460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nace was (according to Overman *), " the first coke furnace whose 

 operation was successful erected in this country. It is fifty feet 

 high, fifty feet at the base, twenty-five feet at the top, and meas- 

 ures fifteen feet at the boshes." f In 1840 two large blast-furnaces 

 were built by the Mount Savage Iron Company, at Mount Sav- 

 age, Md. These furnaces also used coke, of which there -was 

 made, " from 1840 to 1850, between 50,000 and 75,000 tons " " most 

 of which was used at the furnaces. " J All the coke for the above 

 furnaces was made in pits. 



The manufacture of " Connellsville coke/' which is regarded 

 as especially excellent for smelting iron, was commenced in 1841. 

 Weeks (writing in 1883) gives the following account of the begin- 

 ning of the coke business in the Connellsville region : " Two car- 

 penters, Provance McCormick and James Campbell, overheard an 

 Englishman, so the story runs, commenting on the rich deposits 

 of coal at Connellsville, and their fitness for making coke, as well 

 as the value of coke for foundry purposes, and they determined 

 to enter upon its manufacture. Mr. McCormick, who is still liv- 

 ing, an old man of eighty-four, has given me an account from 

 memory of this enterprise which I quote : ' James Campbell and 

 myself heard, in some way that I do not now recollect, that the 

 manufacturing of coke might be made a good business. Mr. John 

 Taylor, a stone-mason, who owned a farm on which the Fayette 

 Coke-works now stand, and who was mining coal in a small way, 

 was spoken to regarding our enterprise, and proposed a partner- 

 ship he to build the ovens and make the coke, and Mr. Campbell 

 and myself to build a boat and take the coke to Cincinnati, where 

 we heard there was a good demand. This was in 1841. Mr. Tay- 

 lor built two ovens. I think they were about ten feet in diameter. 

 My recollection is that the charge was eighty bushels. The ovens 

 were built in the same style as those now used, but had no iron 

 ring at the toj) to prevent the brick from falling in when filling 

 the oven with coal, nor had we any iron frames at the mouth 

 where the coke was drawn. In the spring of 1842 enough coke 

 had been made to fill two boats ninety feet long about eight 

 hundred bushels in each and we took them to Cincinnati, down 

 the Youghiogheny, Monongahela, and Ohio ; but when we got 

 there we could not sell. Mr. Campbell, who went with the boats, 

 lay at the landing some two or three weeks, retailing one boat- 

 load and part of the other in small lots at about eight cents a 

 bushel. Miles Greenwood, a foundryman of that city, offered to 



* The Manufacture of Iron in all its Various Branches, etc. By Frederick Overman, 

 Mining Engineer. Philadelphia: Henry C. Baird, 1850. 



\ A good example of the phtnomenally clumsy construction thought to be essential 

 U) successful working at that time. 



t Weeks's Manufacture of Coke. 



