132 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



present contest for supplying the markets of the world with iron 

 and steel, at the lowest rates, in favour of this country. 



Coal assumes, in many instances, the form of anthracite, and 

 although the South Wales district contains large deposits of this 

 mineral fuel, comparatively little use has been hitherto made of 

 it for smelting purposes. When raw anthracite is used in the 

 blast furnaces mixed with coke, it has been found that the amount 

 so used should be limited to from 10 to 15 per cent., or the furnace 

 is apt to become choked by an accumulation of decrepitated 

 anthracite. At Creusot, in France, this difficulty Avas overcome 

 many years ago, by crushing the anthracite coal, mixing it 

 intimately with crushed binding coal, and coking a mixture of 

 about equal proportions in Appold's vertical coke ovens. The 

 result is a somewhat unsightly, but exceedingly hard and effica- 

 cious coke. A similar method has been followed for some time in 

 South Wales, where coke is now produced, containing as much as 

 60 per cent, of anthracite, bound together by 35 per cent, of 

 binding coal, and a further admixture of 5 per cent, of pitch or 

 bitumen, the whole of the materials being broken up and inti- 

 mately mixed in a Carr's disintegrator prior to being coked in 

 the usual manner. Coke of this description possesses great power 

 of endurance in the furnace, and is worthy the attention of iron- 

 smelters. 



In the United States of America anthracite plays a most impor- 

 tant part, being in fact the only mineral fuel in the Northern 

 States east of the Alleghany mountains. Its universal application 

 for blast furnaces, for heating purposes, and for domestic use, 

 imparts to the eastern cities of the United States a peculiar air of 

 brightness, owing to the entire absence of smoke, which must 

 impress every visitor most agreeably, and the difference of effect 

 produced by the general use of this fuel, as contrasted with that 

 of bituminous coal, is most strikingly exemplified in a short day's 

 journey from Philadelphia, the capital of the anthracite region, to 

 Pittsburg, the centre of application of bituminous coal. 



In visiting lately the deposits of anthracite coal of fche Schuylkill 

 district, I was much struck with their vastness, and with the 

 manner and appliances adopted for working them. The American 

 anthracite is less decrepitating than ours, but its successful appli- 

 cation to its various purposes is the result chiefly of the judicious 



