bottom, 10.33 at the top, and 
 4.92 feet in vertical elevation, thus making 
 the whole height, from the bottom of the hearth 
 to the top of the boshes, 13.12 feet, or exactly 
 4 metres. 
 
 When the furnace had been brought to a 
 good state of working with coke, the first ex- 
 periment with anthracite was made by substi- 
 tuting for one tenth of the coke an equal weight 
 of anthracite. The effect of this change was 
 to render the metal, if any thing, rather better 
 than before, and only to retard slightly the 
 descent of the charges. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. ]9 
 
 With two tenths anthracite the result was 
 very nearly the same, or with but a little more 
 retardation. 
 
 Three tenths of anthracite gave a still fur- 
 ther retardation, but the iron and cinder both 
 continued good, only a trace of iron being 
 found in the latter. 
 
 With four tenths of anthracite a still further 
 retardation in the speed of descent occurred, 
 and the furnace began to be clogged, prevent- 
 ing the penetration of the blast, and causing it 
 to find vent beneath the tympe arch, projecting 
 out portions of red hot cinder. 
 
 The slow descent of charges occasioned the 
 refining of some of the cast iron on the slope 
 of the boshes, deranging, in some degree, the 
 working of the furnace. The cinders changed 
 color in proportion to the unreduced iron re- 
 tained in them. The metal had no longer the 
 same beautiful grain as at first, but became 
 greyish white, mixed and irregular, and sub- 
 sequently mottled, and white, as the working 
 became worse. 
 
 The anthracite was, after some days, in- 
 
2Q ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 creased to one half. A new retardation was 
 at once perceived ; cinder was thrown out not 
 only at the tympe, but even at the tuyeres. 
 These experiments were for a time interrupted 
 by a fatal accident, which crushed to death a 
 workman in the bottom of one of the blowing 
 cylinders, and deranged the whole machinery. 
 
 The results hitherto obtained, were, the pro- 
 duction of foundry iron by anthracite and coke 
 in the proportion of one half of each ; the hard 
 working of the furnace, the slow descent of 
 charges, the making of about two tons of iron 
 in twenty-four hours, and the running of good 
 cinders until the furnace became deranged. 
 The proportion of fuel was from three to four 
 hundred weight for one hundred of pig metal 
 produced. 
 
 The blowing machine having been repaired 
 and the hearth renewed, the furnace was again 
 put in blast on the 19th of January, 1828. 
 
 The operations were now commenced with 
 one half anthracite and one half coke, in order 
 to continue the preceding experiments. Ef- 
 forts were made to prevent the blowing out of 
 
ANTHRACITE IROJS. 21 
 
 cinders, the accumulations on the boshes and 
 the slow descent of charges. One, two, and 
 three tuyeres were successively used ; the size 
 and position of the nozzles were varied, as 
 well as the number and proportion of charges, 
 but without the least gleam of success. An 
 illness of some days having detained Mr. 
 Gueymard from the works, the anthracite was 
 in the mean time entirely suppressed, and coke 
 only employed. In less than four days the 
 furnace had resumed its wonted action, and 
 the products became perfectly satisfactory, as 
 at the beginning. 
 
 After Mr. Gueymard's recovery, the course 
 of trials with one tenth, two tenths, &c. to 
 five tenths of anthracite, were resumed. The 
 previous results were reproduced, and all the 
 expedients to overcome the evils were unavail- 
 ing. The anthracite burst and fell into fine 
 pieces, which choked the furnace and obstruct- 
 ed the blast. In this state of things the ex- 
 pedient was adopted of charging the furnace 
 with raw instead of roasted mine, which had 
 the effect of keeping the burthen from coher- 
 
22 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 ing, allowed freedom to the blast, and obviated 
 the projection of cinders from the tympe and 
 tuyeres. The iron became as good as at first, 
 and equal to the best English pig metal. 
 
 The proportion of anthracite was then in- 
 creased to six tenths. The furnace still work- 
 ed well, with the exception that the load came 
 down rather more slowly than before. 
 
 Seven tenths of anthracite, gave the same 
 working and the same cinder, but a still 
 greater retardation, and a tendency in the pig 
 to a mottled complexion. The charges were 
 next carried to eight tenths anthracite. The 
 pig became entirely mottled or white, for eight 
 days, during which this rate of charging was 
 continued. The action was yet more sluggish 
 than before, but as the working was still easy, 
 they proceeded to nine tenths of anthracite 
 and only one tenth of coke. Two days after 
 this proportion was adopted, the projection of 
 cinder recommenced, as well as the lodge- 
 ments on the boshes, and a chilling in the 
 hearth, which made alarming progress. Eight 
 days were likewise consumed in determining 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 23 
 
 the effect of this mixture. The force of blast, 
 number of tuyeres, size of nozzles, &c. were 
 varied, but no other than white metal could 
 be obtained, and even that ran very stiff and 
 pasty. 
 
 As the committee of proprietors in Paris 
 wished to have the experiments pushed to the 
 utmost, M. Gueymard finally ordered the fur- 
 nace to be charged with anthracite alone. 
 From the moment this was done, the tuyeres 
 became and continued black ; the cinder was 
 surcharged with iron, no casting could be ob- 
 tained ; the metal half refined into malleable 
 iron, stuck fast in the hearth. It was white 
 semi-ductile, and had all the characters of "fine 
 metal" 
 
 On returning to seven tenths anthracite, the 
 going of the furnace was soon re-established, 
 and the charges were kept down to within 
 thirty or thirty-one feet of the bottom of the 
 hearth. 
 
 The coming down of the charges was not, 
 however, accelerated. The pig became mot- 
 tled, and the working hard. Hence it is in- 
 
24 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 ferred, that a lower furnace would not solve 
 the problem. 
 
 When the furnace was driven with coke 
 only, the manometer gauge of the blast stood 
 at 3.15 to 3.54 inches of mercury, indicating 
 from 1.5 to 1.75 pounds per square inch. 
 
 When the charge was seven tenths anthra- 
 cite and three tenths coke, it required from 
 2.95 to 3.15 pounds of pressure for grey iron, 
 2.75 for mottled, and 2.56 for white. 
 
 With a higher proportion of anthracite, the 
 pressure required was about four pounds per 
 square inch. 
 
 With pure coke, the number of charges was 
 from 40 to 42 in 24 hours. 
 
 With one half anthracite, the number of 
 charges was reduced to 25 per day. With 
 seven tenths but 20, and with anthracite alone, 
 but six per day could be passed. 
 
 From the above statements it will be seen, 
 that, whatever can be expected from anthra- 
 cite of the kind there used, when burned by 
 means of cold blast, was probably realized in 
 the experiments at Vizille. It is certainly 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 25 
 
 possible that, in our Pennsylvania anthracite 
 fields, passing, as they are known to do by 
 slow degrees, from the extreme dryness of the 
 most compact anthracite, at one end of the 
 coal trough, to a decidedly bituminous coal, 
 with from 12 to 18 per cent, of volatile matter 
 at the other, we may find some intermediate 
 varieties to which the cold blast may be found 
 applicable for the smelting of iron, though the 
 coal be not susceptible of coking, and therefore 
 belongs to the class of anthracites. Yet the 
 general character of this class is so well repre- 
 sented by the kind used at Vizille, that it ap- 
 pears unreasonable to expect any other result 
 than that to which the French experiments 
 conducted. In those parts of the same coal- 
 fields where the bituminous nature of the min- 
 eral is fully established, there seems to be no 
 reason to doubt that the cold-blast and raw- 
 coal system of Dowlas and other Welsh iron- 
 works, may be found entirely applicable. But 
 the French experiments, as well as those pre- 
 viously and subsequently made in Wales, to- 
 gether with those which were undertaken at 
 
 3 
 
26 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 Mauch Chunck and at Pottsville, before the 
 application of Dr. Geisenheimer's improve- 
 ment, are salutary cautions to persons who 
 may be inclined to attempt the smelting of 
 iron by true anthracite and cold-blast. 
 
 Having, in the preceding pages, referred in 
 general terms to the efforts made to introduce 
 the use of anthracite in the blast furnace, we 
 may pass to a more detailed description of 
 those establishments which have been erected 
 in the United States for manufacturing iron 
 by the method in question. For the greater 
 facility of comparison, it has been thought best 
 to convey this information in the form of a 
 Synoptical Table. 
 
 It will be perceived that, at three of the es- 
 tablishments, viz., Mauch Chunk, Montour 
 No. 2, and Shamokin, the columns devoted to 
 the weekly supply of materials are in blank"; 
 the first, because it had ceased to operate at 
 the time the other data relating to it were pro- 
 cured, and the records of its daily action could 
 not be obtained, and the other two had not 
 then gone into blast. Of these, therefore, only 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 27 
 
 those columns which relate to the construction 
 are filled. In regard to the other establish- 
 ments, the observations, which would properly 
 constitute the last column of the table, are, 
 from the necessities imposed by mechanical 
 arrangements, thrown into separate sections 
 in subsequent pages. It is only necessary to 
 mention that, in obtaining the column of 
 weekly supply of materials, the records of 
 daily working, for a month or more, have in 
 some cases been taken ; while in others, it has 
 been derived, by calculation, from the number 
 and proportion of charges. Of the former, the 
 Roaring Creek, Phoenixville and Columbia fur- 
 naces, (Nos. 3, 4 and 7,) are examples. It is 
 to be hoped that, after a more prolonged ac- 
 tion shall have brought each of these establish- 
 ments to a uniform rate of working, we shall 
 be able to substitute, for the numbers here 
 given, such as shall require no deductions on 
 account of the occasional daily variations in 
 the coming down of charges. 
 
 The following is a tabular view of the blast 
 furnaces, applied to the manufacture of iron 
 with the anthracite of Pennsylvania. 
 
28 
 
 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 H Name and 
 situation of 
 
 
 
 Furnace. 
 *; 
 
 Name of 
 Proprietor. 
 
 Name of 
 Occupant. 
 
 When 
 built. 
 
 Date of 
 com- 
 mencing 
 Blast 
 with an- 
 thracite. 
 
 Dimensions of 
 Stack in feet. 
 
 g| 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 1i 
 
 ill 
 
 11 
 
 33 
 
 Qcq 
 
 of =3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 feet. 
 
 feet. 
 
 feet. 
 
 feet. 
 
 . ( Mauch- 
 1 | Chunk. 
 
 Baughman, ) 
 Guiteau,fcCo. } 
 
 The Owners 
 
 1838.... 
 
 Aug. 27, 
 
 1838. 
 
 | 
 
 21J 
 
 51 
 
 1&. 
 
 2 Pottsville.... 
 
 ( Marshall, Kel- 
 \ logg, & Co. 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1838.... 
 
 July 10, 
 
 1839. 
 
 1 30 
 
 35 
 
 8^ 
 
 31... 
 
 ? ( Roaring 
 3 | Creek. 
 
 Burd Patterson, 
 &Co. 
 
 Dr. Stein- ) 
 berger. \ 
 
 1838-9.. 
 
 May 18, 
 1840. 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 8^ 
 
 
 
 4 Phcenixville. 
 
 Messrs. Reeves.... 
 
 The Owners 
 
 1837.... 
 
 June 17, 
 
 1840. 
 
 jse 
 
 33 
 
 8 
 
 3by6| 
 
 5 Danville 
 
 5 Biddle, Cham- 
 j bers, & Co. 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1838-9.. 
 
 April, 
 1840 
 
 J30 
 
 30 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 ( Crane Iron 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 P i Works, 
 b ) near Al- 
 
 > Crane Iron Co. 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1839-40. 
 
 .July 4 
 
 1840. 
 
 |30 
 
 40 
 
 12 
 
 31.., 
 
 
 * lentown. 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ( Columbia 
 
 ^ 
 
 ( Messrs. ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 < at Dan- 
 
 > George Patterson 
 
 )j.P.&J.J 
 
 1839.... 
 
 July 2 
 
 1840 
 
 30 
 
 33 
 
 81 
 
 31... 
 
 ( ville. 
 
 ) 
 
 ( Groves. ) 
 
 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
 
 ( Montourat 
 8 < Danville 
 (No. 1. 
 
 ) Biddle, Cham- 
 J bers, &. Co. 
 
 The Owners 
 
 1840.... 
 
 July 11 
 
 1841. 
 
 |* 
 
 32 
 
 12 
 
 4.... 
 
 9 Ditto, No. 2. 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1840. . . . 
 
 August 
 1841. 
 
 J3V 
 
 32 
 
 12 
 
 4.... 
 
 10 Shamokin . . 
 
 Shamokin Iron Co. 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1840 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 421 
 
 12 
 
 4.... 
 
 11 } 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 f Stanhope, 
 13 ( N. J. 
 
 ! Stanhope IronCo. 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1840-1.. 
 
 .Aprils 
 1841. 
 
 J3 
 
 30 
 
 10 
 
 31... 
 
 14 ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 29 
 
 Materials and yield per 
 week, in tons. 
 
 Number and proportion of 
 charges in 24 hourg. 
 
 Air supplied to the Furnace. 
 
 
 S 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 "3 T3 
 
 I.I 
 
 c 
 || 
 
 
 j 
 2! 
 
 1 
 
 ^1 jj..g 
 
 4Ja 
 1^ 
 
 1! 
 
 k. 
 
 2 
 
 
 s 
 < 
 
 G 
 
 S"2 
 
 =. 
 
 S2 
 fc-g 
 
 2 
 
 O 
 
 B 
 < 
 
 '3 
 
 1& 
 
 si 
 
 11 
 
 1 -still 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ibs. 
 
 Ibs. 
 
 Ibs. 
 
 
 
 degs. 
 
 tons. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8... 
 
 
 
 "ioo" 
 
 
 
 
 
 ..700. 
 
 ..2... 
 
 ..450. 
 
 ..21.6 
 
 ..2 
 
 68.7. 
 
 31.2. 
 
 31.2. 
 
 28. $ 
 
 * 
 
 ..20.. 
 
 scrap 
 iron and 
 
 ^500. 
 
 ..500. 
 
 3769. 
 
 ..1.5. 
 
 ..600. 
 
 
 ..3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 100 ore 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 84... 
 
 56... 
 
 21... 
 
 40... 
 
 ..28.. 
 
 960.. 
 
 ..600. 
 
 ..254. 
 
 .2400. 
 
 ..2.5. 
 
 ..650. 
 
 ..20|. 
 
 ..3 
 
 73... 
 
 59... 
 
 24.1. 
 
 28... 
 
 ..31J. 
 
 740.. 
 
 ..600. 
 
 . .245. 
 
 .1732. 
 
 ..1.5. 
 
 ..700. 
 
 ..20.8 
 
 ..3 
 
 70.3. 
 
 46.8. 
 
 35... 
 
 35... 
 
 ..25.. 
 
 900.. 
 
 ..700. 
 
 ..448. 
 
 .2414. 
 
 ..2.75 
 
 ..600. 
 
 ..23.2 
 
 ..2 
 
 104... 
 
 69.3. 
 
 52... 
 
 50... 
 
 ..66.. 
 
 504.. 
 
 ..336. 
 
 ..252. 
 
 .5065. 
 
 ..2.5. 
 
 ..600. 
 
 ..34.. 
 
 ..3 
 
 93.4. 
 
 81.3. 
 
 64.15 
 
 31.5. 
 
 ..28.. 
 
 1200.. 
 
 .1050. 
 
 ..800. 
 
 .1861. 
 
 ..3... 
 
 ..612. 
 
 ..20.4 
 
 ..3 
 
 154... 
 
 108... 
 
 61.6. 
 
 70... 
 
 ..44.. 
 
 1120.. 
 
 ..784. 
 
 ..448. 
 
 .5026. 
 
 ..4... 
 
 ..612. 
 
 ..24.8 
 
 ..3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 112.6. 
 
 80.9. 
 
 34.68 
 
 56... 
 
 ..37.. 
 
 .975.. 
 
 ..700. 
 
 -.300. 
 
 .4071. 
 
 ..3... 
 
 ..600. 
 
 ..25.. 
 
 ..3 
 
30 
 
 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 No. of Furnace. 
 
 Name and 
 situation of 
 Furnace. 
 
 Blowing Machinery. 
 
 Water power employed. 
 
 MJN 
 
 SM 
 
 III 
 
 Diameter 
 of 
 cylinders. 
 
 Length 
 of stroke. 
 
 Number ot 
 strokes per 
 minute. 
 
 Height of 
 wheel. 
 
 Length of 
 buckets. 
 
 f.1 
 
 Revolu- 
 tions per 
 minute. 
 
 Head and 
 fall in feet. 
 
 Horse 
 powers of 
 wheel. 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 (i 
 7 
 
 10 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 ( Mauch- 
 | Chunk. 
 
 Pottsville. . . 
 
 .2.. 
 .2.. 
 
 nches 
 ..72.. 
 
 ..40.. 
 
 nches 
 ..11.. 
 
 72.. 
 
 .13*.. 
 18 .. 
 
 feet. 
 .14... 
 
 feet. 
 
 inches 
 
 ..8... 
 
 .13*.. 
 
 .17. 
 
 
 
 ( Roaring 
 I Creek. 
 
 Phcenixville. 
 
 .... 
 
 j.... 
 
 ...2.. 
 
 ..44.. 
 ..42.. 
 ..40.. 
 
 . 60.. 
 
 ..48.. 
 ..42.. 
 
 .11.4. 
 .11.25 
 .20... 
 
 .20... 
 .12.25 
 
 ..8... 
 ..8... 
 
 .12... 
 .10... 
 
 ..5.7. 
 .11*.. 
 
 .21. 
 .14. 
 
 .29.4. 
 .15.1 
 
 ! Crane Iron 
 Works, 
 near Al- 
 lentown. 
 f Columbia 
 ? at Dan- 
 ( ville. 
 f Montour at 
 ? Danville, 
 ( No. 1. ' 
 
 Ditto, No. 2. 
 Shamokin . 
 
 .2.. 
 .2.. 
 
 ..GO.. 
 ..32.. 
 
 . .72. . 
 ..64.. 
 
 .10.75 
 
 .151.. 
 
 .12... 
 
 .25... 
 
 .21... 
 
 .,.. 
 
 ..8. 
 
 :64.5. 
 
 .4.. 
 4 
 
 ..40.. 
 40 
 
 ..72.. 
 
 72 
 
 .16... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .... 
 
 
 
 ...2.. 
 
 ..62. 
 
 ..72 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f Stanhope, 
 > N. J. 
 
 j*. 
 
 ..72.. 
 
 ..72.. 
 
 ...13. 
 
 .20... 
 
 ..8... 
 
 
 
 .21*.. 
 
 .... 
 
 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 31 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 Steam power employed. 
 
 Subsidiary 
 Fuel. 
 
 Nature of ores used. 
 
 1 
 
 || 
 
 jfj 
 
 Number 
 of boilers. 
 
 Length 
 of boilers. 
 
 Diameter 
 of hoijern. 
 
 !? 
 
 a 
 2 
 a ^ 
 
 HI 
 
 L* 
 
 50 <U *C 
 
 III 
 
 iiii 
 
 >, s 
 
 f = 2 
 
 I 
 
 ll 
 
 inches 
 
 feet. 
 
 
 
 feet. 
 
 inch 
 
 Ibs. 
 
 
 tons. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 Hematite and ? 
 magnelic of N. J. $ 
 
 Carbonate and > 
 hematite. J 
 Possiliferous perox- > 
 ide of Bloomsbuxg. J 
 
 Hydrated peroxide.... 
 
 Calcareous perox- > 
 ide of Danville. J 
 
 40 to 70 
 25 to 50 
 50 to 64 
 38 to 50 
 45 to 60 
 
 ..15.. 
 
 .6.. 
 
 ..18.. 
 
 .8.". 
 
 .20. 
 
 .30. 
 
 J25.. 
 
 ..80.. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ..12.. 
 
 .4.. 
 
 ..30.. 
 
 .4.. 
 
 20. 
 
 .30. 
 
 .100.. 
 
 ..40.. 
 
 ..4... 
 
 ...4..J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 A 
 
 Hydrated peroxide ) 
 near the works. J 
 
 Calcareous, fossili- > 
 ferous peroxide. ) 
 
 40 to 55 
 45 to 60 
 
 ..12.. 
 
 .3 4 . 
 
 ..25.. 
 
 .4.. 
 
 .20. 
 
 .30. 
 
 .100.. 
 
 ..40.. 
 
 ..*. 
 
 I 
 
 >! 
 
 ..24.. 
 
 .6.. 
 
 ..16.. 
 
 .8.. 
 
 .20. 
 
 .30. 
 
 ..60.. 
 
 ..90.. 
 
 
 
 ...... | 
 
 Fossil calcareous, > 
 & silicious peroxide. $ 
 
 33 to 60 
 
 ..24.. 
 ..22.. 
 
 6.. 
 .6.. 
 
 ..20.. 
 
 .8.. 
 10.. 
 
 .20. 
 .30. 
 
 .30. 
 .30. 
 
 ..60.. 
 ..70.. 
 
 ..90.. 
 .160.. 
 
 
 
 ::::::y 
 
 Carbonate & Dan- * 
 ville fogsiliferous. $ 
 
 Magnetic of > 
 Irondale. J 
 
 33 to 60 
 33 to 60 
 
 50 to 70 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 ' 
 
32 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 Remarks on the preceding Table. 
 1. MAUCH CHUNK FURNACE. 
 
 The furnace at Mauch Chunk, which stands 
 at the head of the preceding table, is believed 
 to have been the first in this country, at which 
 any considerable success was attained in the 
 smelting of iron with anthracite.* The iron 
 
 * Mr. Crane's patent in this country, bears date No- 
 vember 29, 1838. The Mauch Chunk furnace went 
 into blast for the second time, about the same day. The 
 operations at Pottsville were commenced July 10, 1839. 
 But the trial of three months' continuance, began about 
 the 20th of October, 1839, and its completion was cele- 
 brated on the 18th of January, 1840. The blast of 100 
 days, terminated at Mauch Chunk, November 2d, 1839. 
 The following letter shows the period at which Messrs. 
 Baughman, Guiteau & Co. commenced their works 
 with other particulars worthy of notice. 
 
 Beaver Meadow, November 9, 1840. 
 SIR, 
 
 Agreeable to a request of Col. Henry High, of Read- 
 ing, I send you the following hastily written statement 
 of the experiments made by Boughman, Guitean & Co., 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 33 
 
 produced was of various, but mostly inferior 
 qualities, owing probably to a deficiency of 
 
 in the smelting of iron ore, with anthracite coal as a 
 fuel. 
 
 During the fall and winter of the year 1837, Messrs. 
 Joseph Baughman, Julius Guiteau, and Henry High, of 
 Reading, made their first experiment in smelting iron 
 ore with anthracite coal, in an old furnace at Mauch 
 Chunk, temporarily fitted up for the purpose ; they used 
 about eighty per cent, of anthracite, and the result was 
 such as to surprise those who witnessed -it (for it was 
 considered as an impossibility even by iron masters) ; 
 and to encourage the persons engaged in it, to go on. 
 In order, therefore, to test the matter more thoroughly, 
 they built a furnace on a small scale, near the Mauch 
 Chunk Weigh Lock, which was completed during the 
 month of July, 1838. 
 
 Dimensions. 
 
 Stack, 21 1-2 feet high, 22 feet square at the base. 
 
 Boshes, 51-2 feet across. 
 
 Hearth, 14 by 16 inches in the square, and 4 feet 9 
 inches from the dam stone to the back. 
 
 Blowing apparatus consisted of two cylinders, each 6 
 feet diameter ; a receiver, same diameter, and about 
 2 1-2 feet deep ; stroke, 11 inches. Each piston making 
 from 12 to 15 strokes per minute. 
 
34 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 blast. The blowing cylinders are of wood, 
 (single acting) and at the speed employed did 
 
 An overshot water wheel, diameter 14 feet ; length of 
 bucket 3 1-2 feet ; number of buckets, 36 ; revolutions 
 per minute, from 12 to 15. 
 
 The blas,t was applied August 27th, and the furnace 
 kept in blast until September 10th, when they were 
 obliged to stop in consequence of the apparatus for heat- 
 ing the blast proving to be too temporary. Several tons 
 of iron were produced of Nos, 2 and 3 quality. I do 
 not recollect the proportion of anthracite used. Tem- 
 perature of the blast did not exceed 200 Fahrenheit, 
 
 A new and good apparatus for heating the blast was 
 next procured, (it was at this time I became a partner 
 in the firm of B., G. & Co,) consisting of 200 feet in 
 length, of cast iron pipes, 1 1-2 inches thick ; it was 
 placed in a brick chamber, at the trunnel head, and 
 heated by a flame issuing thence. 
 
 The blast was again applied about the last of Novem- 
 ber, 1838, and the furnace worked remarkably well for 
 five weeks, exclusively with anthracite coal ; we were 
 obliged, however, for want of ore, to blow out on the 
 12th of January, 1839. During this experiment, our 
 doors were open to the public, and we were watched 
 very closely both day and night, for men could hardly 
 believe what they saw with their own eyes, so incredu- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 35 
 
 not furnish over 700 cubic feet of air per min- 
 ute. Their apparatus for hot blast was at first 
 
 lous was the public in regard to the matter at that time ; 
 some iron masters expressed themselves astonished, that 
 a furnace could work whilst using unburnt, unwashed, 
 frozen ore, such as was put into our furnace. 
 
 The amount of iron produced, was about 1 ]-2 tons 
 per day, when working best, of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 quality. 
 
 The average temperature of the blast was 400 Fah- 
 renheit. 
 
 The following season we enlarged the hearth to 19 
 by 21 inches, and 5 feet 3 inches from the dam stone to 
 the back of hearth ; and on July 26th, the furnace was 
 again put in blast, and continued in blast until Novem- 
 ber 2d, 1839, a few days after the dissolution of our 
 firm, when it was blown out in good order. For about 
 three months we used no other fuel than anthracite, and 
 produced about 100 tons of iron, of good Nos. 1, 2, 
 and 3 quality. When working best, the furnace pro- 
 duced about 2 tons per day. Temperature of the blast 
 was from 400 to 600 Fahrenheit. The following ores 
 were used by us, viz. " Pipe ore," from Miller's mine, 
 a few miles from Allentown ; " brown hematite," com- 
 monly called top mine, or surface ore ; " rock ore," 
 from Dickerson's mine in New Jersey; and " Williams 
 township ore," in Northampton county. The last men- 
 
36 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 defective, and was afterwards placed at the 
 trunnel head, where it could not be so well 
 
 tioned ore produced a very strong iron, and most beau- 
 tiful cinder. 
 
 The above experiments were prosecuted under the 
 most discouraging circumstances, and if we gain any 
 thing by it, it can only be the credit of acting the part of 
 pioneers in a praiseworthy undertaking. 
 Most respectfully, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 F. C. LOWTHORP. 
 PROF. WALTER R. JOHNSON, Philadelphia. 
 
 It is proper to mention that the first account which 
 reached this country relative to the operations of Mr. 
 Crane, in manufacturing iron with anthracite in Wales, 
 was in the proceedings of the Liverpool meeting of the 
 British Association, for the year 1837. That meeting was 
 held in September of that year, and the statement con- 
 tained in the 6th volume of the proceedings of that body, 
 page 52, (transactions of sections) is, that his operations 
 were commenced with hot air, on the 7th of Feb., 1837. 
 The following extracts are perhaps sufficient to convey 
 a knowledge of the most important results then obtained. 
 
 " One of the three furnaces at present on the estab- 
 lishment, is a small cupola furnace, built from the top 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 37 
 
 regulated as if arranged in separate ovens, 
 with an independent fire. Hence, even of 
 
 i 
 
 of the hearth with fire bricks only. This cupola is of 
 the following dimensions ; 41 feet in its whole height, 
 10 1-2 feet across the boshes, and the walls of the thick- 
 ness of two nine-inch bricks ; the hearth 3 feet 6 inches 
 square and 5 feet deep." " I have produced, from the 
 cupola furnace, the ton of iron in the smelting process, 
 on the average of three months, with less than 27 cwt. 
 of anthracite coal ; the heating of the blast and the cal- 
 cination of the mine, require, of course, upon my plan, 
 the same quantity of fuel which is necessary for the like 
 processes in other establishments." " Since I have 
 adopted the use of anthracite coal, combined with hot 
 air, the produce of the furnace, with a pressure of 1 1-4 
 pounds per square inch, has ranged from 30 to 34 and 
 36 tons." " Its present weekly average may be ex- 
 pected to range from 35 to 36 tons." " With respect 
 to the quality of the iron produced by the combination 
 of hot blast and anthracite, the result is very satisfactory. 
 It is well known that my cold blast iron, for all pur- 
 poses where great strength was required, was never 
 deemed inferior to any smelted in South Wales. That 
 which I have hitherto produced with hot blast and 
 anthracite coal, is, however, decidedly stronger than any 
 other before smelted at the Yngscedwin iron works." 
 4 
 
38 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 the limited supply of air taken into the bel- 
 lows, a considerable portion must have been 
 lost by leakage, and by escapes at the open 
 tuyeres then applied. 
 
 2. POTTSVILLE FURNACE. 
 
 The Pottsville furnace is the same with 
 which Mr. William Lyman made his experi- 
 ments, which commenced at the date men- 
 tioned in the table. The continuous blast of 
 three months, required by the conditions under 
 which he received this furnace property, was 
 completed in January, 1840. Since that pe- 
 riod several occurrences have conspired to 
 disturb the regularity of action in this estab- 
 lishment. At one time an attempt was made 
 to heat the air in close furnaces, throwing it, 
 in part, through, and in part over, the fire, which 
 heated the blast, and thus sending in the 
 gaseous products of combustion, as well as at- 
 mospheric air, to supply the furnace. This at- 
 tempt failed, either because carbonic acid, 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 39 
 
 nitrogen and sulphurous acid gas interfered too 
 much with the combustion of the oxygen in 
 that portion of air which had escaped the ac- 
 tion of the heating fire, or because the cases 
 or furnaces in which the air-heating fires were 
 contained, proved inadequate to sustain the 
 pressure, and thus supplied an insufficient 
 quantity of the mixture to give a vigorous and 
 powerful reducing heat at a proper height 
 above the hearth. 
 
 This apparatus was used but for a short 
 time, and when blown out, to re-establish the 
 semicircular-tube system, the hearth was found 
 greatly enlarged, as might have been inferred 
 from the black, heavy, though porous cinder 
 which was the only kind obtained during the 
 time this apparatus was in use. In fact, it 
 appears that the unreduced oxide of iron came 
 down and served as a flux to the hearth stone ; a 
 result which I have often known to occur where 
 a deficient blast allowed any considerable por- 
 tion of the ore to escape reduction. Pure pig 
 metal, when fairly collected in the hearth, has 
 no action on good fire-stone or fire-brick, any 
 
40 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 more than has the well-reduced vitreous cin- 
 der, which ought to accompany the production 
 of good foundry iron. 
 
 Besides the difficulties attending' the air- 
 heating apparatus, which has again given way, 
 the Pottsville furnace has been supplied with 
 ores of almost every variety, mixed, or used 
 separately without proper discrimination, and 
 sometimes, it is alleged, the stock has become 
 nearly or quite exhausted, leaving the works 
 to go on without any addition of ore for hours 
 together. It is not surprising that, under these 
 circumstances, iron of very different qualities 
 should be produced, and that this furnace 
 should, with all its advantages of being situ- 
 ated amidst the greatest abundance of anthra- 
 cite, be able to render a less satisfactory result 
 of the anthracite iron manufacture than those 
 which have fewer apparent advantages.* 
 
 4) 
 
 * A second furnace near Pottsville, called the Valley 
 Furnace, was put into blast September 17, 1841, and is 
 represented to have succeeded admirably from the first 
 moment of its action. It uses only the ore found upon 
 the ground in connexion with the anthracite beds. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 41 
 
 The iron recently made at Pottsville has 
 been cast from a cupola either into T rails, for 
 mine roads, or into cannon balls for the gov- 
 ernment. That it is of good quality for the 
 former purpose I had an opportunity, through 
 the kindness of the proprietor, of testing by 
 actual experiment. A rail was taken at ran- 
 dom from a large pile, recently cast, and sub- 
 jected to the following test : 
 
 The rail was 6 feet long, and had the form 
 of cross section, represented in the annexed 
 figure, containing in its area 3. 1 square inches. 
 It had at each end, for about 3 inches, along 
 the base, wings or flanges for securing it to the 
 cross-ties, as represented by the dotted lines 
 X and Y, and in the middle of its length sim- 
 ilar wings, 6 inches long, or 3 inches on each 
 side of the centre. The rail weighed 66 Ibs., 
 or 33 Ibs. per yard. To prove its flexibility 
 and strength, its two extremities were placed 
 on supports 5 feet 9 inches apart, and of such 
 height as to allow of the suspension of weights 
 beneath the centre of the bar. A strong stir- 
 rup was passed over the rail, before placing 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 the latter on its supports, and carried to the 
 centre. To this, the chains supporting the 
 
 weights were attached. A straight-edged, 
 
 broad ruler was adjusted beneath the rail, from 
 
 which the deflections could be easily measured. 
 
 The following weights were then added and 
 
 ^observations made : 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 43 
 
 1. With 320 Ibs. (including, of course, the 
 chains and stirrup,) a deflection of 0.02 inch. 
 
 2. With 1040 Ibs. " 0.20 " 
 
 3. " 2000 " " 0.37 " 
 
 4. " 2525 " " 0.50 " 
 
 5. " 3000 " broke. 
 This last weight was sustained about 4 
 
 minutes before the rail gave way. 
 
 The fracture took place just outside of the 
 wing already mentioned, and, of course, 3 
 inches from the centre. Hence the strength- 
 ening effect of the wing was proved, and led 
 me to recommend a pattern, in which the 
 wings should extend the whole length of the 
 rail. 
 
 Another rail, intended to sustain locomo- 
 tives, made of the same iron, and on a pattern 
 entirely similar to the first, was also partially 
 tested, but not broken. 
 
 It had the following dimensions, viz. 
 
 Length, 6 feet ; 
 
 Depth, 4 inches ; 
 
 Breadth at top, 2.5 inches ; 
 Do. at bottom, 2.5 " 
 Do. ofrnid-rib, 1.25 " 
 
44 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 Weight, 134 Ibs., or 67 Ibs. per yard ; con- 
 sequently its area of cross section was almost 
 exactly double that of the first rail. 
 
 This rail having been placed on the two 
 supports, at the same distance apart as in the 
 first trial, weights were applied and deflections 
 observed as follows, viz. 
 
 1000 Ibs. produced a deflection of 0.08 inch. 
 2000 " " " 0.15 " 
 
 3000 " " " 0.20 " 
 
 4000 " " " 0.26 " 
 
 4500 " " " 0.28 " 
 
 After this weight had been applied, the ar- 
 rangement of props to preserve the supports 
 erect gave way, and time not allowing a repe- 
 tition of the trials, they were given over for 
 the present, having, as was believed, satisfac- 
 torily proved that a rail made of this iron, of 
 the dimensions above tested, would, when 
 supported both at the ends and centre, be ad- 
 equate to sustain the weight of any locomotive 
 now in use. The strength, when supported 
 in the middle as well as at the ends, being 
 double of what it is when supported at the 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 45 
 
 " 
 
 ends alone, if we take the strength of the first 
 rail as a standard, and compare the breadths 
 and squares of the depths of the two cross sec- 
 tions together, we shall find, that, so far from 
 having reached the ultimate strength of the 
 large rail, with a weight of 4500 Ibs. on a 
 length of 69 inches, the latter would have re- 
 quired 12,158 Ibs. to break it. Placed on 
 cross ties 3 feet apart, the larger rail ought to 
 bear about 12 tons as its ultimate load. 
 
 3. ROARING CREEK FURNACE. 
 
 The Roaring Creek Furnace stands about 
 one fourth of a mile up the creek, above its 
 mouth, which is in the north branch of the 
 Susquehannah, three miles below the town of 
 Catawissa, and five miles above Danville. 
 
 The reason of selecting this position, was in 
 order to take advantage of the valuable water 
 power of this stream, which, in the course of a 
 mile or a little more, has a fall of not less than 
 fifty feet. It is, however, not altogether free 
 
46 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 from objection, on account of the occasional 
 failure of water in dry seasons. 
 
 The ore is the rich fossiliferous kind, from 
 the neighborhood of Bloomsburg, distant about 
 six or seven miles, and the limestone is also 
 brought from the north side of the river, a dis- 
 tance of two or three miles. The coal is from 
 Wilkesbarre, distant about forty miles, by the 
 line of the North Branch canal. The water 
 wheel appears to me to fulfil its purpose but 
 imperfectly, and the machinery to move with 
 considerable irregularity, owing in part to the 
 want of counterpoises to the cranks and con- 
 necting rods of the blowing cylinders, which 
 are laid horizontally ; thus adding half the 
 weight of the two long connecting rods and 
 that of the two heavy cast iron cranks, to the 
 regular resistance of the air in the cylinders, 
 and by so much increasing for the moment the 
 quantity of work to be done by the water 
 wheel ; and on the opposite part of the revo- 
 lutions, the contrary effect takes place, to an 
 extent which becomes very sensible in the 
 movements of machinery, as well as in the 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 47 
 
 intensity of the blast. The heating of the 
 blast is effected on the plan of the Calder 
 works. 
 
 The volume and pressure of air for this fur- 
 nace, given in the table, was derived from the 
 statement of the occupant, as that used in 
 ordinary times ; but at the period of my visit, 
 September 12, 1840, the lowness of the stream 
 caused a considerable reduction of volume, 
 being then only 1672 cubic feet per minute, 
 under a pressure of 1.332 pounds per square 
 inch. The yield was then but 35 tons per 
 week, and diminishing. 
 
 The pig metal made at the Roaring Creek 
 Furnace is of excellent quality, being generally 
 grey No. 1, and exceedingly well suited to 
 foundry purposes. It has also been fully 
 proved in regard to its adaptation to the pur- 
 poses of making bar iron, by the Messrs. 
 Whitaker, at Reading, who have, it is said, 
 offered strong testimony in its favor. 
 
 By urging the furnace to its utmost with 
 burthen, there was obtained for a few days a 
 yield equal to 72 tons per week; but the 
 
48 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 metal was, of course, inferior in quality to the 
 ordinary product. 
 
 The cost of this establishment, independent 
 of the site, was $31,000. 
 
 4. PHCENIX FURNACE. 
 
 The furnace at Phoenixville, situated twenty- 
 five miles from Philadelphia, directly on the 
 line of the Schuylkill navigation, is supplied 
 with anthracite from Pottsville, and with ore 
 from Yellow Springs, which contains a large 
 portion of silica. The pig metal is grey No. 
 2, moderately soft, but wants toughness. Bar 
 iron, manufactured from the pig of Phoenixville, 
 is generally cold short. The burning out of 
 hot air pipes and the destruction of hearth- 
 stones, consequent, as is believed, on a defi- 
 cient blast, have been frequent causes of em- 
 barrassment at these works. The ore yields 
 38.3 per cent., and about 1 3-4 tons of coal are 
 required to make one ton of pig metal. The 
 cost of building Phoenixville furnace, indepen- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 49 
 
 dent of wheel house and dwellings, was 
 $7949. This includes cast and bridge houses. 
 
 5. DANVILLE FURNACE. 
 
 The Danville works use anthracite from 
 Wilkesbarre, received by the North Branch 
 canal, and ore obtained within half a mile of 
 the furnace. Two or three varieties of the 
 latter are found within a short distance of each 
 other. The calcareous fossil iferous ore of 
 Montour's ridge, yielding from 55 to 64 per 
 cent, of metallic iron, is the chief reliance of 
 the works ; but large portions of the hard sili- 
 ceous band ore, mined immediately in the 
 neighborhood, is also extensively used. Both 
 the soft and hard beds probably underlie the 
 site of the works. The pig metal is of a dark 
 grey color, granular texture, soft and fusible, 
 well adapted for foundry purposes ; and rep- 
 resented to be in no respect inferior to the best 
 Scotch pig. The same remarks will apply to 
 the products of furnaces Nos. 7 and 8. 
 
50 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 The pressure of blast in this furnace is mea- 
 sured and regulated by a safety valve, loaded 
 directly with weights to the amount of 2 3-4 
 pounds per square inch, and under this load 
 the air constantly escaped in moderate quan- 
 tity at the time of my visit. 
 
 6. CRANE FURNACE. No. 1. 
 
 The Crane Iron works have been erected 
 under the immediate direction of Mr. David 
 Thomas, who had been previously engaged at 
 the establishment of Mr. Crane, in Wales. 
 They are situated about three miles from 
 Allentown, on the line of the Lehigh naviga- 
 tion. The volume of air passing through the 
 bellows, is the quantity given in the table, 
 computed from the known length of stroke 
 and diameter of piston, together with the ob- 
 served number of strokes per minute, and it is 
 this volume, assumed to be under the pressure 
 also noted in the table, which I was assured 
 by Mr. Thomas, was the load on the safety 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 5] 
 
 valve when examining the works. A consid- 
 erable quantity of air was escaping at the 
 safety valve, and a part is used to supply the 
 heating ovens for hot blast, as is also done at 
 Roaring Creek and elsewhere. Of the econo- 
 my of this latter arrangement, except where 
 very fine coal is used for heating, I am dis- 
 posed strongly to doubt. A single high chim- 
 ney, with suitable register, to regulate the 
 draught, might, I apprehend, be entirely equi- 
 valent, and being self-acting, would require no 
 constant expense of power to maintain the 
 combustion. The water wheel was intended 
 to supply two furnaces. 
 
 The stock at this furnace is very expedi- 
 tiously elevated from the level of the base 
 of the stack, by means of water pumped up 
 by the blast wheel, into a cistern near the 
 trunnel head, and which is thence allowed to 
 flow alternately into two boxes of suitable di- 
 mensions, suspended by a chain passing over 
 a pulley in such a manner, that the descent of 
 one box filled with water, and bearing on its 
 cover the empty barrows for stock, elevates 
 
52 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 the other box now emptied of water, but car- 
 rying up the barrows, loaded with ore, coal, 
 and limestone. 
 
 The blast in this establishment is heated in 
 four ovens, each having twelve arched tubes of 
 five inches interior diameter, and two inches 
 thickness of cast iron. The temperature, when 
 tried in mj presence, was not sufficient to melt 
 lead, though it was understood to be, in gene- 
 ral, capable of producing that effect. 
 
 The ore chiefly used at this furnace, is the 
 hematite or hydrated peroxide of iron, of which 
 about 21-2 tons are required to make 1 ton 
 of pig metal. It is used entirely in its raw 
 state. It was stated to cost at the works 
 $2.25 per ton. The anthracite is from the 
 mines of the Lehigh Coal Company, near 
 Mauch Chunk, of which 87.5 per cent, is 
 carbon, and 5.5 earthy matter. A quantity of 
 the metal made at this furnace has been pud- 
 dled with anthracite, at Boonton, New Jersey, 
 and produced excellent fibrous bar iron. It 
 was stated, that 21 cwt. of pig produced 20 
 cwt. of puddled iron, thus showing a loss in 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 53 
 
 the first process of making bar iron of only 
 4.76 per cent, and that 22 1-2 cwt. made a 
 ton of bars, showing altogether a loss of but 
 11.11 percent. The foundation of a second 
 furnace is prepared. 
 
 7. COLUMBIA FURNACE. 
 
 At the Columbia Furnace, in Danville, an 
 attempt was at first made to heat the blast in 
 a chamber above the trunnel head, but the 
 pipes were soon burned away, and leaked to 
 such a degree as to lose a large portion of the 
 blast. The engine was, at the same time, too 
 small and deficient in power. A succession of 
 nozzles of different sizes, viz., 11-4, 1 1-2, 
 1 3-4, 2, and 21-2 inches in diameter, was 
 tried. The greatest yield of iron during the 
 first blast, which lasted only five weeks, was 
 5 tons in 24 hours, and during that time the 
 2-inch nozzle was employed. When, after 
 this blast, the furnace was blown out, the 
 hearth and inwalls were found very much cut 
 
54 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 away, the former being enlarged from 3 1-2 to 
 5 feet in diameter. The cinder, as usually 
 happens when similar destruction is going on, 
 was constantly black, and often highly porous. 
 
 The most successful operations were per- 
 formed while the blast was most powerful, 
 the cinder and pig metal being then both su- 
 perior to what they were at any other time. 
 The same furnace manager, Mr. B. Perry, who 
 had the care of the Pottsville furnace during 
 its prize blast of ninety days' continuance, and 
 who likewise blew in the Roaring Creek fur- 
 nace, which succeeded from the first moment 
 of its action, had charge of the Columbia fur- 
 nace during the period above referred to ; so 
 that its want of immediate success cannot be 
 attributed to inexperience ; and as all the ma- 
 terials are essentially the same in kind as those 
 used at Roaring Creek, we are compelled to 
 believe that want of sufficient blast was the 
 main cause of the little success which attended 
 the first trial at this establishment. 
 
 The consumption of stock and yield of pig 
 metal, recorded in the table, were taken from 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 55 
 
 the records of the establishment for the month 
 of May, 1841. It will be seen that the ore 
 required per ton of pig was nearly 3.00 tons ; 
 Anthracite, - 2.58 " 
 
 Limestone, - 2.03 " 
 
 Air, 20.4 " 
 
 On the 27th of July, 1841, the Columbia 
 furnace was in active operation and making 
 excellent grey foundry iron, and on that day I 
 took the observations relative to the volume 
 pressure and temperature of the blast, recorded 
 in the table. 
 
 The large proportion of anthracite used to 
 make a ton of pig, at these works, was ac- 
 counted for by the proprietors, by stating that 
 at the time to which these notes refer, they 
 were using a considerable quantity of Shamo- 
 kin coal, which they represented to be much 
 inferior to that of Wilkesbarre, even alleging 
 that two tons of the latter were, for all pur- 
 poses at the furnace, equal to three of the 
 former. The very large proportion of lime- 
 stone will also appear singular to those who 
 reflect that the ore itself is calcareous, being 
 
56 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 in part derived from that portion of the fossil- 
 iferous bed which has not been exposed to the 
 decomposing influences of the air. The cor- 
 rectness of the judgment in regard to the an- 
 thracite of Shamokin, will no doubt be, ere 
 long, put to a full test in the fine establish- 
 ment No. 10, of the table, which is now nearly 
 completed. 
 
 The force of engines computed from the 
 quantity of air furnished and the pressure un- 
 der which it is supplied, show that the power 
 required at the Columbia is that of 29.7 horses.* 
 
 * Thus air, compressed with 3 Ibs. per square inch, is 
 subjected to a total pressure of 18 Ibs., or 1 1-5 atmos- 
 pheres, or 6-5 atmosphere ; and its bulk will accordingly 
 be 5-6 as great as when only under ordinary atmos- 
 pheric pressure. The bulk of 1861 cubic feet, supplied 
 by the machine in one minute, will become, when com- 
 pressed, 1550 cubic feet. The compressing power ex- 
 pended, before any air escapes from the blowing cylinder, 
 is very nearly one half as great as would be required to 
 force out the 1-6 of air after compression, which occu- 
 pied the space through which the piston moved before 
 any began to escape through the valve. Hence the to- 
 tal mechanical force will be 11-12 of what would be re- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 57 
 
 8 and 9. MONTOUR FURNACES. 
 
 These two furnaces having lately gone into 
 blast, it is not practicable to deduce from their 
 operations any very certain results, as the data 
 relative to the charging, yield and operation 
 of the works were obtained on the 27th of 
 July, 1841, only sixteen days after the first 
 was put into blast. The second, (No. 9,) is 
 understood to have been since put into opera- 
 tion, and both to be performing well. The 
 pig metal, obtained on the day when the es- 
 tablishment was visited, was good grey No. 1, 
 
 quired to expel the cylinder full if originally under the 
 pressure of 6-5 of an atmosphere. Thus, 11-12 X 
 1861 = 1705 cubic feet, are to be put in motion under a 
 pressure of 144 X 3 = 432 pounds per square foot ; 
 and 1705X432 = 736,560 pounds moved one foot or 
 raised one foot high in a minute. Adding to this 1-3 for 
 friction, and dividing by 33,000, (the pounds raised one 
 foot high per minute, which represents a horse power,) 
 we get 
 
 736,560 + 245,520 
 
 33,000 -=29.7 horse power. 
 
58 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 and the cinder indicated an easy working. 
 The coal used was partly from Wilkesbarre 
 and partly from Shamokin, the latter having 
 been but very recently employed, and its 
 efficiency therefore not adequately tested. 
 
 These furnaces are admirably situated in 
 regard to the ore, two valuable beds of which 
 underlie the base of the stacks ; and being on 
 a great line of public works, have little to fear 
 from the suspension of operations owing to 
 want of means of transporting their coal. 
 The plan adopted of using 4 blowing cylinders 
 has, it appears to me, little to recommend it 
 on the score of either economy or convenience. 
 The blast used at a pressure of 4 Ibs. to the 
 square inch is also of questionable economy, 
 involving a great loss at all the crevices and 
 joints of the apparatus. The furnace which 
 was in action at the period of my visit was 
 certainly performing well, so far as the nature 
 of the product was concerned. It should be 
 mentioned that the proprietors of these works 
 are erecting a large rolling-mill at Wilkesbarre, 
 where they intend to puddle iron with an- 
 thracite. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 59 
 
 10. SHAMOKIN FURNACE. 
 
 The Shamokin furnace can as yet furnish no 
 data for judging of the efficacy of the arrange- 
 ments there adopted, but by observing the 
 ample provision for power, that of two high- 
 pressure steam engines of 80 horse power 
 each, having 10 boilers of 30 feet long and 30 
 inches in diameter, with steam cylinders 20 
 inches in diameter and 6 feet length of stroke, 
 working under a pressure of 70 pounds to the 
 square inch, it is evident that all which blow- 
 ing machinery can do to insure success may 
 be confidently expected in this establishment. 
 The engines are the same which were put up 
 and used at the coke furnace in Farrandsville, 
 already referred to. 
 
 The air-heating apparatus consists of three 
 heating ovens, with 15 Calder tubes to each, 
 and four others with 20 tubes each, making 
 125 tubes in all. This apparatus for blowing 
 and heating air is intended for two furnaces, 
 of the dimensions recorded in the table. The 
 
60 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 coal will be brought to the furnace from mines 
 but a few hundred yards distant, and the ore 
 may be found within half a mile of the same 
 point. Limestone was also observed within 
 30 or 40 rods of the stacks. It was originally 
 intended to carry a rail-road to the trunnel 
 head, but the elevation of the materials by 
 machinery has more recently been decided on, 
 and the road accordingly laid to the base of 
 the furnace. A second furnace is in progress. 
 The works now under review will proba- 
 bly be found to solve completely the question 
 of the profitable operation of anthracite es- 
 tablishments on a large scale, and in situations 
 analogous to those of the great iron works of 
 Britain. With regard to their steam machin- 
 ery it may probably be found that something 
 is yet to be done to economize heat. The 
 The enormous waste by radiation, especially 
 from steam pipes and cylinders, should be 
 guarded against ; and if the gas from the steam 
 furnaces be found to escape into the chimney 
 at too high a temperature, a more economical 
 form of boiler should be adopted. The sub- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. Q\ 
 
 sequent developments of this essay will be 
 found to justify this opinion. A low pressure 
 engine, to be worked by the escape steam of 
 the two high pressure ones now built, may 
 possibly be found no bad addition in connex- 
 ion with a foundry or a new furnace. 
 
 As both grey and red ash coals are found at 
 Shamokin, the relative values of the two in 
 the blast furnace may be tested, as also the 
 opinion, already referred to, of the value of 
 Shamokin coal in general, as compared with 
 the anthracite of other districts. This latter 
 point may be the more readily settled inas- 
 much as the ore used at first will be that of 
 Danville, in connexion with which this coal 
 has heretofore been employed. Exchanges of 
 coal for ore, and the contrary, ton for ton, 
 have already been made between the Danville 
 and Shamokin companies. 
 
 The construction of the Shamokin furnace 
 will be understood by the annexed sketch, 
 (page 62), exhibiting, on a scale of 10 feet 
 to 3-4 of an inch, the interior form and foun- 
 dation of the stack. 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 Stone. 
 
 Bottom. 
 
 Drain EJI 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 11, 12, 13, 14. STANHOPE FURNACES. 
 
 The works at Stanhope, Morris county, 
 New Jersey, are, in some respects, the most 
 interesting of all the anthracite iron furnaces 
 in this country. They stand near the summit 
 level of the Morris Canal, between Easton 
 on the Delaware, and Newark on Raritan 
 Bay. By this canal, the coal from Mauch 
 Chunk, Beaver Meadow, Hazleton, Sugar 
 Loaf, Buck Mountain and Summit Company's 
 mines may arrive on the bank, at the level of 
 the trunnel head of these furnaces. The wa- 
 ters of Rockaway river, with a fall of more 
 than 50 feet, are used for the moving power, 
 and the magnetic ore, found in such abundance 
 in that part of New Jersey, is exclusively em- 
 ployed at this establishment. This last circum- 
 stance is what gives the highest interest to the 
 Stanhope works. To reduce, in a blast furnace 
 and without admixture of other ores, this rich 
 mineral, by the aid of anthracite, is what oth- 
 ers had hardly dared to hope. The complete 
 
>4 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 success of the undertaking constitutes an era 
 in the business, of which the Stanhope com- 
 pany may justly be proud ; an era, perhaps, 
 equally important to the two states which re- 
 spectively furnish the ore and the anthracite. 
 
 The greatest amount of iron which had been 
 made per day, previous to the 12th of June, 
 1841, when these works were visited, was 
 9.23 tons, or 64.61 tons per week, which was 
 not however continued for many days in suc- 
 cession. On the llth of June, the product 
 was 14,644 Ibs., and on the 12th, 14,630; or 
 at the rate of 45.7 gross tons per week. A 
 slight derangement of the conducting tubes had, 
 it was said, caused a temporary falling off in 
 the yield for two or three days. Fifty-six tons 
 per week was stated to be the average product. 
 The iron was not remarkable for toughness, 
 though very soft, and probably a re-melting in 
 the cupola would improve its quality as cast iron. 
 
 The variety of anthracite preferred to others 
 at these works is that of Beaver Meadow. 
 Coal has been delivered at the works at four 
 or four and a half dollars per ton. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 15. SCHUYLKILL VALLEY FURNACE.' 
 
 This furnace has been put into blast since a 
 part of the foregoing pages were sent to press, 
 and it is not therefore practicable to do more 
 than refer to casual statements which have 
 reached us relative to the immediate success of 
 its operations. Its situation is certainly not 
 less favorable in regard to materials than that 
 of the Pottsville or Shamokin furnaces. In 
 reference to ore, it is probably as advantage- 
 ously located as any others, except perhaps 
 the Shamokin and Danville establishments. 
 
 GENERAL COMPARISONS. 
 
 In order to compare the supply of air and 
 the yield of iron, with the area of cross section 
 of each furnace at the boshes, and the power 
 employed, with the yield in pig metal per 
 week, the following table has been con- 
 structed from the data furnished by the table 
 at pages 28 31. 
 
 6* 
 
66 
 
 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 i 
 
 T C 
 
 -^ 
 
 C8 
 
 3| 
 
 1-3 a 
 
 
 <_ 
 
 l> 
 
 &DJ4 
 
 S-2" 
 
 
 'o ^"QJ 
 
 |S3 
 
 Name of fur- 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 '5.* 
 
 _ ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 nace. 
 
 s . 
 
 g S3 
 
 5* 
 
 tw 1- 
 
 
 =2"* 
 
 o a 
 
 
 || 
 
 |f 
 
 1! 
 
 III 
 
 - S'c 
 
 llll 
 
 Ifli 
 
 
 Ft. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 sq.ft. 
 
 cub. ft. 
 
 
 h. p. 
 
 Mauch Chunk.. 
 
 5i 
 
 23.750 
 
 8 
 
 2.968 
 
 29.47 
 
 700 
 
 7.66 
 
 Pottsville 
 
 83 
 
 60 130 
 
 28 
 
 2 147 
 
 6 68 
 
 3769 
 
 31 4 
 
 Roaring Creek.. 
 
 
 56.745 
 
 ( 40 
 J35 
 
 1.418 
 1.625 
 
 42.29 
 28.94 
 
 2400 
 1672 
 
 32.4) 
 
 12.8 
 
 Phoenixville 
 
 8 
 
 50.265 
 
 28 
 
 1.795 
 
 34.45 
 
 1732 
 
 14.16 
 
 
 7 1 
 
 44 178 
 
 35 
 
 1 262 
 
 54 63 
 
 2114 
 
 35 6 
 
 
 8^ 
 
 56 745 
 
 31 5 
 
 1 801 
 
 *32 79 
 
 1861* 
 
 29 7* 
 
 Montour 
 
 12 2 
 
 113.097 
 
 70 
 
 1.615 
 
 44.44 
 
 5026 
 
 104.6 
 
 Cranework 
 
 12 
 
 113.097 
 
 50 
 
 2.261 
 
 44.78 
 
 5065 
 
 68.3 
 
 
 10 
 
 78.540 
 
 45.7 
 
 1.718 
 
 51.83 
 
 4071 
 
 65.1 
 
 * On examining and comparing this result with others, 
 there seems to be reason to suspect that some error has 
 been made in either observing or noting the number of 
 strokes of the pistons in the blowing and steam cylin- 
 ders at the Columbia furnace. As recorded in table 1, 
 the speed of the former is but 5-8ths that of the latter. 
 It seems probable that this proportion should have been 
 reversed. If so, the blowing cylinders will make 25 
 double strokes each per minute instead of 15 3-8ths. 
 The bulk of air will then be 2977 cubic feet per min- 
 ute instead of 1861, and the air per square foot of bosh, 
 will be 52.49 cubic feet more nearly corresponding 
 with that of the Danville furnace, and the power will 
 be that of 47.5 horses. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 57 
 
 The formula employed for computing the 
 power required to inject the bulk of air given 
 by observation, and under the pressure noted, 
 
 (A 15A \ 
 ISA 35 + P) = the horse 
 
 15 + P " ~~2 / 
 
 powers of the blowing machine, whether water 
 or steam. Here A = the bulk of air in cubic 
 
 
 
 feet per minute, and p = the pressure in 
 pounds per square inch, within the blowing 
 cylinders. The horse power is that of Watt, 
 and the allowance for friction, &c. is supposed 
 to be one fourth of the whole, or one third as 
 much as is required to compress and inject the 
 air. 
 
 The initial pressure of the air is assumed to 
 be 15 pounds to the square inch, and the tem- 
 perature 60. It would be as yet a misplaced 
 refinement to enter into minute computations 
 relative to the quantity of moisture in the air, 
 and the variations of force required in the ma- 
 chinery on this and similar accounts, at differ- 
 ent seasons of the year. When with a limited 
 power only at command, it is desired to inject 
 an increased volume of air, the obvious expe- 
 
68 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 dient is to enlarge the area of the nozzles, and 
 thereby reduce the pressure and increase the 
 speed. When, at each stroke, a space is left 
 above and below the pistons in the blowing 
 cylinders, from which the air is not expelled, 
 the recoil of this residual air after compression 
 obviously causes it to occupy some portion of 
 the space which would otherwise be filled by 
 air newly admitted. Hence the importance 
 of accurate adjustment between the piston and 
 cylinder heads. The piston rods of blowing 
 cylinders sometimes pass " through and 
 through" both heads, especially when the 
 cylinders are laid horizontally ; and then the 
 bulk of air taken in at each single stroke, 
 is the same ; but as this construction is not 
 adopted at any of the anthracite works, a 
 deduction is to be made of a few feet per 
 minute for the bulk of the piston-rod filling 
 a portion of the space on one side only at each 
 revolution. 
 
 From the preceding table, it appears that 
 great differences exist between the quantities 
 of air required to be blown through a given 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 69 
 
 section of boshes per minute ; "but that the 
 average supply, including the two modes of 
 driving Roaring Creek furnace, is 42.63* cubic 
 feet of air to one square foot of bosh, but as 
 this includes all the air blown, as well for 
 heating ovens as for the furnace itself, the 
 quantity taken by the latter will be consider- 
 ably less. The iron made per minute by each 
 square foot of boshes, is, on an average, 0.127 
 pounds, or 182 7-8 pounds in twenty four hours. 
 Hence, the bulk of air required to pass the 
 bellows in making 1 pound of iron, is 335 2-3 
 cubic feet, or 25 4-5 pounds. 
 
 With regard to the area of cross section at 
 the boshes, as affecting the amount of iron 
 made, it appears, that if we omit the Mauch 
 Chunk furnace, and take Roaring Creek as 
 making 40 tons per week, the production of 
 one ton of pig iron per week, is derived from 
 1 3-4 square feet of bosh, or one ton per 
 day from every 12 1-4 square feet. 
 
 * By the supposition in the preceding note, (page 66), 
 this number will be raised to 45. 13. 
 
70 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 Comparing the whole number of tons pro- 
 duced per week, by all the furnaces with the 
 whole amount of power by which the blast ap- 
 pears to have been furnished, we find 1.08* 
 horse powers, as the force employed in giving 
 one ton per week. If this result be increased 
 to 1 1-4 horse power, it may, I think, be relied 
 on as an entirely safe basis for calculations in 
 the construction of blowing machinery for an- 
 thracite works, and give a surplus sufficient to 
 answer in all emergencies. . 
 
 The average force or pressure of blast, ap- 
 pears to have been 2.4 pounds per square inch, 
 and though it has often been attempted to em- 
 ploy a blast greatly inferior to this in tension, 
 I am not aware of much success having at- 
 tended these attempts. Either a falling off in 
 the yield, an inferiority of metal, or a destruc- 
 tion of the furnace hearth, has usually been 
 the consequence. It is evident, that the 
 amount of power required to inject the air will 
 diminish in direct proportion to the decrease 
 
 * Or 1.13, in accordance with the note on page 66. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 7J 
 
 of pressure ; but until some evidence more con- 
 clusive than what has hitherto transpired, shall 
 be adduced in favor of a softer blast, it seems 
 better to adhere to what is now giving good 
 results in several of the anthracite furnaces. 
 
 CHARACTER AND CONSTITUTION OF ANTHRA- 
 CITE AMOUNT OF BLAST REQUIRED FOR 
 
 ITS COMBUSTION. 
 
 In the prosecution of the manufacture of 
 iron, with any kind of fuel whatever, it is de- 
 sirable to know in advance, at least within 
 approximate limits, what amount of mechani- 
 cal power will suffice to administer in the most 
 advantageous manner, the requisite quantity 
 of air to the furnace. 
 
 Two circumstances will chiefly determine 
 this question. 
 
 First, the weight of oxygen required from 
 the air, for the complete combustion of the 
 fuel to be used in a given time. 
 
 Secondly, the pressure under which it is to 
 be delivered to the furnace. 
 
72 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 In the case of anthracite, the weight of oxy- 
 gen will, in general, "be easily computed, since 
 it contains little or no other combustible than 
 carbon, and since the quantity of this is pretty 
 well ascertained, for the various coal fields 
 which supply iron furnaces. 
 
 Analysis of single, well selected specimens 
 of anthracite, must not, however, be too im- 
 plicitly relied on. There is, inevitably, inter- 
 mixed with the coal, more or less slaty matter, 
 or coal of a semi-combustible character, which 
 allows it to pass almost unchanged through 
 the blast furnace. This, as well as the earthy 
 residuum of the coal itself, is to be deducted, 
 together with the volatile matter, before as- 
 signing the quantity of carbon which is to 
 undergo combustion in the blast furnace. It 
 will not be far from the truth to deduct for 
 volatile matter, ashes and unconsumed coal or 
 slate, 15 per cent, of all the anthracite which is 
 put in at the trunnel head, leaving 85 per cent, 
 for the carbon consumed. Some varieties will 
 doubtless give a small per cent, more than this 
 quantity, while others will yield less. To 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 73 
 
 make the computation more nearly accurate, a 
 large quantity of the particular anthracite used, 
 should be analyzed, and the quantity of earthy 
 matter, after incineration, be carefully weigh- 
 ed. If, in use in a furnace, the amount of 
 unburnt slate and coal which comes through 
 in a given time, should be ascertained. 
 
 The results obtained by calculations of the 
 kind here indicated will of course give only 
 approximations. The ore will furnish no in- 
 considerable quantity of oxygen. Some at- 
 mospheric air will escape combustion ; and 
 much of the gas escaping at the trunnel head 
 is not carbonic acid, but carbonic oxide and 
 carburetted hydrogen. 
 
 To aid in forming estimates of the volume 
 of air required in anthracite furnaces, the fol- 
 lowing analyses of that material, from different 
 parts of the coal regions, may be consulted. 
 
 Though not immediately connected with 
 our present investigations, yet for the purpose 
 of ready comparison, it has been deemed pro- 
 per to add, in a subsequent table, some analy- 
 ses of our free-burning bituminous coals. 
 
74 
 
 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 TABLE III. 
 
 View of the composition of some of the anthracite 
 coals of Pennsylvania, as determined by the wri- 
 ter's analyses. 
 
 Locality of Coal. 
 
 Sp. Gr. 
 
 Vol. Matter. 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 Ashes. 
 
 1. Summit Co's Lands, head of Beaver 
 Creek 
 
 1 560 
 
 6 42 
 
 97 30 
 
 1 28 
 
 2. do. 2d bed 
 
 1.594 
 
 4 31 
 
 91 69 
 
 4 00 
 
 3. do 3d do 
 
 1 613 
 
 7 51 
 
 87 48 
 
 5 01 
 
 4 do 4th do 
 
 1 630 
 
 9 60 
 
 85 34 
 
 5 06 
 
 5. Stevenson's Bluff, west of Beaver 
 
 1 613 
 
 9 23 
 
 86 06 
 
 3 71 
 
 6, Buck Mountain 
 
 1 559 
 
 5 90 
 
 91 02 
 
 3 08 
 
 7. Sugar Loaf Co., 1st specimen 
 8. do. 2dbed 
 
 1.591 
 1.574 
 
 6.98 
 5 36 
 
 88.19 
 85 91 
 
 4.83 
 8 73 
 
 9. do. same bed, but further down the 
 
 1 550 
 
 6 87 
 
 90 71 
 
 2 42 
 
 10. Lyken's Valley 1st sample. . 
 
 1 391 
 
 7 60 
 
 87 95 
 
 4 45 
 
 
 1 404 
 
 5 95 
 
 89 30 
 
 4 75 
 
 12. do. 3d do 
 
 1.416 
 
 10 00 
 
 85 70 
 
 4 30 
 
 13. do. 4th do 
 
 1 374 
 
 4 go 
 
 88 70 
 
 6 70 
 
 14. do. 5th do 
 
 1.376 
 
 8 35 
 
 87 75 
 
 3 90 
 
 15. do. 6th do 
 
 1 395 
 
 8 30 
 
 88 65 
 
 3 05 
 
 16. do 7th do 
 
 1 382 
 
 8 65 
 
 87 20 
 
 4 15 
 
 17. do. 8th do 
 
 1 398 
 
 11 85 
 
 84 00 
 
 4 15 
 
 18 do. 9lh do 
 
 1 378 
 
 7 30 
 
 87 00 
 
 5 70 
 
 19. Mauch Chunk, Summit Mines 
 20. Room Run Mines 
 
 1.590 
 1.604 
 
 7.90 
 6 15 
 
 87.10 
 87 20 
 
 5.00 
 6 65 
 
 21. Pottsville 
 
 1.569 
 
 6.71 
 
 86.54 
 
 6.75 
 
 The first nine of the above analyses, give a 
 fair average of the coal at the eastern extrem- 
 ity of the middle coal field, and show that 
 the volatile matter is 6.91, the fixed carbon 
 88.744, and the ashes, 4.346 per cent. The 
 mean specific gravity of these nine varieties 
 is 1.587. The second nine give the charac- 
 ter of the north-western termination of the 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 75 
 
 southern anthracite field. The mean per 
 centage of volatile matter is here 8.066, of 
 carbon 87.36, and of ashes 4.574. 
 
 The amount of these several ingredients in 
 the last class of coals, is nearly identical with 
 those of the anthracite used by Mr. Crane, in 
 his iron works in South Wales. 
 
 TABLE IV. 
 
 View of some of the "free-burning " bituminous 
 coals of Pennsylvania, suitable to be used in blast 
 furnaces, either with or without coking. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Sp. Gr. |Vol. Matter. 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 Ashes. 
 
 1. Savage Mountain Coal trough 
 Somerset County 
 2 do 2d bed 
 
 1.319 
 1.321 
 1.343 
 1.362 
 1.363 
 1.370 
 1.386 
 1.388 
 1.480 
 1.491 
 
 1.437 
 1.346 
 
 1.515 
 
 1.448 
 1.465 
 1.377. 
 1,378 
 1.349 
 1.388 
 1.400 
 
 1.320 
 1.372 
 
 1.301 
 
 20.2 
 19.9 
 21.8 
 19.8 
 18.3 
 18.8 
 20.1 
 19.5 
 18.7 
 17.6 
 
 is. ea - 
 
 16.03 
 
 15.00 
 17.40 
 19.10 
 20.50 
 19.20 
 J9.30 
 17.90 
 18.90 
 
 19.80 
 18.80 
 
 15.90 
 
 75.75 
 69.10 
 69.90 
 68.54 
 71.50 
 70.70 
 68.46 
 68.44 
 68.56 
 66.36 
 
 68.56 
 70.75 
 
 62.60 
 70.00 
 63.90 
 68.10 
 65.50 
 74.97 
 69.00 
 68.57 
 
 75.20 
 74.40 
 
 77.60 
 
 4.05 
 Jl.OO 
 8.10 
 11.66 
 10.20 
 10.50 
 11.44 
 12.06 
 12.79 
 16.04 
 
 15.82 
 13.22 
 
 22.40 
 12.60 
 17.00 
 11.40 
 15.30 
 5.73 
 13.10 
 12.53 
 
 5.00 
 6.80 
 
 6.50 
 
 3. do. 3d do 
 
 4. do 4th do .... 
 
 
 6. do 6th do 
 
 
 8 do 8th do 
 
 9. do. 9th do 
 
 10. do 10th do .. 
 
 11. do. Maryland Mining Co. (Mary- 
 land.) 
 
 12. do. George Creek, at Lonakoning, 
 (Maryland.) 
 
 13. Carbon Creek, Bradford Co. (Pa,) 
 
 14. do. 2d sample 
 
 15 do 3d do 
 
 16 do 2d bed lt sample. 
 
 17 do do 2d do 
 
 18 do. do 3d do t 
 
 19 do 3d bed 1st sample 
 
 20 do do 2d do 
 
 21. Lick Run jLycoming County, (Pa.) 
 Diamond ply 
 22. Quinn'sRun, Lycoming County... 
 23. Broad Top Mountain, Bedford Co. 
 (Pennsylvania.) 
 
76 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 It appears from Table I. that the number 
 of tons of anthracite supplied per week to 
 seven furnaces, viz., Roaring Creek, Phoenix- 
 ville, Danville, Crane, Columbia, Montour and 
 Stanhope, is 501.3; and as these furnaces 
 make 310.5 tons of pig metal per week, and 
 demand, on an average, 4.5 cwt. of anthracite 
 to each ton of pig for heating their blast, their 
 total weekly consumption will be 571.16 
 tons. Hence the anthracite demanded for 
 both smelting and heating blast is 5 ^j = 1.84 
 tons = 1 ton 16 cwt. 3 qrs. 5.6 Ibs. to the ton 
 of pig metal produced. If this anthracite were 
 pure carbon and were completely converted 
 into carbonic acid, the weight of oxygen re- 
 quired for that purpose would be ^x 1.84 = 
 4.906 tons ; but if we admit that the mean of 
 the two sets of analyses above given represents 
 the average quantity of carbon in Pennsylva- 
 nia anthracite, viz., 88 per cent., then the 
 quantity of oxygen will be but ^X 4.906 = 
 4.317 tons. As the oxygen is to be supplied 
 from the atmosphere, of which the composition, 
 (omitting moisture and impurities,) is 28 parts 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 77 
 
 by weight of nitrogen to 8 of oxygen, the to- 
 tal quantity of air for one ton of pig will be 
 | X 4.317 = 19,426 tons ; which, at 13.22 cu- 
 bic feet to the pound avoirdupois, will be equal 
 to 572,255 cubic feet. Hence it is easy to 
 calculate what number of cubic feet of air 
 should be delivered to the furnace and heating 
 ovens, when we have determined how many 
 tons of iron can be made per day. Thus, sup- 
 pose the furnace to make 7 tons per day, the 
 time for making one ton will be 1440 -r-7 
 205.7 minutes, and the number of cubic feet 
 of air required to pass the nozzles in one min- 
 ute will be ^f = 2782. 
 
 The seven furnaces above named receive 
 22,569 cubic feet of air into their blowing cyl- 
 inders per minute, and the aggregate area of 
 their boshes is 512.67 square feet. The an- 
 thracite which they use will not probably yield 
 over 85 per cent, of pure carbon, after deduct- 
 ing that which escapes combustion and comes 
 out with the cinder, together with the slate 
 unavoidably intermixed, and the dust which is 
 projected out at the trunnel head. The quan- 
 
78 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 tity of anthracite which makes one ton of pig 
 is, as above, 1.84 tons. 
 
 The time required for the seven furnaces to 
 make one ton of pig is 17>64 = 34.4 minutes. 
 
 A 512.67 
 
 The weight of carbon burnt in that time is 
 .85 X 1.84 = 1.564 tons ; and this will require 
 2.66 times its weight of oxygen to form 
 carbonic acid, or 4.16 tons. This quantity 
 of oxygen will be contained in X 4.16 = 
 18.72 tons of air; which, at 29,612. 8 cubic 
 feet to the ton, gives 554,35 1. 6 cubic feet of 
 air to make one ton of pig ; and as this takes 
 34.4 minutes, the air required to be burnt at all 
 the furnaces per minute, is 554,35 l. 6 -r- 34.4 = 
 16,149 cubic feet. Deducting this from 
 22,569, the quantity derived from observations 
 on the movements of the blowing pistons,* we 
 have a surplus of 6,454 cubic feet, or 28.4 per 
 cent, of the whole, either not completely ex- 
 pelled through the eduction valves, or allowed 
 to escape at the safety valves, joints and tu- 
 yeres, or remaining unburnt in the furnace and 
 
 * See note, p. 66. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 79 
 
 heating ovens* With regard to the latter, it 
 may be safely asserted that they do not con- 
 sume more than one half of the oxygen which 
 passes through their grates. 
 
 In general, according to a preceding deduc- 
 tion, let the number of tons of iron which a 
 furnace can make per day be represented by 
 JL ; B being the area of cross section of such 
 
 furnace at the boshes. Then will the time, in 
 minutes, of making one ton be ^x 1440 = ^12. 
 Let the proportion of carbon in 100 parts of 
 the anthracite used be .1, and the weight of 
 anthracite, in tons, required to smelt one ton 
 of pig be a ; then the quantity of carbon con- 
 sumed in making a ton of iron will be ii, and 
 the weight of air, in tons, required for its com- 
 bustion into carbonic acid, " X x - A = 0.1 2ca. 
 
 o 8 100 
 
 The conversion of this expression of the weight 
 of air into cubic feet, is easily effected, since 
 13.22 cubic feet weigh one pound avoirdupois, 
 and the ton of air consequently contains 
 2240 x 13.22 = 29,612. 8 cubic feet. Hence 
 the number of cubic feet of air used in making 
 
80 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 a ton of pig metal will be represented by 
 29,612. 8 x 0.12ca = 3553.5ca. Dividing this 
 bulk of air by the above expression, represent- 
 ing the time in minutes required to make one 
 
 ton of pig, we get i764r .2014ca_S = the 
 
 number of cubic feet of air required per minute 
 by the furnace and heating ovens. In other 
 words, multiply together the area of boshes in 
 square feet, the weight of anthracite in tons 
 used per ton of pig, produced ', the number 
 representing the per centage of carbon in the 
 anthracite and the decimal 0.2014, and the 
 product will give the number of cubic feet of 
 air, before compression, which must enter the 
 furnace and heating ovens per minute. If we 
 take into account the quantity of oxygen con- 
 tained in the ore, it might be supposed that a 
 large deduction would be allowable from the 
 bulk of air given by this formula ; but the 
 quantity of oxygen which does not undergo 
 combustion will account for the fact, that even 
 a greater quantity than that given by calcula- 
 tion is actually injected into the fires. 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 81 
 
 It will of course be understood, that all the 
 above deductions are to be regarded as ap- 
 proximations only, such as the present working 
 of the several establishments enables us to 
 make. To give exact data for calculations of 
 this nature, they ought to be furnished with 
 more correct instruments for observing and 
 recording the several items w r hich enter into 
 
 o 
 
 the computation. The waste space above 
 and below the piston should be known. The 
 number of movements of piston per day should 
 be marked by a self-registering apparatus ; 
 the pressure should be marked by an inverted 
 syphon guage of large-sized glass tube ; the 
 two limbs being accurately of the same diam- 
 eter, and connected at bottom by a section of 
 diminished and almost capillary size, thus pre- 
 venting rapid and violent oscillations, which 
 always interfere with accurate experiments. 
 Where works are situated at considerable ele- 
 vations, the mean . barometric pressure should 
 be known, and if the season of making ob- 
 servations do not extend through the year, the 
 temperature and dew point of the air at the 
 
82 ANTHRACITE IRON. 
 
 times of observing, should be reduced to that 
 of the annual mean. It would be desirable to 
 know, in all cases, the quantity of matter vol- 
 atile at a white heat, both in the ore, the coal, 
 and the limestone ; as well as the fixed mat- 
 ter, other than iron, in the ore, the ashes of the 
 coal, and the lime or other materials after cal- 
 cination, in the limestone. The weight of 
 cinder as well as of pig metal, which is drawn 
 from the furnace, should be ascertained, if we 
 would form a just and intelligent estimate of 
 what is going on within. Due economy of 
 moving power, is every where more or less 
 important, and hence the accuracy of work- 
 manship in blowing apparatus, can hardly be 
 over-estimated. Where anthracite is trans- 
 ported to a distance for supplying this force, 
 the best means of applying its heating power 
 should be well understood. Great economy 
 has within a few years been obtained by an 
 attention to philosophical principles, in gener- 
 ating and using steam, whether obtained from 
 wood or from mineral fuel ; and since the 
 most wasteful practices often exist in connex- 
 
ANTHRACITE IRON. 83 
 
 ion with this part of an iron establishment, a 
 careful attention should be given to ascertain 
 the quantity of water by weight which goes 
 into the boiler, per week, as well as its tem- 
 perature and the weight and quality of the 
 anthracite with which the evaporation is ef- 
 fected. The evaporative power of anthracite, 
 that is, the number of pounds of water which 
 can be vaporized by the combustion of one 
 pound of the fuel, has already engaged atten- 
 tion, and is likely to be still more minutely 
 examined. Among the causes which inter- 
 fere with the economical action of steam boil- 
 ers, is the want of sufficient heating surface 
 in the boiler, compared with the quantity of 
 steam which it is required to supply, and the 
 consequent necessity of urging the draught to 
 such a degree as to carry away a great portion 
 of heat in the gases which escape into the 
 chimney. The use of high pressure steam, 
 without condensation, of course involves the 
 loss of at least one atmosphere in the total 
 pressure generated. So important is the sub- 
 ject of the heating and evaporating power of 
 
34 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 anthracite to the iron master, as well as to the 
 manufacturer and to the navigator by steam, 
 that no apology, will be required by the reader 
 for our introducing the following remarks in 
 relation to this subject. 
 
 EVAPORATIVE POWER or ANTHRACITE. 
 
 Writers have heretofore stated, that when 
 bituminous coal is submitted in gas retorts or 
 coking ovens, to such a temperature as to de- 
 prive it of a large portion, or the whole of its 
 volatile matter, it still retains nearly the same 
 heating power in the form of coke, which it 
 had possessed in that of coal. 
 
 Thus, in his paper on the evaporative power 
 of coal, in the transactions of the Institution 
 for Civil Engineers, Vol. 2, p. 159, Mr. Josiah 
 Parkes, says, " I have myself invariably found, 
 as might be expected, that species of coal to 
 be the strongest fuel, which contained the 
 least gas, and vice versa." 
 
 " I have also found that 75 pounds of coke 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 35 
 
 produced from 100 pounds of coal, evaporated 
 as much water as 100 pounds of the self-same 
 coal." 
 
 When burning coal yielding 34 per cent, of 
 volatile matter, Smeaton found that its coke 
 would produce, on the same grate, 83 1-3 per 
 cent, as much effect as an equal weight of the 
 coal ; but it is probable that had the grate been 
 adapted to coke, the effect of the latter might 
 have been still more favorable. 
 
 Mr. Apsley Pellatt's experience, in a glass 
 furnace is cited by Mr. Parkes, as follows : 
 " Mr. Pellatt's mode of burning coke exhibits, 
 in a far more perfect manner than any steam 
 boiler can do, the relative calorific value of 
 coke and coal. The space within his glass 
 pot furnace, gives abundant room for the com- 
 bination of air with the gaseous products ; the 
 flames are not extinguished by comparatively 
 cold surfaces like those of a boiler, which, after 
 inflammation, reduce them back again into 
 smoke ; the heat requisite for perfect combus- 
 tion is always present, and his furnaces are 
 particularly favorable to the development of all 
 
86 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 the power of coal ; jet he finds common gas 
 coke to be superior to coals in heating power 
 by 25 per cent. ; and gas coke is stated by 
 M. de Pambour to be found inferior to Wors- 
 ley coke by 12 1-2 per cent., which no one 
 acquainted with coke will doubt ; thus exhib- 
 iting an excess over coal of 37 1-2 per cent." 
 
 Mr. Wood, in his treatise on railroads, states 
 his experiments on locomotive boilers with 
 coal y to have given a result of 4.46 pounds 
 of water evaporated from 60 by the consump- 
 tion of 1 pound of fuel ; while M. de Pambour 
 from the mean of eleven experiments on loco- 
 motive engines, burning coke, shows that the 
 evaporative power of the latter is 6.21 pounds 
 of water to 1 of coke, thus indicating a supe- 
 riority of nearly 40 per cent, in favor of coke 
 over coal. 
 
 From a temperature of 212 Mr. Wood's 
 coal would have evaporated 5.12 Ibs. of water, 
 and M. Pambour's coke, 7.12 Ibs. It should, 
 however, be mentioned that in this case, the 
 whole deficiency is not probably attributable to 
 the inferiority of coal to coke, but in part also to 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 37 
 
 the want of sufficient absorbing surface. In 
 Mr. Wood's experiments, this was only 9.61 
 square feet to one square foot of grate ; while 
 in M. de Pambour's it was 47.6 feet, or near- 
 ly 5 times as much. 
 
 A knowledge of the superiority of the fixed 
 over the volatile constituents of coal, induced 
 the writer, in 1838, to compute and publish in 
 the National Gazette, of Philadelphia, the re- 
 lative value of some of the anthracites of Penn- 
 sylvania, and the bituminous coals in use in 
 this and other countries. This superiority in 
 economy for naval purposes, was predicated 
 on two circumstances. First, the superior 
 efficiency of anthracite, weight for weight ; 
 and, second, its greater specific gravity, by 
 which a greater weight may be stowed in a 
 given amount of space on shipboard. For the 
 purposes of the iron masters and manufactur- 
 ers in general, who use this fuel, for produc- 
 ing steam, the first consideration alone is of 
 much importance ; but this, together with 
 questions in regard to the most economical 
 method of burning it and applying its heat, 
 
g3 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 will be found of great interest in a course of 
 years, even where anthracite is to be had at 
 the lowest rate. 
 
 If it can be shown that, by a judicious ar- 
 rangement of boilers and grates, the cost of one 
 or two tons of coal per day can be saved to an 
 iron furnace, this amount, trifling as it may 
 seem, where coal does not cost more than one 
 dollar per ton, at the works, may still be found 
 to constitute the interest of a pretty large sum 
 at the end of a year. One dollar per day is 
 more than enough to pay the interest on the 
 entire cost of the engine and boilers, at some 
 of our large iron works, and certainly would 
 amply compensate for any increased expense 
 of boiler, which might be found necessary, in 
 order to apply correct instead of erroneous 
 principles of combustion. 
 
 The actual evaporative power of any fuel as 
 determined by practice must depend both on 
 the nature and constitution of the fuel, and on 
 the kind of arrangement adopted to effect its 
 combustion, whether slow or rapid, and to 
 apply its calorific energies. Hence the impor- 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. g9 
 
 tance of knowing the form of boiler, size and 
 construction of grate, and the extent and posi- 
 tion of heat-absorbing surfaces best adapted to 
 give high evaporative results. 
 
 In all the iron works, using steam power, 
 to which reference has been made in the pre- 
 ceding pages, the kind of boiler used is the 
 ordinary simple cylindrical one, having neither 
 side nor interior return flues, and consequently 
 allowing no greater average circuit to the 
 heated gases than from the centre of the grate 
 to the entrance of the flue, of course less than 
 the length of the boiler. It may on an aver- 
 age be computed that the absorbing surface of 
 each boiler is one half its curved surface. 
 Some of the experiments, which will be here- 
 after cited, will show how little economical 
 such a boiler is, as compared with other forms 
 and arrangements which might be adopted. 
 
 Among the earliest of those who have 
 studied this subject with a view to its useful 
 applications, may be mentioned the celebrated 
 Mr. Watt, who at the Albion Mills, and in a 
 wagon boiler, of the form usually adopted by 
 
 8" 
 
90 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 him, obtained the result of 8.62 pounds of 
 water evaporated from its initial temperature, 
 or 9.63 from a temperature of 212 by the 
 combustion of one pound of Newcastle bitu- 
 minous coal. In later times the observations 
 of Mr. Lean on the performance of the Cornish 
 engines used in pumping, have put us in pos- 
 session of numerous and valuable facts in re- 
 gard to the evaporative power of the same 
 species of fuel found in Wales. At first the 
 effect of the bushel of coal was measured by 
 the performance of the engine, to which the 
 steam was administered, thus complicating the 
 question of the production of steam with that 
 of its application. More recently, however, a 
 method has been devised for determining and 
 registering through the agency of an apparatus 
 which may be termed an aquameter, the quan- 
 tity of water delivered in any given period to 
 the boiler. By means of this registration it 
 has been ascertained, that in the Cornish dou- 
 ble cylindrical boilers, 36 feet long, with an 
 exterior shell 6 feet, and an interior one of 4 
 feet in diameter, and affording to the flame or 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 9j 
 
 hot gas, a circuit of 172 feet, or a little more 
 than four times the length of the boiler, the 
 effect of one pound of bituminous coal is the 
 evaporation from a temperature of 212 of 
 11.62 pounds of water. 
 
 An opinion prevails to some extent in this 
 country, that the locomotive boiler is among the 
 most economical forms of evaporating vessels ; 
 but Mr. Parkes has proved that where a pound 
 of coal is burned in 44.03 seconds in a Cor- 
 nish boiler, it produces more than twice the 
 evaporative effect of the same weight of fuel 
 burned in 6 3-4 seconds in a locomotive boiler ; 
 and a series of experiments made under the 
 directions of Mr. Stevens, at Bordentown, 
 N. J., also in a locomotive boiler, used at the 
 time for stationary purposes, has proved that 
 whether wood or anthracite be the fuel, an 
 increase in the rapidity of combustion in the 
 same boiler, is accompanied by a diminution 
 in the evaporative efficiency of the combusti- 
 ble. It has also shown that the rate of dimi- 
 nution in evaporative effect, is within certain 
 limits more rapid than that of the increase of 
 
92 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 combustion, in the ratio of 4 to 3. Messrs. 
 Parkes and Manby's experiments on board the 
 steamer " Anthracite," with Player's boiler, 
 using anthracite coal for fuel, amply demon- 
 strate the same general truth. 
 
 Many of the experiments of Dr. Dana 
 hereafter cited, will be seen clearly to prove 
 the truth of the position, that beyond certain 
 limits an increase in the rate of combustion 
 in any given boiler is attended with a loss of 
 useful effect. 
 
 It is evident that the heat-absorbing surface 
 of a steam-boiler might be so great, and the 
 circuit to be traversed by the heat so extend- 
 ed, in comparison with the quantity of com- 
 bustion taking place on its grate, that the hot 
 gaseous matter would not escape until some 
 time after it had imparted all the heat it was 
 capable of yielding to the fluid within the 
 boiler. In such case the gas remaining at a 
 uniform temperature for the latter periods of 
 its transit, would clearly not have its efficiency 
 diminished by such an increase of combustion 
 as should urge it with more rapidity towards its 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 93 
 
 exit from the boiler. On the contrary, a far- 
 ther diminution in the rate of combustion might 
 
 o 
 
 allow the radiation and conduction of heat a 
 greater length of time to exercise their influ- 
 ence in diminishing the evaporation. When 
 the rapidity of combustion is such as to send 
 the products of combustion beyond the absorb- 
 ing surfaces, at a temperature greatly above 
 that of the steam in the boiler, it is evident 
 that some loss must be the consequence, for 
 the escaping gas would then, if applied to a 
 boiler within the chimney, evidently be able 
 to generate an additional portion of steam of 
 the same tension, since we know of no limit 
 to the principle that a hotter body will impart 
 heat to a colder. 
 
 Whenever, in the progress of combustion, 
 apertures of considerable magnitude occur 
 among the fuel, large portions of unburnt air 
 make their way through the fire, and not only 
 prevent the latter from doing its office for the 
 time, but become robbers of the more useful por- 
 .tions of air by depriving the burning mass of its 
 heat, which are taken away into the chimney, 
 
94 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 and dispersed at the top. All who have wit- 
 nessed the effect of burning anthracite-dust with 
 a fan blast, will have noticed the constant ten- 
 dency to form little blow holes, which, enlarg- 
 ing by degrees, allow portions of air to become 
 heated excessively, but not burnt. A portion 
 of the dust is likewise projected upwards, and 
 sent wholly beyond the seat of combustion. 
 When coal of a large size is burned in too thin 
 a stratum on a grate, many interstices must in 
 like manner exist, and, in the case of dust and 
 pea coal, the superiority of effect arising from 
 mixing with them a portion of bituminous coal, 
 will probably be found to depend on the par- 
 tial agglutination and envelopment of the par- 
 ticles of anthracite in those of the coke, pre- 
 venting the mobility of the former, and com- 
 pelling the air to a more minute subdivision 
 and equal distribution throughout the mass. 
 In regard to the quality of the dust of anthra- 
 cite, it may in general be regarded as quite 
 equal in purity to that which comes to market 
 in larger masses, since the brittleness of pure 
 anthracite, and the toughness of slate, allows 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 95 
 
 the former to be more comminuted than the 
 latter. 
 
 On the subject of the evaporative power of 
 bituminous coal, when employed in boilers of 
 different forms, we have several elaborate pa- 
 pers by Mr. Josiah Parkes, published in the 
 Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engi- 
 neers. The table contained in the 3d vol. of that 
 work, page 45, is particularly interesting on ac- 
 count of the numerous facts which it embodies, 
 and of the conclusions to which a comparison of 
 these may lead. A few of the data there fur- 
 nished, will enable us to institute comparisons 
 between the results of American experience 
 with anthracite, and that of the English en- 
 gineers, when using bituminous coal or coke. 
 
 " The practice of slow combustion," says 
 Mr. Parke, " is evidently conducive to econo- 
 my in the treatment of fuel." 
 
 " Boilers tested as to their merit by their 
 respective evaporative economy, arrange them- 
 selves for consideration in the inverse order of 
 the rate of combustion." 
 
 " A second, though somewhat less regular 
 
96 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 coincidence between the operating causes and 
 economical results, is indicated by the extent 
 of surface exposed to absorb the heat supplied 
 to the boiler. * * Economy of heat is 
 promoted in some proportion of the extent of 
 the absorbing surface." 
 
 Mr. Parkes lays considerable stress upon the 
 thickness of metal of which a boiler is com- 
 posed, as influencing the rate of evaporation, 
 and also on the temperature of combustion, as 
 affecting the durability of boilers. In regard 
 to the former of these points, I may mention 
 that my own experiments on iron of different 
 thicknesses, from 1-50 to 1-4 of an inch, and 
 those of Mr. Hayes, from 1-8 up to 1 inch, 
 prove that within these limits, which are in 
 both directions far beyond the requisitions of 
 the steam-boiler, no sensible difference will be 
 produced in the evaporative effect of fuel. 
 And with respect to the second point, I would 
 refer to the fact, first established by my ex- 
 periments, published some years since in the 
 American Journal of Science, and since repro- 
 duced both in England and in this country, 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 97 
 
 that so long as water is in contact with iron 
 under atmospheric pressure the metal will not 
 receive a temperature much more than 100 
 Fahrenheit above the boiling point ; for, from 
 312 to 324 is reached the temperature of 
 maximum vaporization, a rate of generat- 
 ing steam far beyond the practice even in 
 locomotive engines. 
 
 Another fact may be mentioned in proof 
 that unnecessary stress is laid on these particu- 
 lars, which is, that metallic tubes, of moderate 
 thickness, even of copper, lead, or soft solder, 
 when kept filled with water, may be used to 
 traverse a fire where an intense temperature 
 prevails, as in a grate using anthracite, with- 
 out danger of melting. Years of experience 
 have convinced me of this truth. It is also 
 well known that in house-heating apparatus, 
 on the hot water system, wrought iron tubes 
 of a quarter of an inch or more in thickness, 
 are made to pass through or around the fire, 
 and yet remain for a long time without sensi- 
 ble deterioration. I have employed such an 
 apparatus with anthracite, without the least 
 
98 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 inconvenience. Bad iron may suffer deterio- 
 ration when used for a boiler at any tempera- 
 ture, and corrosive liquids, or gases, may de- 
 stroy the best, but it is often observed that in 
 wrought-iron heating apparatus the parts near 
 the fire suffer less than those more remote. 
 When a boiler is allowed to become coated 
 with sediment, it matters little whether wood, 
 bituminous coal, or anthracite, be the fuel. It 
 must inevitably suffer from overheating. 
 
 The Cornish boiler combines the advantages 
 of slow combustion, large relative absorbing 
 surface, and great length of time for heat to 
 remain in contact with any given portion of 
 that surface. 
 
 MR. PARKES'S RESULTS 
 In the Cornish Boiler. 
 
 " 1 Ib. of coal was burnt in 44.08 seconds. 
 3.46 Ibs. of coal was burnt on each square 
 foot of grate per hour. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 99 
 
 1 Jb. of water was evaporated by 1 square 
 
 foot of surface per hour, from 212. 
 11.62* Ibs. of water were evaporated by 1 Ib. 
 of coal from 212." 
 
 Wagon Boiler, Warwick experiments. 
 
 " 1 Ib. of coal burnt under one boiler in 38.31 
 
 seconds. 
 4 Ibs. of coal burnt on each square foot of 
 
 grate per hour. 
 
 6.39 Ibs. of water evaporated by 1 square 
 foot of heated surface per hour from 
 212. 
 
 10.23 Ibs. of water evaporated from 1 Ib. of 
 coal, burnt from 212." 
 
 Mr. Parkes, by a trial of 6 months' contin- 
 uance, evaporated 181-2 cubic feet of water 
 
 * By assuming the latent heat of vapor to be accord- 
 ing to the determination of Watt, only 950, Mr. Parkes 
 produces in this case 11.82, and in other cases, cor- 
 responding differences in evaporative results, all which 
 I have adjusted to a latent heat of 1030. 
 
100 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 by 112 Ibs. of coal, or 10.23 Ibs. to 1 Ib. of 
 coal, from 212, as stated in the preceding 
 extract. 
 
 Wagon Boiler, mean of eight experiments. 
 
 " 1 Ib. of coal burnt under one boiler in 16.57 
 
 seconds. 
 10.75 Ibs. of coal burnt per square foot of 
 
 grate per hour. 
 
 7 1-10 Ibs. of water evaporated by 1 square 
 foot of heated surface per hour, from 
 212. 
 
 8.76 Ibs. of water evaporated by 1 Ib. of coal 
 from 212." 
 
 Locomotive Boiler. 
 
 " 1 Ib. of coke burnt under one boiler in 6.45 
 
 seconds. 
 
 79.33 Ibs. of coke burnt on each square foot of 
 grate, per hour. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. JQl 
 
 12 Ibs. of water evaporated by 1 square foot 
 
 of heated surface per hour. 
 7.12 Ibs. of water evaporated by 1 Ib. of coke 
 
 from 212. 
 5.70 Ibs. of water evaporated by 1 Ib. of coal 
 
 from 212, by calculation. 
 5.11 Ibs. of water evaporated by 1 Ib. of coal 
 
 from 212, by Wood's experiment." 
 
 BITUMINOUS COAL IN MARINE BOILERS. 
 
 Mr. Tredgold gives, in his Treatise on the 
 Steam Engine, an account of an experiment 
 on board the steamer African, in which 306 
 cubic feet of fresh water were evaporated by 
 the consumption of 24 cwt. of Heaton coal. 
 This is 19,125 Ibs. of water raised into steam 
 by 2,688 Ibs of coal, from the initial tempera- 
 ture, presumed to be 60. To compare this 
 with other results above mentioned, we find 
 that 7.11 Ibs. of water were evaporated by 1 
 Ib. of coal from 60, and that ^! X 7.1 1 = 8.15, 
 were obtained from 212. 
 
102 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 MR. PLAYER'S METHOD OF BURNING AN- 
 THRACITE. 
 
 Mr. Player has invented a method of sup- 
 plying anthracite to the furnace of a steam 
 boiler, a description of which is contained in 
 the 8th vol. of the Reports of the British Asso- 
 ciation, transactions of sections, p. 130. " The 
 coal is heated before it reaches the fire. It is 
 supplied to the grate through a perpendicular 
 chamber, placed centrally on the top of the 
 boiler, with an opening about 20 inches in 
 diameter, immediately over the fireplace. In 
 passing through this chamber, by its contact 
 with the plates, the coal acquires considerable 
 heat, and descending by its own gravity as the 
 fire consumes beneath, replaces what has been 
 burnt ; by which means a regular supply of 
 fuel is furnished, fit for immediate and com- 
 plete ignition. The action of the fire is regu- 
 lar, not checked at any time by fresh applica- 
 tions of cold fuel. The fire is never meddled 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 with ; there are no fire-drawers, no currents 
 of cold air passing through the flues. One 
 engine worked 72 hours consecutively, during 
 which time the grate neither choked nor clink- 
 ered, nor was a bar used for the fire, or did 
 there remain any considerable result in ashes. 
 The coal was in this instance entirely anthra- 
 cite (small but not powdery) and tipped into 
 the feeding chamber once every four hours. 
 Water was kept in the ash pit, and being con- 
 verted into steam, aided, to some extent, the 
 production of flame. Smith's fires are worked 
 on a similar principle, and a foundry, with a 
 flue to take off the flame, is managed on the 
 plan of heating the fuel, to avoid clogging the 
 fire by the splintering up of anthracite, when 
 suddenly exposed to a high temperature." 
 
 In regard to the method of Mr. Player, it may 
 be remarked, that few only of the anthracites of 
 Pennsylvania require us to guard against the 
 evil which this invention is intended to obvi- 
 ate. Smithwork, melting iron, and generat- 
 ing steam are all now effected without a resort 
 to any expedient to prevent the comminution 
 of the coal. 
 
1Q4 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 On the efficacy of Mr. Player's invention, in 
 promoting evaporation, we have two reports ; 
 one from Messrs. Dr. Charles Schauffheautl 
 and William Bevan, and the other from Messrs. 
 Josiah Parkes and C. Manby, from which the 
 following abstracts are taken. 
 
 From the Report of Dr. Charles Schaufheautl 
 and Mr. William Sevan. 
 
 " Pure charcoal (procured from the distilla- 
 tion of sugar), has been found by Despretz 
 to be capable of evaporating 12. 3 times its own 
 weight of water, at 32, and under a pressure 
 of one atmosphere. This is therefore a stand- 
 ard measure to which all other fuels may be 
 compared." At 212 it is 14.45 pounds to 1. 
 
 " To evaporate this quantity of water, 1 Ib. 
 of pure charcoal must combine with 2.6166 
 pounds of oxygen. As hydrogen is likewise 
 a component part of many fuels, that also must 
 be taken into account. In combustion, hydro- 
 gen combines with 8.009 times its own weight 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. ]Q5 
 
 of oxygen, and the quantity of heat evolved, 
 as compared to carbon, is in the same ratio as 
 the quantity of oxygen with which they com- 
 bine in burning." 
 
 Analyses of Swansea Anthracite. 
 
 "Carbon . . . 92.42 
 
 Hydrogen . . . 3.37 
 
 Oxygen . . . 1.43 
 
 Nitrogen . . . 1.05 
 
 Sulphur . . . 0.12 
 
 Ashes and loss . . 1.61 
 
 100. 
 Sp. Gr. ... 1.413 
 
 Another Specimen. 
 
 Water .... .300 
 
 Oxide of iron . . .264 
 
 Alum . . . . .478 
 
 Silica 190 
 
 Hydrogen . . . 2.390 
 
106 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 Oxjdeofiron . . 1.336 
 
 Azote . . . . 0.876 
 
 Carbon . . . 94.100 
 Sulphur trace 
 
 Loss .... 0.068 
 
 100. 
 
 92.42 carbon require 241.825 oxygen 
 3.37 hydrogen 27.017 
 
 Hence 268.842 represents 
 
 the total amount of oxygen required." 
 
 "The anthracite contains 1.43 oxygen in a 
 fixed state, and as the sulphur and iron in the 
 sulphuret, combine during combustion with 
 0.16 oxygen to form sulphurous acid and oxide 
 of iron, these quantities of oxygen must be 
 subtracted ; viz. 1.43 + 0.16, leaving 267.252 
 as the total quantity, or 2.67 pounds of oxygen 
 to consume 1 pound of anthracite ; and since 
 pure carbon only requires 2.6166, we may 
 safely assume, that 1 pound of the anthracite 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 107 
 
 used in our experiment, (and which was not 
 like the sample analyzed, perfectly free from 
 heterogeneous matter), is able theoretically to 
 evaporate 12.3 pounds of water at 32. 
 
 Surface of boiler, horizontal 22.5 
 " " " vertical 171.87 
 
 Total equivalents 194.37 ?: 
 
 " The vertical being reduced to horizontal 
 surface, we have for total effective surface 65.5 
 superficial feet. 
 
 Thickness of boiler plate 1-4 inch. 
 
 Boiler contained 62 cubic feet of water, 29 
 cubic feet of steam. 
 
 The area of fire bars was 7 superficial feet. 
 
 The mass of fire 10 cubic feet. 
 
 The mass of coal in the feeding-chamber, 
 5.5 cubic feet." 
 
 " The pressure on the boiler was constantly 
 equal to 1.909 atmospheres or 13.64 pounds 
 per square inch, and the steam was kept up 
 with great regularity." 
 
]Q3 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 " During the experiment the average height 
 of the barometer was 29.18 inches, that of the 
 thermometer, 45.5. 
 
 The anthracite consumed during the twelve 
 hours, amounted to 372.28 pounds, and the 
 water evaporated by it reduced to 32, was 
 3934.3 pounds : therefore, 1 pound of anthra- 
 cite, evaporates 10.56 pounds of water under 
 a pressure of 1.909 atmospheres, or 11.11 
 pounds of water under 1 atmosphere ; from 
 which it appears, that the actual loss of calo- 
 ric, taking the theoretical standard, 12.3 
 pounds water to 1 pound of anthracite, only 
 amounted to 0.096, and consequently, it is not 
 quite one tenth part." 
 
 Reducing 10.56 at 32 to 212 we obtain 
 12.4 pounds of water to 1 of steam, which 
 makes the result comparable with those given 
 in the preceding and following pages. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 109 
 
 Extracts from the Report by Josiah Parkes 
 and C. Manby, Civil Engineers. 
 
 " The boiler (on board the steamer Anthra- 
 cite) was too small to develope the full effect 
 of the fuel ; the draught was too weak to vary 
 sufficiently the quantity of evaporation per 
 hour. 
 
 Experiment 
 
 '7oal burnt per 
 square foot of 
 irate per hour. 
 
 Waier evaporat 
 ed from 212 per 
 hour. 
 
 \\ ater evapo- 
 rated from 2 12 
 by 1 pound of 
 anthracite. 
 
 Water evapo- 
 rated from 2 12 
 i>y 112 pounds 
 of anthracite. 
 
 1... 
 
 o 
 
 Ihs. 
 ....14.86 .... 
 .. 12 65 
 
 ...1963.89 .... 
 2240.00 
 
 .... 6.44 .. 
 8.13 ... 
 
 cubic feet. 
 ....11.66 
 14 S6 
 
 3 
 
 3 18 . 
 
 .. 833 02 ... 
 
 .. 12 15 . 
 
 21 94 
 
 4 
 
 .... 2.94 .... 
 
 .... 8IS7.44 .... 
 
 ....13.35 .... 
 
 ....24.18 
 
 Water reduced to 212.* Air went into the 
 chimney in the first and second experiments, 
 hot enough to melt zinc, even on the third 
 and fourth experiments, when 2-3 of the 
 chimney was closed." 
 
 * 15 of the heat is computed to be carried up the 
 chimney with the burnt air. 
 10 
 
1| () EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 " Comparing the mean of the two highest 
 with the two lowest results, it appears that by 
 increasing the rapidity of combustion in the 
 ratio of 4.49 to 1, the evaporation in equal 
 times was increased only in the ratio of 2.47 
 to 1, whilst the evaporative product f vm equal 
 weights of coal, was diminished in the ratio of 
 1.74 to 1." 
 
 " Recorded experiments with the Welsh coal 
 in Cornish boilers, show, that at the same rate 
 of combustion, as in our fourth experiment, 
 viz. ; 2.94 pounds per square foot of grate per 
 hour, the evaporative product was 21.31 cubic 
 feet from 212 by 112 pounds of coal, or 11.78 
 pounds by 1 pound of coal.'" 
 
 " Under like rates of combustion, therefore, 
 the anthracite exceeded the Welsh coal in the 
 ratio of 13.35 to 11.78, or by 13 per cent, 
 but the relative area of the heat absorbing 
 surfaces, the period of the duration of the heat 
 about those surfaces, and the radiating condi- 
 tion of the exterior of the respective boilers 
 
 * See table' of boilers, experiment 1, Transactions of 
 Institute of Civil Engineers, part I., Vol. III. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 all which circumstances materially influence 
 the realization of high evaporative product, 
 are so much in favor of the Cornish, compared 
 with the "Anthracite " boilers, as to justify the 
 inference, that if our experiments could have 
 been conducted under equally favorable cir- 
 cumstances with those of the Cornish boilers, 
 the results would have been considerably 
 greater than those we actually obtained." 
 
 " The Cornish boiler presented an area of 
 961.66 square feet, and the "Anthracite's" 
 boiler 340 square feet, to receive the heat gen- 
 erated from equal weights of coal and of an- 
 thracite, in equal times = 2.549 to 1 in favor 
 of the former." 
 
 " The rates of combustion and consequently 
 the velocity of the current of heat from the 
 grates were equal. The distance passed over, 
 or circuit made by the heat, after quitting the 
 grates, was 152 feet in the Cornish, and 3 feet 
 in the " anthracite " boiler ; and the period of 
 the duration of the heat about equal ; surfaces 
 of the two boilers were 21-2 times larger in 
 the Cornish boilers than in those of the " an- 
 
]]<2 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 thracite." The Cornish boiler was enveloped 
 in good non-conducting substances, that of the 
 " Anthracite " had little or no defence against 
 loss from radiation ; considering these differ- 
 ences, and their influence over evaporative 
 economy, we are of opinion, that under equal 
 circumstances, anthracite would greatly exceed 
 the best bituminous coal in calorific value, 
 it having already given, even under com- 
 paratively unfavorable circumstances, a result 
 greater by 13 pci cent, than any on record. 
 The highest known evaporative product, from 
 New Castle and Staffordshire coal, is 10.23 
 pounds at 212 by 1 pound of coal, obtained at 
 Warwick.* Our fourth experiment with an- 
 thracite exceeded the Warwick experiment 
 30 per cent. Mr. Player's method of supply- 
 ing anthracite, dispenses with all mechanical 
 means ; with the labor of stoking, and with 
 the waste and injury arising from the common 
 system of firing by the shovel through the fire 
 door. No stoking in general takes place dur- 
 ing the day." 
 
 * Trans. Inst. Civ. Eng., Part I., Vol. III. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 " When working with the damper the coal 
 descended so uniformly, that the water tank, 
 which held 400 pounds, was emptied so nearly 
 in equal times, as scarcely to vary a single 
 minute for hours together. The coal descend- 
 ed upon the fire precisely at the rate required 
 by the combustion ; no scoriae were produced ; 
 the quantity of ashes was very small." 
 
 DR. FYFE'S EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 On the 8th of February, 1841, Dr. Andrew 
 Fyfe, President of the Society of Arts for Scot- 
 land, read before that Society a paper on the 
 evaporative power of different kinds of coal, 
 in which he compares the efficiency of Scotch 
 and English bituminous coals with that of an- 
 thracite, or what he terms such, though with 
 us it would be called transition, or semibitu- 
 minous coal. By his analysis it appears to 
 have possessed 17.8 per cent, of volatile mat- 
 ter, including 4.4 per cent, of water, and 10.8 
 
 per cent, of earthy matter, leaving of course, 
 10* 
 
1J4 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 but 71.4 per cent, of fixed carbon. It had a 
 specific gravity of from 1.303 to 1.406. In- 
 deed, so far as the proportion of its three prox- 
 imate constituents can be relied on to indicate 
 the character of coal, it appears to be nearly 
 identical with several of the free-burning coals 
 contained in Table IV. 
 
 His first trial was upon Scotch coal, contain- 
 ing 42 per cent, of volatile matter, including 
 7.5 of water, and only 50.5 per cent, of fixed 
 carbon. This coal, burned under a boiler 
 working at 17 Ibs. pressure, evaporated 4880 
 Ibs. of water from a temperature of 45 Fah. 
 by the combustion of 732 Ibs. of the fuel, or 
 6.66 Ibs. of water, by 1 Ib. of coal. Reducing 
 this to the standard of 212, we have 7.74 Ibs. 
 
 This and the other experiments of Dr. Fyfe 
 are contained in the following Table, in which 
 I have reduced them to the temperature of 
 212, in order to render the results comparable 
 with others, hereafter to be noticed. Little 
 or no attention seems to have been paid in 
 these experiments to the rate of combustion, 
 without which nothing can be inferred in re- 
 gard to the relative values of fuel. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 115 
 
 TABLE V. 
 
 DR. FYFE'S Experiments to compare Scotch and English bitu- 
 minous coals with anthracite, in regard to their evaporative 
 power, in a high pressure boiler of a 4 horse engine, having 
 a grate with 8.15 square feet of surface. Also in a ivagon- 
 shaped copper boiler, open to the air, surface 18 feet, grate 
 1.55. 
 
 
 & 
 
 
 
 S3 
 
 o 
 
 t' 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 G 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 c 
 
 E 
 
 = 
 
 
 * = 
 
 | 
 
 'o 
 1 
 
 ec 
 .5 
 
 g 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 a 
 
 L^ 
 
 55 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 ss 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 c-c: 
 
 
 c 
 
 *4 
 
 "3 
 
 J= 
 
 v E 
 
 S 
 
 
 Q 
 
 ?> = 
 
 
 1 
 
 5, 
 
 
 "o 
 
 1 V, 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 g 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IM 
 
 8 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 '-= *? 
 
 <M 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 > < 
 
 
 W Kind of fuel em- 
 
 
 g 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 * w 
 
 
 's ployed. 
 
 6 
 
 T3 
 
 C 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 S, 
 
 r V 
 
 I S 
 
 i? 
 
 0. 
 
 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 I Middlerig Scotch ) 
 coal. i 
 
 81.33 
 
 9 
 
 45 
 
 6.66 
 
 7.74 
 
 10.00 
 
 44.27 
 
 ! 
 
 Pressure 1" 
 Ibs. per a). 
 tncb. 
 
 Scotch coal, dif- \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 ferent variety > 
 
 108 
 
 5 
 
 170 
 
 6.62 
 
 6.89 
 
 13.525 
 
 33.33 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 Irom preceding. ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o Anthracite, ori- / 
 gin not given. $ 
 
 47.94 
 
 8i 
 
 45? 
 
 8.73 
 
 10.10 
 
 5.88 
 
 75.09 
 
 
 Do. 
 
 4 Scotch coal, from ) 
 near Edinburg. ( 
 
 8-24 
 
 8| 
 
 50 
 
 5.88 
 
 6.90 
 
 5.31 
 
 436.89 
 
 3.15 
 
 Low pres- 
 sure open 
 cop. boiler. 
 
 . English hitumin- ) 
 ous coal. \ 
 
 6.07 
 
 8.4 
 
 50 
 
 7.84 
 
 9.07 
 
 3.91 
 
 593.08 
 
 3.06 
 
 Do. 
 
116 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 We come next to an examination of what 
 has been done in the United States, towards 
 gaining a knowledge of the evaporative power, 
 and the best modes of employing anthracite 
 for generating them. Here, as in the various 
 domestic uses, the smelting and puddling of 
 iron with anthracite, and its employment for 
 locomotives, and for steamboats, we shall find 
 our countrymen have not been behind Euro- 
 peans, either in the time, or in the magnitude 
 of their labors. 
 
 MR. A. A. HAYES'S EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 The following interesting extracts were, by 
 the kindness of my esteemed friend, Dr. Dana, 
 and the politeness of the writer, placed at my 
 disposal. They serve to show how early, and 
 how successfully, the attempts to economise 
 fuel, particularly anthracite, have been prose- 
 cuted in this country. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. U7 
 
 " Roxbury Laboratory, Dec. 19, 1839. 
 " Dr. Samuel L. Dana, 
 " My Dear Sir, 
 
 " I feel gratified in learning that the results 
 obtained with our boilers have excited jour 
 interest, and it will afford me pleasure to state 
 particularly the facts in reply to your queries. 
 
 " 1 . The size of our boilers 1 They are 18 
 feet long, 24 inches in diameter inside, and, I 
 think, 3-8 inch thick. 
 
 "Size of grate surface? There are 18 
 square feet, 6x3, but the spaces, each 1-4 
 inch wide, are 19 in number, there being 18 
 bars, 2 inches wide, including spaces, to make 
 the width, and 3 lengths, of 3 feet each, to 
 make the length. 
 
 " 3. The pressure ? Our valves are kept 
 loaded with 45 pounds per square inch. While 
 working, these are in motion about one third 
 part of the time. Our engine has the usual 
 dimensions of a 10 horse engine, and while 
 we are taking off steam for the kettles, w r orks 
 rapidly ; at other times it is irregularly at- 
 tended. 
 
118 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 " 4. The quantity of coal consumed 1 The 
 largest consumption we have known is 2060 
 pounds of a mixture of small anthracite, 3 
 parts by weight, and small Sydney, 1 part, in 
 12 hours. Sometimes our engine works half 
 the day, with a less consumption of fuel before 
 the kettles are ready for the steam ; we then 
 urge the fire, and in 6 or 7 hours evaporate as 
 much water as the boilers will allow. Had 
 we use for the whole steam regularly each day 
 of 12 hours, we could supply 20,000 Ibs. 
 The trials, we have made have been conducted 
 as follows. In the morning 25 to 30 Ibs. 
 of flour barrel staves were thrown on a clear 
 grate, fire applied, and coal added. Water 
 at 60 Fah. pumped in by hand until at 
 the level of the guage cock, the safety valve 
 being open. The measure-cistern was then 
 filled to the edge. It has a flow pipe, 3 inches 
 from the bottom, and contains 3437 Ibs. above 
 the flow pipe. The forcing pump lost no 
 water in its strokes. The usual workings of 
 the kettles being continued during the day, at 
 night the fuel on the grate was raked off into 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. ]19 
 
 the ash pit, which has some inches of water 
 constantly on its bottom. In the morning the 
 unconsumed fuel was separated from the ashes 
 and mixed with that to be used during the 
 day. Water from the cistern was then allow- 
 ed to flow in so as to attain the initial height 
 in the boiler, and the weight of the coal ascer- 
 tained for the day of 11 to 12 hours firing." 
 
 " Instead of one day's working, we have 
 weighed in 5 tons of mixed coal, and counted 
 our water for 6 days, deducting unconsumed 
 fuel. In this way, the account always ex- 
 ceeds the mean of 3 days, owing to the in- 
 creased heat of the flues. Taking 3 days, the 
 mean of water used was 18,903 Ibs., and of mix- 
 ed coal 1 827 Ibs. The idea of giving the present 
 form to the arrangement was borrowed from the 
 Annales d'Industrie, 1st vol., after I had fully 
 satisfied myself of the inutility of the tubular 
 boilers. In the form adopted, a great im- 
 provement is made over the arrangement al- 
 luded to, in giving more surface to the fire. 
 The air which passes the dampers will not 
 melt lead, although a feeble flame of burn- 
 
120 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 ing carbonic oxide is seen within 3 feet of 
 them. Considering one half of the surfaces 
 of the upper boilers exposed to flame, we have 
 338 feet of heated surface, and an evaporating 
 power of 5 Ibs. per foot. 
 
 " The grates are 7 inches from the nearest 
 surface of the lower boilers, and the fuel is kept 
 3 to 4 inches in thickness on the grate. There 
 are dust holes for ease in removing ashes 
 weekly, and the fire door is 4 inches below 
 the grates. The boilers are 5 inches apart 
 (that is, from upper to lower,) and, side and 
 side, the distance is 3 inches at the nearest 
 point. You will readily perceive that the in- 
 tention is to expend the intensity of the fire on 
 the lower boilers, which are full of water ; for 
 that reason the side flues are brought within 4 
 inches of the boilers, while they are quite free 
 above ; the effect is, to cause the flame which 
 passes between the lower boilers, to strike the 
 upper ones, and then descend under them to 
 the side flues, wrapping them in flame." 
 
 " The secret of the economy of fuel under 
 the Cornish boilers, is, I think, fairly revealed, 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 when we know their surfaces and mode of 
 firing. In using bituminous coal, fully 1-10 
 will be saved by heavy charging on a platform 
 in front of the grates, and in so managing as 
 to burn the vapors and gases. 
 
 " I have seen 4 boilers, with large inside 
 flues, heated by anthracite, under a blast from 
 a fan, where the gases passed under and 
 around the bridge, through the flues surround- 
 ed by water, at 216 Fah., then mixed and 
 entered a chimney, where they burnt in a vol- 
 ume 40 feet high. In comparing our results 
 with any other, I have no data. The availa- 
 ble heat from anthracite coal certainly exceeds 
 that from an equal weight of coke, and another 
 element in the calculation is introduced, when 
 we know that 1-10 part of the fuel in an 
 ignited state is in contact with the surface of 
 the boiler in the form of particles forced in 
 contact by the blast. On trying a fire of the 
 best coal, in fragments of 2 and 3 inches 
 square, we were unable to work our kettles, 
 and compelled to withdraw the fuel, and use 
 
 the kind adapted to the form of grate we 
 11 
 
122 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 adopted. I have been in the neighborhood of 
 many trials of tubular boilers, and conclude 
 from their history so far, that when the tubes 
 are small, they are very uneconomical and 
 troublesome ; that the best results are obtain- 
 ed from passing the heated air and gases un- 
 der long boilers, so that a radiating surface of 
 brick may form a part of each flue, and there- 
 by consume the combustible part of the gases. 
 The study of these matters, more than any 
 thing else, has shown me how slow r ly we glean 
 a little knowledge ; in fact it is strange that 
 among such a number of eminent engineers as 
 England possessed, and with such a vast 
 amount of property hazarded, so little is known 
 of the phenomena attending the combustion of 
 coal. The question, what becomes of the 25 
 parts of matter, which should produce nearly 
 as much heat as the 75 of carbon, remaining 
 in 100 of coal? has never been answered, so 
 far as I can learn. 
 
 " Yours, respectfully, 
 (Signed) A. A. HAYES." 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 123 
 
 The- following figure will render intelligible 
 Mr. Hayes's present plan of arranging 4 cy- 
 lindrical boilers within a furnace ; boilers 20 
 feet long, grate 3 feet wide by 6 long. 
 
 Water 
 
 Line. 
 
 Extract from a letter from A. A. Hayes, Esq. 
 to Dr. Samuel L. Dana, dated 
 
 Roxbury, December 25, 1839. 
 
 " In relation to flues within boilers, we 
 were at the expense of testing their value. 
 The apparatus used was a lead kettle 27 feet 
 
124 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 long, about 3 feet wide, 2 feet deep, through 
 which a plate iron tube, 1-6 inch thick, 18 
 inches diameter at one end, 10 inches at ex- 
 treme end, covered with 6 Ib. lead, was passed. 
 The large end entered the chamber of a rever- 
 beratory furnace fitted for burning smoke, the 
 other, a chimney of strong draught. When 
 the kettle was filled with saline fluid the ut- 
 most, consumption of bituminous coal would 
 not produce ebullition. Indeed, the effect of 
 the waste steam from our engine in the same 
 tube was greater than that produced by the 
 wasteful expenditure of coal. I am perfectly 
 well aware of an escape of heat, which might 
 be economized in heating water for supplying 
 the boilers in our arrangement ; but the ex- 
 pense of vessels, &c. has prevented me from 
 using it. Were it necessary to produce a large 
 quantity of steam here, I think I should keep 
 the evaporating power up to 6 Ibs. per square 
 foot for anthracite, and economize any excess of 
 heat by separate vessels. In burning anthra- 
 cite I do not think more than 1 -5 of the oxy- 
 gen in the air passed, is consumed, unless the 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 125 
 
 coal is at its highest point of combustion, and 
 a large fire seems the more ready way of 
 approaching this state. 
 
 "'Dr. Ure has lately compared anthracite 
 with the best steam generating coal in England, 
 and he gives anthracite 13 produce, coal 91-2 
 to 10." 
 
 Dr. Dana's Experiments. 
 
 Dr. Samuel L. Dana, of Lowell, Massachu- 
 setts, has made experiments on six or seven 
 different arrangements of boilers, viz. 
 
 1. On two cylindrical boilers set together, 
 20 feet long and 30 inches in diameter. 
 
 2. On two similar boilers, 20 feet long, 45 
 inches in diameter. 
 
 3. On three cylindrical boilers, arranged 
 within the same furnace, two being suspended 
 side by side, about 3 inches apart ; and a third, 
 with its central line above the centre of this 
 space. 
 
 4. On four cylindrical boilers, arranged ac- 
 
 11* 
 
126 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 cording to the plan of Mr. Hayes, already 
 described. 
 
 5. On a tubular boiler, constructed on the 
 general plan of locomotive boilers, but of 
 greater length, and having only 12 tubes of 3 
 inches in diameter. 
 
 6. On a double cylindrical boiler, of the 
 Cornish form, and set in the usual mode prac- 
 tised in Cornwall. 
 
 7. On the same boiler, altered by inserting 
 in the interior cylinder, three cylindrical boil- 
 ers ; two on a level with each other, and one 
 above the dividing line between them, leaving 
 spaces all round them for the heat to play on 
 their whole surfaces. 
 
 From his minutes on the action of all these 
 boilers, Dr. Dana has very kindly furnished 
 me with the data necessary to make the cal- 
 culations of the following tables. All who are 
 interested in the subject of fuel will duly ap- 
 preciate the important labors of Dr. D. in 
 endeavoring to devise a form of boiler which 
 should combine all the requisites of high eva- 
 porative efficiency with simplicity of construe- 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. J27 
 
 tion, facility of cleaning, and easy access to 
 the parts in case of making repairs. The 
 interest of those who furnish anthracite to the 
 market, will obviously be promoted by what- 
 ever demonstrates its efficacy and the best 
 modes of its application. 
 
 Besides the forms of boiler above mentioned, 
 Dr. Dana has made other arrangements, some 
 of which are highly successful, more particu- 
 larly one set of five boilers, 36 feet long, of 
 which three are laid or rather suspended at the 
 same level, side by side, at 2 or 3 inches 
 apart ; and two others, each above one of these 
 spaces, between the lower boilers. This ar- 
 rangement will be seen to differ from that of 
 Mr. Hayes, in the circumstance of the latter 
 placing the upper boiler vertically over the 
 lower ; and Dr. Dana, over the centre line of 
 the interstices, between two adjacent lower 
 boilers. The results obtained with this ar- 
 rangement, are not contained in any of the 
 tables, but are understood to be about equally 
 favorable with those derived from the combina- 
 tion of three boilers. In all the arrangements 
 
128 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 at Lowell, the grates are set 7 inches bekxw 
 the lower periphery of the lower boilers, and 
 the chifnneys, with which their flues are con- 
 nected, are 80 feet high. Three large circu- 
 lar chimneys, of this height, are on the premi- 
 ses. The pressure of steam never exceeds 
 41-2 pounds per square inch. It is measured 
 by a glass syphon gauge. The water is mea- 
 sured before going into the boilers, by a large 
 rectangular cistern, and is fed to the boiler 
 according to its actual demands, as indicated 
 by a float, which moves a valve in the supply 
 pipe. The stock of fuel in the establishment 
 is well secured against moisture. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 129 
 
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130 
 
 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
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 Jad paujnq spunoj 
 
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 ^nrtCO 
 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 131 
 
 C 
 
 = = 
 
 
 .- 5J O 
 
 *"** 
 
 
 2 ~0-3 
 
 
 1 
 
 1*8 
 
 
 ||| 
 
 !| 
 
 
 illl 
 
 
 3 
 
 n t^ 
 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 W '-^3 
 
 
 ^ .to - 
 
 
 13.5 per cent. 
 
 s. 
 
 iifi 
 
 
 rresponding \ 
 uco of steam 
 Diil'erence i 
 
 stum are here 
 
 " 111.! , II K Of 
 
 
 *= S s 3 a 
 lo| 
 
 S|!!! 
 
 
 is'3 
 
 c J "o-^'"5 
 
 
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 2| 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 |J2| 
 
 
 = fr^ 
 
 
 
 f 2 S -^ | 
 
 
 ** a 
 
 S?- 2 ! 
 
 
 S M'O 
 
 "?^ 
 
 
 p - ^ : 
 
 
 ^ mixed fuel appears 
 to Beaver Meadow a 
 
 ween 7.02, the result 
 Bconds, and H.41, the 
 econds, tlie dill'erenct 
 former weight of ste 
 
 
 eriment 1!) gives a 
 'combustion, Ixit giv( 
 i coal of 8.00 instead 
 cite, 32.4 per cent. 
 
 5 diflcrences In rate o 
 teir influence is mask 
 cause* already allude 
 
 
 h one exception, the 
 the reverse order o 
 of coal huriifd in 1'J 
 , burned in Ib'.li secoi 
 
 ' 
 
 is " 
 
 * x. -r. O 
 
 
 X = = 
 
 
 
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 == = 
 
 
 
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132 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 The kinds of anthracite which Dr. Dana has 
 chiefly used, are Lackawanna, Peach Mountain, 
 Lehigh and Beaver Meadow ; and between 
 these there does not appear to be a very im- 
 portant difference in efficiency. The Beaver 
 Meadow and Lehigh gave results so nearly 
 alike, as scarcely to require a distinction to be 
 made, and the other two kinds are also pretty 
 nearly on a par with each other. When the 
 Cornish boiler, altered by putting in three 
 interior cylinders, was newly fitted up, the 
 result for days together was 13 1-4 pounds 
 of water to the pound of anthracite, of Beaver 
 Meadow, evaporated from the initial tempera- 
 ture, or 15.56 pounds from 212. 
 
 In some cases the result reached above 
 14.5 pounds to one of coal, (= 16.641bs. from 
 212), but of these only a few were obtained. 
 
 Other results will be readily learned by an 
 inspection of the preceding and following 
 tables. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 133 
 
134 
 
 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 
 fc ^ 
 
 OQ C3 *2CO 
 
 I 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 j 
 
 i fan blast; fan making 
 en hundred revolutions 
 
 e. 
 
 
 s alxive. 
 nd the precedinji set, it 
 t a gain of 10.9 per cent 
 i diminishing the rate of 
 
 i 
 
 9 
 3 
 
 r 
 
 
 illliiili 
 jfll 
 
 - 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 Burned witho 
 
 ^ Burned wit 
 > about sev 
 ) per minut 
 
 
 li ; 
 
 z 
 
 fi 
 
 5 a 
 
 C3 
 
 15 
 
 ^IlliliJl 
 
 
 spuoaas ui 'IBOO 
 jo punod auo 
 
 ,.,. 
 
 5 &8 
 
 ^2 
 
 gs^^ 
 
 12 
 
 
 
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 8^i 
 
 8 
 
 guiUJiiq jo am; j, 
 
 s 
 
 o? ?S2J 
 
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 60^^ 
 
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 eS 
 
 ^^^2^5? 
 
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 J 
 
 s sss 
 
 
 
 5?S8888 
 
 gj 
 
 83 
 
 oioS^SS- 
 
 o 
 
 anoij jad jtunq 
 spunod in iBOf) 
 
 TT 
 
 OS t>- t^ CO 
 
 t * 
 
 CO CO CO CO 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Tf CO 5 
 
 
 
 pauunq IKOO jo 
 
 
 : '. '. i 
 
 
 
 
 
 ::::::: 
 
 : 
 
 auo 01 -Sap 515 
 
 s 
 
 Tf OSMCO 
 
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 . 
 
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 ? 
 
 
 
 ^"^^ 
 
 
 
 
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 [i!03 jo punod 
 auo A"q a.injLuad 
 
 o 
 
 3 SS 
 
 00 
 
 o r~ i (M 
 
 d 
 
 CO 
 
 ?g?gs'ss 
 
 
 
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 00 00* 00* 
 
 GO 
 
 os o o oo 
 
 i 
 
 "2 
 
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 OS 
 
 JajL'AV JO 
 
 3 
 
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 5 
 
 3333 
 
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 3 
 
 00 00 00 00 OO 00 OO 
 
 s 
 
 sanoq UL 
 
 
 
 
 
 t2 
 
 
 
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 si 
 
 ^ S w 2J 
 
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 (N CT c= (N c= i?l 00 
 
 (M 
 
 jo uoiiBinn 
 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 9iH uo anou. 
 iad iinnq spuno.j 
 
 | 
 
 I BBS 
 
 II 
 
 ^^ 
 
 II 
 
 | 
 
 8S-^ 
 
 1 
 II 
 
 13 
 
 ml size, 
 i dust... 
 
 
 E 
 
 
 eriments 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 o> 
 
 S 
 
 (D 
 
 i 
 
 
 TD . . 
 
 
 "S : : : 
 : : : 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 :::::: 
 
 K 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 11 
 
 I 
 
 IIIII 
 
 c 
 
 fSBS 
 
 'o 
 
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 rt -5 
 
 c 
 
 ... 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 CD 
 
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 r: 
 
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OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 135 
 
 Compare this result with No. 1. 
 
 This result, compared with the mean 
 of Nos. 11 17, is less by 12.35 per 
 cent. due to rapid combustion. 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 fill 
 
 ^.-.5 I > 
 
 ~3 -'S rt 
 
 Comparing the mean of these two 
 with Exper. No. 21, we find a gain 
 of 12.-19 per cent, by a reduction of 
 
 :: 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 i|t. 
 flllt 
 
 Hill- 
 
 - ^ = - 
 
 stsis- 
 
 B S ~ - 
 
 .= c." x J 
 
 1=1 *2~ 
 
 5 S - 
 s'c-Slf 
 
 illti; 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 s 
 
 e 
 
 : , 
 
 r 
 
 q 
 
 3 
 j 
 
 i 
 
 K 
 J 
 
 
 > 
 
 3 
 
 
 By comparing the mean result of the 
 29th arid 30th experiments with the 
 mean of the 38th arid 39th, we find, 
 that by increasing the time of burn- 
 ing a portion of this mixture from 28 
 to 41 seconds, the evaporation from 
 one pound of coal was increased 
 from 9.33 to 9.81. 
 Experiments 31 34 compared with 
 experiment 10, show that at the 
 same rate of combustion, this mix- 
 ture is very nearly equal rn effect to 
 
 rne nut antnracite ot luBCKawauna. 
 
 CN 
 
 :-. 
 
 3 
 
 
 
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 : = 
 
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136 
 
 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
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 ^s o ^ s 
 
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 111 
 
 
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OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 It appears from Table X, that when evapo- 
 ration in the tubular boiler was pushed to 3.01 
 pounds of water per hour, instead of 2.41 
 pounds, the loss of total effect of fuel was 
 13.45 per cent. ; but the activity of evapora- 
 tion or useful effect of the boiler, considered 
 solely with a view to the time it \vas in action, 
 was increased 26.14 per cent. Hence, if the 
 cost of the boiler, per day, including interest, 
 repairs, attendance and incidentals, were equal 
 to that of the fuel it consumed, there might be 
 actual economy in driving it to consume 100 
 pounds of coal per hour, instead of 80 pounds. 
 Evaporation within any boiler, or on any me- 
 tallic surface, when the nature and condition 
 of that surface are given, must depend, as was 
 shown in my papers on vaporization, already 
 referred to, entirely on the temperature main- 
 tained in the metal, and according to a certain 
 law of increase, will be more or less rapid, as 
 the temperature rises. After reaching a cer- 
 tain point, the rapidity actually diminishes by 
 an increase of heat ; but this point is probably 
 
 seldom reached in ordinary steam boilers so 
 12* 
 
138 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 that with a given pressure, we may take the 
 rate of evaporation in a given boiler to indicate 
 the temperature at which the particular fuel 
 and mode of firing maintain the surface of 
 the iron. When this temperature is kept 
 down in the gaseous products by the entrance 
 of a large quantity of unburnt air, or by the 
 formation, at a low temperature of gases, from 
 the coal, it is evident that the evaporation may 
 remain stationary, though a large increase of 
 combustion may be going on in the furnace. 
 
 We are enabled to compare the effect of the 
 tubular boiler of Dr. Dana with the common 
 locomotive boiler used on railroads, through 
 the means of M. de Pambour's careful experi- 
 ments on those used on the Liverpool and 
 Manchester railway. Thus he found that on 
 an average of eleven experiments with coke, 
 one pound produced from water at 60 Fahr. 
 6.21 pounds of steam. This is reduced to the 
 standard temperature of 212, by assuming 
 what has been proved in my experiments on 
 the strength of materials for steam boilers to 
 be the latent heat of the* vapor of water, viz. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 1030. Thus the latent and sensible heat im- 
 parted to water, of which the initial tempera- 
 ture is 60, will be 152+1030=1182, and 
 the quantity of steam generated by any given 
 quantity of combustible from w r ater at 212, 
 will be ij^o of what it would be from water at 
 60, hence ^ S X 6.21 =7.126 pounds, is the 
 weight of water at boiling temperature which 
 would have been converted into steam by this 
 coke. The coke used by Pambour was from 
 a coal yielding 20 per cent, of volatile matter, 
 not useful for evaporative force, and hence the 
 water which would have been evaporated by 
 one pound of the raw coal from 212 is one 
 fifth less than 7.126, viz. 5.701 pounds. In 
 Dr. Dana's tubular boiler the produce is 11.96 
 pounds of steam per pound of anthracite. 
 
 M. Pambour found that in the English loco- 
 motive boiler one pound of coke was burned 
 in 6.45 seconds. In Dr. Dana's a pound of 
 anthracite took 42.15 seconds, or more than 
 six and one half times as long. 
 
 The coke burnt on each square foot of grate 
 per hour by Pambour was 79.33 pounds, while 
 
140 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 
 
 in Dr. Dana's experiments it was only 8.17, 
 or a little more than one tenth as much. 
 
 The water evaporated bj one square foot of 
 surface of boiler per hour by Pambour was 12 
 pounds, while by Dr. Dana it was only 2.46. 
 
 Admitting, as we may probably do with 
 safety, that good coke has nearly the same eva- 
 porative power as anthracite, when the two are 
 burned under equally favorable circumstances, 
 it is evident that the slower combustion and 
 longer continuance of gas in contact with the 
 absorbing surfaces of the boiler have given to 
 Dr. D's. result an advantage, in point of econo- 
 my, of 67.8 per cent. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 141 
 
 ' 
 
 jnoq jad 
 
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 juoj ajunbs auo 
 
 Xq pa^HJodEAa 
 
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 JBOO jo piuiuil 
 
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 ajBJS jo jooj 
 ajEnbs Jad jtunq 
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 IJIlU U10JJ JB03 
 
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 mean res 
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142 
 
 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
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 iave made a ditier- 
 the amo -nt ot 1.41 
 fuvorofslow com- 
 
 11 
 
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OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 The above experiments, from No. 8 to No. 
 13, inclusive, were made after the two 8 inch 
 water pipes had been removed ; and the infe- 
 riority of results points to this as a cause of 
 some importance in obtaining the very high 
 evaporative power, in experiments from 1 to 4 
 inclusive. In other series by Dr. Dana, the 
 escape heat of the gas flue, not far from the 
 boilers, was made available by passing under 
 the measuring tanks, from which the water 
 passes to the boilers. By this means a tem- 
 perature of 120 was obtained. 
 
 The following sketch represents the general 
 arrangement adopted by Dr. Dana in remodel- 
 ing his Cornish boiler. The exterior shell, A, 
 being six feet in diameter, and the interior one, 
 By 3 feet 10 inches, and both of them 36 feet 
 long ; he removed a portion of the lower arcs at 
 one end, represented by the dotted curves c c, 
 to the distance lengthwise of the boiler, of six 
 feet, and in breadth three feet, so as to insert 
 a grate of that breadth, represented by the 
 straight dotted line g g. Above this grate, 
 within the inner cylinder, and extending 
 
144 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 through the whole length of the larger boiler, 
 are placed three cylindrical boilers, b b b, each 
 nineteen inches in diameter. From the tops 
 of these are pipes, extending vertically up- 
 wards through the inner shell, B, of the main 
 boiler, and opening above the level of the 
 water line, w w. The three small boilers, bbb, 
 
 \v 
 
 g"** 
 
 are also connected by suitable water pipes at 
 the ends, both with each other, and with the 
 water chamber of the large boiler, which com- 
 pletely encloses them, except at the ends. 
 Being entirely below water level, they are by 
 these connexions kept constantly filled with 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 water. These interior boilers are suspended, 
 and kept in place by rods coming down from 
 an iron cross beam, resting on the wall of the 
 furnace, beyond the ends of the large shells A 
 
 Mr. Francis's Experiments on Vertical Boilers. 
 
 The following results of experiments con- 
 ducted with great care by Mr. James B. Francis, 
 engineer to the " Locks and Canals Company," 
 at Lowell, has been kindly furnished to the 
 writer by that gentleman. In a double verti- 
 cal boiler, 12 feet high, 31 inches exterior 
 diameter, 24 1-4 inches interior diameter of 
 the inner cylinder, (leaving, of course, 3 inches 
 between the two) ; there was placed a single 
 vertical cylindrical boiler, 9 feet 8 inches high 
 and 20 inches in diameter ; the bottom of 
 which, therefore, descended to within 2 feet 
 4 inches of the bottom of the outer shell. 
 Suitable water and steam ways connected this 
 inner boiler with the outer double shell, and a 
 fire door through the latter, afforded access to 
 
 13 
 
146 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 the grate placed near the bottom of the same. 
 The surface of boiler here exposed to the 
 action of fire, was 126 1-2 square feet; and 
 the area of grate was 31-5 square feet ; con- 
 sequently, the boiler surface to each foot of 
 grate surface was 39. 5 square feet. 
 
 In this boiler there was evaporated during a 
 continuous action of nearly five days, between 
 the 22d and 27th of February, 1841, or, more 
 accurately, in 6931 minutes, 54,035 pounds of 
 water by the combustion of 5283 pounds of 
 coarse anthracite, and consequently giving 
 10.228 pounds of water converted into vapor 
 from 32, by the combustion of 1 pound of 
 fuel. 
 
 This trial was made during the coldest season 
 of the year; the mean morning temperature of 
 the five days was 191 deg., noon, 29J deg., and 
 evening 21. The water supplied to the boiler 
 was constantly at 32, consequently the total 
 heating power is represented by 1030 + 180 
 X 10.228 = 12,376, which is equivalent to 
 12.015 pounds of water evaporated from a 
 temperature of 212 by 1 pound of coal. The 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 rate of combustion per hour was 14.3 pounds 
 of coal to each square foot of grate surface, 
 and the water evaporated per square foot of 
 boiler surface per hour was 2.363 pounds. . A 
 similar series of experiments, extending from 
 February 15 to February 20, with water also 
 at 32, gave as the evaporative result 9.16 
 pounds at the initial temperature, or 11.65 
 pounds from a temperature of 212. A slight 
 leak in a part of the apparatus, rendered this 
 result a little uncertain, and it is on the whole 
 less relied on than the preceding. The an- 
 nexed figure represents a section of Mr. Fran- 
 cis's boiler ; C is the supply pipe, through 
 which water is injected into the space be- 
 tween the inner and outer cylinders of the 
 double boiler, whence through the water-way, 
 w, it finds its passage into the interior single 
 boiler or " pot," as it is termed by the inven- 
 tor ; s, is a steam way connecting the upper 
 part of the inner with that of the outer boiler; 
 and S is a pipe conducting the steam to the 
 place where it is used in heating the factory 
 buildings. On an enlargement of the same 
 
148 
 
 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 pipe is placed the safety valve ; g 1 , is a gas 
 pipe, connected with a conical bonnet, through 
 which the products of combustion, escaping 
 through a circle of holes, from the space be- 
 
 Lj, , 
 
 > 
 
 u> 
 
 
 J 1O. in. 
 
 
 F 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 _r 
 
 tween the outside of the single and the inside 
 of the double cylinder, are conveyed into the 
 chimney. The pressure was constantly less 
 than 12 pounds per square inch. 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 
 
 149 
 
 TABLE XIII. VERTICAL BOILERS. 
 
 Mr. Francis's Experiments were made in two Boilers. Grate 
 surface in each, 3.21 square feet. Heated surface in the 
 first two Experiments, 126.5, and in the third, 114.25 square 
 feet ; pressure, 1 1-2 to 12 pounds. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 .j. 
 
 
 'c-- 
 
 ? 
 
 
 
 "5 *o 
 
 " 
 
 p 
 
 
 
 S, 
 
 g 
 
 S^' 5 
 
 s rt 
 
 12 = 
 
 ^g 
 
 2 || 
 
 1 
 
 
 g 
 
 ID 
 
 ^^S 
 
 I^CT 
 
 * y" M 
 
 
 |v;<-. 
 
 s 
 
 03 
 
 ^ 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 ^^c c< 
 
 ^ ^ H o 
 
 
 ^ -fcj 
 
 No. of ex 
 
 | 
 
 ll 
 
 Duration 
 inent in 1) 
 
 Temporal 
 water. 
 
 % > "2 
 
 CH a W - 
 
 lli 
 
 111 
 IK 
 
 ^ bC 
 
 Jl 
 
 ll 
 
 1 
 
 22.86 
 
 112.18 
 
 32 
 
 10.245 
 
 12.03 
 
 7.13 
 
 157.48 
 
 2.74 
 
 2 
 
 22.80 
 
 106. 
 
 32 
 
 9.916 
 
 11.65 
 
 7.12 
 
 157.89 
 
 2.100 
 
 3 
 
 40.94 
 
 317.5 
 
 32 
 
 V- 
 
 7.857 
 
 12.75 
 
 87.93 
 
 2.815 
 
 COMPARATIVE EVAPORATION OF VARIOUS KINDS 
 OF FUEL, FROM WATER, AT 212. 
 
 1. Wood's trial of coal in a locomo- 
 
 tive boiler . . . .7.12 
 
 2. Pambour's trial of coke in a loco- 
 
 motive boiler . . . .5.12 
 
 3. Watt's trial of coal, of Newcastle, 
 
 Albion Mills, Wagon boilers . 9.63 
 
 4. Kenwood's trial of Welsh coal in 
 
 Cornish boilers . . . 11.62 
 
 13* 
 
150 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 5. Parke's Warwick experiments, bi- 
 
 tuminous coal . . . 10.23 
 
 6. Wagon boiler, mean of eight expe-. 
 
 riments ..... 8.76 
 
 7. Locomotive boiler, coal as fuel . 5.70 
 
 8. Tredgold marine boiler of the 
 
 " African " Heaton coal . . 8.15 
 
 9. Schaufheautl's trial of anthracite 
 
 in Player's boiler . . . 12.40 
 
 10. Cornish boiler experiment, cited 
 
 bj Henwood .... 11.78 
 
 11. Parkes's and Manby's, on Play- 
 
 er's boiler, anthracite maxi- 
 mum 13.25 
 
 12. Fyfe's experiment on Scotch coal 7.74 
 
 13. " Anthracite " 10.10 
 
 14. English bituminous coal Fyfe's 
 
 open, small, copper boiler . 9.07 
 
 15. Hayes's experiment on his 4 boil- 
 
 ers, 3-4 anthracite, 1-4 bit. dust 11.83 
 
 16. Dana's experiments with Beaver 
 
 Meadow coal, in improved Cor- 
 nish boiler . . . 15.56 
 
 17. Maximum of do. 16.64 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. J5J 
 
 At iron works of various kinds, a hot blast 
 is frequently employed. It may therefore be of 
 interest to know what benefit may be derived 
 from its application to the furnace of a steam 
 boiler. To furnish some light on this subject, 
 I make the following abstracts from reports on 
 the comparative economy of the two methods 
 of combustion. 
 
 Extract from Leonard Schwartzes report on the 
 application of hot air to the furnaces of steam 
 boilers. 
 
 [Bulletin de la Societe Industrielle De Mulhausen.] 
 
 1. In 1835, an experiment made in the 
 establishment of Andrew Koechlin & Co. gave 
 for result 1 kilogram of Ronchamp coal, of 
 medium quality ; 3.92 k. of steam with cold 
 air, and 5.70 with hot, gain, 31 per cent. 
 
 2. A trial in the boiler of Dollfuls, Meig & 
 Co. One day's work at spinning, with cold air, 
 took 7072 of Gemonval coal ; and the same 
 
152 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 work was done with 5395 of the same coal, 
 using hot air ; saving 24 per cent. 
 
 The furnace which gave 31 per cent, econ- 
 omy with hot air, must have burned the coal 
 very imperfectly, since with the same quality 
 of Ronchamp coal, by repeated trials gave a 
 result of 
 
 5.33 steam to 1 coal in a copper boiler, 
 4.80 " 1 " cast iron boiler, 
 which shows that nearly as much effect was 
 here obtained - by cold air, as at Andrew 
 Kcechlin's with hot air. 
 
 Experiments in 1837. 
 
 1. AT SCHLUMBERGER, K(ECHLIN & Go's. 
 
 Boiler, 3 lines thick, copper, 20 feet long, 
 5 feet diameter, with two interior flues, each 
 15 inches in diameter. The fire goes under 
 the bottom then returns by the two sides 
 then passes through the flues to the chimney, 
 which is cylindrical, 100 feet high, 3 feet 
 diameter at bottom and 2 at top. The grate 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 153 
 
 has 20 feet square of surface, and can burn 
 448 pounds of coal per hour. Two reservoirs 
 of water 30 feet above the boiler, kept up a 
 constant supply by means of a float in the 
 boiler, which keeps the level always the same, 
 This boiler gave the following result. 
 
 1. Cold Air. 
 
 One week day and night temperature of 
 boiler 350 c. 
 
 No. 1, 2000 kilograms of Sarrebruck coal, 
 evaporated 10,000 kilograms of water. 
 
 No. 2, 2000 kilograms of Blanzy coal, infe- 
 rior kind, gave 8000 kilograms of steam. 
 
 2. Hot Air. 
 
 No. 3, 2000 kilograms Sarrebruck coal, 
 gave 10,100 kilograms of steam. 
 
 No. 4, 2000 kilograms inferior Blanzy coal, 
 gave 8,480. 
 
 Hence, there is an advantage of 6 per cent, 
 in favor of hot air. 
 
154 EVAPORATIVE POWER 
 
 2. AT DOLLFULS, MEIG & Go's. 
 
 1. Cold Air. 
 
 " Boiler, plate iron ; 24 horse power ; runs 
 under 21-2 atmospheres ; in 76 hours of work 
 there was consumed 283 hectolitres; 11320 
 kilograms of Blanzy coal (inferior), being 3.72 
 half hectolitres, or 148.80 kilograms per hour, 
 of work. 
 
 2. Hot Air. 
 
 " During 78 hours of the same work, 250 
 hectolitres, or 10,000 kilograms of the same 
 coal were consumed ; which gives 3.20 hecto- 
 litres, or 128 kilograms per hour. Hence the 
 economy is 14 per cent. In good furnaces, 
 the economy by hot air is less than in such as 
 are badly constructed." 
 
 " The hot air flame is shorter than that with 
 cold air ; but it is white, more intense, and 
 the fuel is more completely consumed. Bad 
 coal may be used with hot air, when it could 
 not be with cold. Though air must be at 
 500 centigrade in order to take fire, yet it is 
 
OF ANTHRACITE. 155 
 
 evident this heat is more readily attained, when 
 the air comes into the grate at 100 than at 10. 
 The hot air principle may always be adopted 
 to advantage, where there is too high a tem- 
 perature in the gas, escaping at the chimney. 
 
 Extract from M. Ed Kcechlin's experiments on 
 Evaporation, in an apparatus employed in a 
 Dye house. Ronchamp coal. 
 
 1. 18 February, 1827. Air, 15. Water, 
 1. 1 coal produced 7.03. Ashes, 29 per ct. 
 
 2. 4 March, 1827. Air, 10. Water, 7. 
 1 coal produced 7.36. Ashes, 16 per cent. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 In addition to the evidence furnished by all 
 the above facts in proof of the available heat- 
 ing power of anthracite, it may not be amiss 
 to mention, that at a. foundry in Kensington, 
 near Philadelphia, where this fuel is exclusively 
 used, there were melted 204,050 Ibs. of iron, 
 by the consumption of 38,600 Ibs. of anthracite, 
 or 5.28 Ibs. of pig iron- melted by each pound 
 of anthracite consumed. There is little doubt 
 
156 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 that this result is below the maximum efficiency 
 for this purpose. 
 
 On reading tho preceding accounts of expe- 
 riments made with anthracite in this country 
 and elsewhere, two circumstances seem par- 
 ticularly worthy of attention ; of which the 
 first is, that much higher evaporative power 
 has been obtained by means of this fuel, than 
 had ever before been derived from bituminous 
 coal ; and the second, that by improved forms 
 or arrangements of boilers, a great economy of 
 combustible of whatever kind can be obtained, 
 over what has heretofore been derived, from 
 that form which prevails in all the iron works, 
 described in these pages. 
 
 A beginning has at least been made of some 
 knowledge resting on practical experience, 
 which cannot fail to guide us in our future 
 researches, and to set a due estimate on the 
 rich treasures which Pennsylvania contains 
 within her bosom ; and which await but the 
 hand of patient industry to render them avail- 
 able, for establishing our ancient common- 
 wealth on the very piitnacle of prosperity. 
 
 Philadelphia, October, 1841. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 10, line 5 from the bottom, for " fact," road fuel. 
 < 11(1, lino 5. for u them," read steam. 
 
156 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 that this result is below the maximum efficiency 
 for this purpose. 
 
 On reading tho preceding accounts of expe- 
 riments made with anthracite in this country 
 anH 
 
 knowledge resting on practical experience, 
 which cannot fail to guide us in our future 
 researches, and to set a due estimate on the 
 rich treasures which Pennsylvania contains 
 within her bosom ; and which await but the 
 hand of patient industry to render them avail- 
 able, for establishing our ancient common- 
 wealth on the very piitnacle of prosperity. 
 Philadelphia, October, 1841. 
 
*, 
 
YB I56? 
 
 M130416 
 
 7/U70 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY