Anthracite Coal of Rhode-Island. 79 
The engagement thus made, I am now, in some measure, 
prepared to fulfil. A sufficient quantity of the Rhode-Island 
anthracite, immediately from the a having been placed 
at my dispesal, I have made, with this substance, experi- 
ments, similar to those performed on the coal of the middle 
regions of Pennsylvania, and have used it, exclusively, in the 
hall stove, for eighteen days. 
rom the year 1802 to 1813, I was frequently at Newport, 
and in 1807 and 1808, passed some of the summer months 
there. In company with Col. George Gibbs, who had, not 
long before, imported his splendid cabinet from Europe, an 
deposited it temporarily in his native town, I made frequent 
excursions through the island, for the purpose of mineralogi- 
cal and geological observations. During these little jour- 
nies, through one of the most delightful regions in America, 
I became first acquainted with the existence and localities of 
the anthracite of Rhode-Island. 
In the course of the two or three years immediately | 
quent, the mines were opened and wrought to such an Pesiest 
as to evince the practicability of supplying large spugpstss of 
this mineral fuel. But the country was then ill i 
to the nature and uses of the anthracite coal. It was. known, 
, that a similar coal was found and advan 
ly used in ‘Treland,. Pennsylvania, &c. ; but people were re- 
pelled by the apparent incombustibility of this coal; they 
could not make it burn in the usual way in which wood is 
burned in a common fire place, and it was hastily and impa- 
tiently laid aside, as nearly or quite useless, except that a few 
amanufacturers of iron, continued to use it as long as it could 
be obtained. Be io 
This ipitancy in abandoning this coal appears the 
pe as an ssceelbeetaase ‘ount of Fe strode 
Teland anthracite was published by Dr. William Meade, in 
pamphlet, an abstract of the most important parts of which 
appeared in Dr. Bruce’s Mineralogical Journal in 1810. 
In this account, its real properties are fairly and faithfully 
account should have failed to produce conviction, im) 
lic mind, which seems not to have been as yet sufficiently in- 
formed on this subject, to receive the truth. — ais Rhode- 
Island coal, although its-exploration was now sustained by 
Boston capital, (always bountifully and Promptly bestowed 
