52 SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
New Compound of Nitrate with Oxalate of Lead. 
Mr. Johnson also exhibited a new compound of nitrate with oxalate 
of lead in beautiful pearly scales and flat six-sided plates longitudi- 
nally striated. It is formed when a solution of subacetate of lead is 
poured into one of oxalic acid in which much nitric acid is present. It 
contains two atoms of water, and its formula is Pb N+ Pb C + oH. 
On a Series of Compounds obtained from Pyroacetic Spirit. By 
Dr. Kane. 
(See on this subject Dr. Kane’s paper, printed in Lond. and Edinb. 
Philosophical Magazine, vol. xii. p. 100.) 
On the Smelting of Iron with Anthracite Coal. By G. CRANE. 
The great extent of the deposit of anthracite (or stone coal) in 
the mineral basin of South Wales, accompanied as it is with iron mine 
in great abundance, and of good quality, has long made it an object of 
great interest to parties connected with that district to discover some 
method of applying that description of coal to smelting purposes. 
One of the earliest patents enrolled in this country for this object 
was that of Mr. Martin, in 1804. From the mode detailed in his 
specification, there does not appear to have been any peculiarity in his 
process; he evidently expected to have succeeded in using this fuel 
by the only mode of blowing a furnace then known, that by cold 
blast. Another patent was taken out about twenty years afterwards, 
for a mode of forming a conglomerate coke, composed of the commi-— 
nuted substance of the anthracite veins, locally called culm, mixed 
with a sufficient portion of the small coal of the ordinary bituminous 
or binding quality, to cement the whole, when coked, in an oven to- 
gether. Had this latter plan been attended with success, its applica- 
tion would, of course, have been limited to those localities where the 
two descriptions of coal were to be found near each other. 
The Ynyscedwin iron works, which are in Mr. Crane’s possession, 
are placed upon the anthracite formation. Until he discovered the 
method of applying this particular description of fuel to the smelting 
of iron ore, he was obliged to employ the coal of the bituminous 
veins, obtained from the adjoining parish of Kilybebyll, for the supply 
of the blast furnaces at Ynyscedwin. 
During the fourteen years in which Mr. Crane has been engaged 
in the iron trade of South Wales, he has had his attention anxiously 
directed to the application of anthracite coal to smelting purposes, and — 
had at different periods, at a large outlay, tried a variety of plans, but 
without success, until the idea occurred to him, that a hot or heated © 
blast, upon the principle of Mr. Neilson’s patent, might, by its greater 
power, enable him to complete the combustion of this very peculiar 
coal. 
