fires which will be fit for working on our return, and 
will last until we leave it at 9 in the evening, when we 
again put on a quantity which lasts until the next 
morning at breakfast time. We find a very great ad- 
vantage in thus having the fire ready to work at an 
early hour in the morning. 
Such a fire requires about half a bushel of coal in 
twelve hours. We find also that the hoops beat in half 
the time that they do with any other fire. 
Upon the whole we think that the Lehigh coal is 
much the best for nailing and not attended with one 
fourth the trouble of any other fire, and that the nails 
are, in our opinion, superior to others on account of the 
quickness of the heat, which does not cause the iron to 
scale so much. 
We also can cut one fourth more nails with this fire, 
than a wood fire.” 
GEORGE SMITH. 
JOHN MORGAN. 
DANIEL CLOCKGLASER. 
December 12th, 1814. 
“T have used in my business for years past, occasion- 
ally, charcoal, sometimes Virginia coal, and at others 
Lehigh, and from use and careful examination of their 
relative value, I am perfectly satisfied that one bushel 
of Lehigh coal is equal in durability and value to nearly 
three of Virginia, and from ten to twelve of Charcoal; 
and further I find it is the only coal I can depend on for 
welding of gun barrels, as with it I am always sure of a 
true and uniform result. I have now used them twenty 
years, and would not be willing to be without it even if 
it costs me two dollars per bushel. 
I own three tilt hammers, and have worked for the 
United States and the state of Pennsylvania for the last 
eight years. 
It requires about a peck of the Lehigh coal per day, 
with a small proportion of Charcoal, for one fire; with 
this I manufacture 8 gun barrels, or 20 pistol barrels, 
or | quart of coal to a musket barrel.” 
DAVID HESS, 
Smith and gun barrel maker, Northampton, Pa. 
Dec. 3d, 1814. 
“T have used this kind of coal (the Lehigh) for the 
last two years, both for the malt kiln, as well as under 
the brewing copper, an 
purpose I find it to be su} 
and attended with much les: 
also for distilling, for which 
ior to wood, cheaper, safer, 
bour. 
In distilling, with 30 bushels of this coal and half a 
cord of wood, (to raise occasionally the heat) I distil 
100 bushels of grain in a still, containing 125 gallons, 
upon the common old construction, in ten days—when 
I formerly used 5 cords of wood for the same quantity, 
taking longer time and requiring much more labour. 
In order to dampen the fire whilst occasionally wash- 
ing or drawing off the still, I have only to throw on 
some of the finest of the coal, and when again I want 
to raise the heat, I put on a stick or two of wood. The 
length of the bars of my grate is 22 inches, of inch 
square iron; they are set in loose, the ends widened, 
so that the bars may be about seven eights* of an inch 
apart, and placed thus side by side, they make a grate 
of 15 inches wide. The stills are set bare to the fire, 
about 16 inches above the grate, with single flues 
passing round each still, with doors to the furnace. 
For malting, the advantages are, that producing no 
smoke and containing no sulphur, there is no danger of 
its smoking or otherwise injuring the malt, whilst the 
regularity of the heat is such, that the fires require little 
or no attention at night, and there is also no danger, 
with common attention, of burning the malt. 
For brewing, or under the boiler, I prefer it for the 
reasons which induce me to use it in distilling.” 
WILLIAM BOWN, 
Brewer and Distiller. 

December 20th, 1814. 
Extract from a memorandum furnished by Mr. Jo- 
seph Smith of Bucks county, Plough manufacturer. 
“From the whole of my observations, (and I have 
been particularly attentive to the subject for a month 
past) I am fixed in the opinion that one bushel of the 
Lehigh coal is worth two of the Richmond, and ten or 
twelve of the best charcoal; and it is found to work 
steel better than any other kind of coal; not burning 
either that or iron as other coal does. 
One of my journeymen, who was the most averse, is 
now using the Lehigh coal at Boyertown, Berks county, 
at $75 per hundred bushels, in a neighbourhood where 
charcoal can be purchased for one tenth of the sum.” 
JOSEPH SMITH. 
Tinicum, Bucks county, Pa. 
4th Mo. 2d, 1814. 
*TRIANGULAR bars with a flat side uppermost, placed 
HALF AN INCH apart, have been found to answer better. 
134 | )LLETIN 252: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 
