TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 53 
By this means he has completely succeeded in the application of 
anthracite coal to the smelting of ironstone and ore ;—having used 
no other fuel in a cupola blast furnace since the 7th February, 1837 ; 
and the success of the experiment in the combination of hot or heated 
air with the coal in question, has been, in every respect, of so satisfac- 
tory a description, whether with regard to the quantity of the iron 
produced, the quality of such iron, or the economy of the process, 
that he is now actively engaged in making the necessary preparations 
for the introduction of anthracite coal, instead of the coke of the 
bituminous veins, upon the whole of the blast furnaces (three in 
number) at the Ynyscedwin iron works; he has renewed all his mine- 
ral takings in the anthracite part of the basin for ninety-nine years, 
and contemplates arrangements for a large extension of the works. 
Mr. Crane observes : 
’ “One of the three furnaces at present on the establishment is a 
small cupola furnace, which we call No. 2, built from the top of the 
hearth with firebricks only.. This cupola is of the following dimen- 
sions :—41 feet in its whole height, 104 feet across the boshes, and the 
walls of the thickness of two 9-inch bricks; the earth 3 feet 6 inches 
square, and 5 feet deep. The two other furnaces, which we call No. 
1 and No. 3, are thick stone-walled furnaces. Some years since I found 
that the cupola furnace, No. 2, had, on the average of a long period, 
_ (1 concluded from the smallness of its dimensions, and the thinness of 
_ its walls,) taken so large an excess of minerals to the ton of iron pro- 
_ duced, when compared with the quantity taken on the average of the 
same period by the stone-walled furnace, No. 1, standing within fifty 
feet of it, that I determined to erect a second furnace similar to the 
 Jatter one, in lieu of it. This cupola furnace, No. 2, not being at 
_ work when I arrived at the determination to try the experiment of the 
- combination of hot blast and anthracite coal upon the large scale, it 
_ was more convenient to put this furnace into blast for the purpose, 
rather than to interfere with the usual progress of my business by 
_ experimentalizing in either of the two other furnaces. 
The cupola furnace, No. 2, from the causes which I have before 
_ explained, had, on the average of a long period, taken cokes the 
produce of 5 tons 3 ewt. of coal to the ton of pig iron, when the stone- 
__ walled furnaces had not required cokes to the ton of metal produced 
_ quite equal to four tons of coal. The consumption of ironstone and 
__ limestone had been greater in the former than in the latter description 
_ of furnace, but not in so large a proportion. : 
“Twill make one other explanatory remark on this part of the sub- 
_ ject. The two descriptions of furnaces have worked in so different a 
manner with the minerals of my neighbourhood, that, whilst the 
barrow of cokes, weighing about 34 ewt., would take, when consumed 
__ in either of the stone-walled furnaces, a charge or burden of 5 to 
- 51 ewt. of calcined iron mine of the descriptions obtained in my 
Bis neighbourhood, according to the kind of iron which I was desirous 
of producing, the same barrow of cokes in the No. 2 cupola, or thin- 
_ walled furnace, would only carry from 3 to 3} ewt. of calcined mine 
