ON THE ANTHRACITE COAL AND COAL-FIELD OF SODTH WALES. 225 



raising the rates of mortality to an alarming extent, depressing the spirits 

 and injuring the property of its inhabitants, it may well become a subject 

 for earnest consideration whether some great alteration is not needed in 

 our domestic heating arrangements, in cases where a population so vast 

 and unprecedented is brought together. Our English prejudices fill us 

 with the belief that comfort is alone to be found in an open grate and a 

 blazing fire, around which we crowd in order to obtain some portion of 

 the heat which finds its natural vent up the chimney ; but is not this 

 really prejudice or the result of habit ? and would not the Canadian stoves, 

 so much extolled by Mr. Hussey Vivian in his notes on his American 

 tour, used with anthracite coal, afford a far more desirable and equable 

 heat, and at the same time relieve the atmosphere from the masses of 

 smoke now poured forth during the greater part of the year from every 

 chimney in London, and render it as pure and clear as that which per- 

 vades the great anthracite-consuming city of Philadelphia ? 



Canadian or other stoves are moreover not essential for the use of 

 stone coal for domestic purposes. An ordinary grate, with brick sides 

 and back, close bars and a fair draught, will afford as clear and cheerful a 

 fire as can be desired. 



From its maritime position, Pembrokeshire was enabled to take the 

 lead in the supplies of this fuel. An outlet for the workings in the 

 remaining and far larger portion of the coal-field (excepting such as mules 

 and ponies could afl'ord) was only provided through the formation of 

 canals and railways. 



Their construction has been as follows : — The Swansea Canal, from 

 Swansea to Abercrave, made in 1796, now supplemented by the Swansea 

 Vale Railway, worked by the Midland Railway Company; the Neath 

 Canal, made in or about the year 1800, up the Neath Valley, from Swan- 

 sea and Britonferry, the use of which is now in a great degree superseded 

 by the Great Western Railway, with which is connected the Neath and 

 Brecon line passing through Crynant and Onllyn ; the Gwendraeth 

 Valley Canal, now converted into a railway, formed in 1825 from the port 

 of Pembrey to Pontyberem; and the Llanelly Railway, now owned by 

 the Great Western Railway Company, from Llanelly to Cwmaman and 

 Llandilo, constructed in 1840. These several arteries, with a line about 

 to be made to Mynydd Maur, in Carmarthenshire, form a complete outlet 

 for the entire basin, and a ready means of communication with the ports 

 of Swansea, Neath, Llanelly, and Pembrey, and with all parts of the 

 kingdom, and their formation marks the epochs when anthracite was 

 enabled to enter the general markets. 



The first attempt in this country, so far as I am aware, to use stone 

 coal for steam navigation, was on board a little boat called the Anlhrao'fe, 

 running on the Thames about the year 1835, but I have no records by 

 me of the course or results of that experiment. In 1847 some 600 tons 

 was supplied to the steam-ship Washington, belonging to the American 

 line running from Southampton to New York. In this case a fan was 

 used, and, under the influence of the magnificent fires afforded by stone 

 coal so treated, she proceeded on her voyage with the best prospects of 

 success ; but within a few hours she was back at Southampton with her 

 furnace bars utterly destroyed by the great heat. Recognising the neces- 

 sity of employing artificial draught, and that under such circumstances 

 some method was needed for the protection of the bars, Messrs. Kymer 

 and Kirk, the proprietors of an anthi'acite colliery, took out a patent in 

 1880. Q 



