AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 459 



regarded as the commencement of the use of raw bituminous coal 

 as a blast-furnace fuel in the United States. 



Coke is the fuel by which over one half of the pig iron made 

 in America at the present time is smelted.* The first public 

 mention of coke as a possible substitute for charcoal in American 

 blast-furnaces is contained in an advertisement which appeared 

 in the Pittsburg Mercury of May 27, 1813. This is quoted by 

 Weeks,f as follows, viz. : 



" To Proprietors of Blast-furnaces : 



" John Beal, lately from England, being informed that all the 

 blast-furnaces are in the habit of melting iron-ore with charcoal, 

 and knowing the great disadvantage it is to proprietors, is induced 

 to offer his services to instruct them in the method of converting 

 stone coal into cook. The advantage of using coak will be so 

 great that it can not fail to become general if put to practice. He 

 flatters himself that he has had all the experience that is neces- 

 sary in the above branch to give satisfaction to those who feel 

 inclined to alter their mode of melting their ore. 



" John Beal, Iron Founder. 



" N. B. A line directed to the subscriber, post-paid, will be 

 duly attended to." 



There is no evidence that Mr. Beal was ever called upon to 

 " instruct " the Pittsburg iron - masters of seventy-seven years 

 ago in the art and mystery of making " coak/' but doubtless his 

 advertisement may have stimulated inquiring minds ; for, four 

 years after its appearance, we find that Colonel Isaac Meason used 

 coke in the " refinery " of his mill at Plumsock, Fayette County, 

 Pa. This mill went into operation in September, 1817, and it 

 was the first mill west of the Alleghany Mountains in which iron 

 was puddled and rolled into bars. Weeks, speaking of the use 

 of coke in this mill, says, " This is the first definite statement that 

 I have been able to find of the use of coke in this country." A 

 short time after this first use of coke in America there were sev- 

 eral attempts to employ it in a blast-furnace, but there is no 

 record of any success in this direction until the building of the 

 Lonaconing furnace, Alleghany County, Md., in 1837. This fur- 



* This fact is a good illustration of the realization of great value from a material that 

 was at first regarded with disfavor. Overman, writing in 1849 (The Manufacture of 

 Iron, p. 1*79), says : "As we have previously remarked, there is but little prospect of see- 

 ing coke furnaces in successful operation in the United States. Nearly every State in the 

 Union has good raw coal in sufficient quantity, as well as of proper quality, to supply its 

 furnaces." 



f Report on the Manufacture of Coke. By Joseph D. Weeks, Special Agent. New 

 York : David Williams, 1385. 



