G56 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



Ashbel Welch, in the Presidential address at the annual convention 

 of the American Society of Civil Engineers at Washington in 1882 

 states that, "About the year 1817 Josiah White and Erskine Hazard 

 commenced the improvement of the Lehigh River, and made other 

 preparations to inaugurate the anthracite coal trade. In 1820 they sent 

 to market 305 tons, which was the beginning of the regular anthracite 

 coal trade of America." 



Before 1825 coal mining commenced to be an industry in the Schuyl- 

 kill aud Lehigh regions. In this country, as in England, the earliest 

 railroads were built in and from the coal mines at Mauch Chunk, 

 Houesdale, aud Pottsville in Pennsylvania and Chesterfield in Vir- 

 ginia to the nearest navigable streams. 



The first locomotive that ever turned a driving wheel on a railroad 

 on the Western Contineut was imported from England in 1829,* for use 

 on the Delaware aud Hudson Canal Company's coal road at Houesdale, 

 Pennsylvania* 



As the supply of coal was increased by improved methods of mining 

 and cheaper means of transportation, it gradually superseded charcoal 

 in the manufacture of iron. The cost of pig iron was reduced from £10 

 10s. in 1000 to £3 in 1700, and the price did not vary much from this 

 until the American Revolution cut off the supply of iron that England 

 had been receiving from the colonies. This was several years before 

 the introduction of good steam pumping engines, which between 1775 

 aud 1790 — through the improvements aud inventions made by Watt in 

 the engines of Savery and Kewcomen — reached such a degree of per- 

 fection that good steam pumps were put in every prominent colliery, 

 and the amount of coal mined reached enormous proportions as the cost 

 of mining it was lessened. 



IRON FURNACES IN ENGLAND. 



The following statement shows the growth of the iron industry in 

 England during eighty-five years prior to the introduction of the loco- 

 motive, in 1825 : 



Year. 



174(1 

 1788 



179(i 



1802 

 1806 

 1825 



Charcoal iron . 

 (Charcoal iron 

 (Pit coal (coke) 



^ ... do 



^Charcoal 



Pit coal (coke) 



....do 



...do 



Iron. 



* The locomotive " Stourbridge Lion," a full-sized model of which isiu the Section 

 of Transportation, and En^ineeriiio' in the U. S. National Museum. 



