92 Mr. F. Forster's Observations on the South Welsh Coal Basin. 



Iron Stone, traversing the most elevated, and, therefore, most available 

 parts of the district, it has become a great desideratum, (perhaps the 

 very greatest in connection with that department of our manufacturing 

 interests depending on Mineral produce,) to adopt Stone Coal as a subr 

 stitute for Coke in the smelting of Iron Ore, and various spirited at- 

 tempts have, from time to time, been made to effect this desirable 

 object, hitherto without success. This has been considered the more 

 surprising, because the closest and most ponderous Coke having always 

 been found best adapted for Iron-smelting, and Stone Coal being no- 

 thing more than a hard, compact, and ponderous mineral Carbon — ^it was 

 naturally expected, that it would be, above all others, best calculated for 

 the smelting of Iron Ore. Not having myself witnessed any of these 

 practical experiments, I do not feel competent to give an opinion, 

 as to the probability of their ultimate success ; but from an attentive 

 observance of the qualities of Stone Coal in ordinary combustion, I have 

 become thoroughly convinced of the correctness of an observation 

 made some time ago, by one of the most intelligent gentlemen in South 

 Wales, that the incapacity of Stone Coal, as a conductor of heat, presents 

 a mechanical obstruction which will be extremely difficult to overcome 

 in its application to Iron-smelting. This imperfect conducting, or 

 perhaps more properly speaking, transmitting power, doubtless arises 

 from its want of bitumen, and the compactness and density of the Coal ; 

 and hence, when Stone Coal is substituted for Coke, in the furnace, 

 the application of the blast, instead of causing ignition to extend 

 through very part of the fuel intermixed with the ores, will, if urged to 

 the necessary degree, absolutely blow out the fire. That this difficulty 

 will be eventually overcome, perhaps, admits of little doubt; but the adop- 

 tion of Stone Coal in Iron-smelting will, in all probability, be effected, by 

 substituting some other flux in the furnace instead of Limestone, by 

 which the Iron may be separated from its earthy ingredients, at such a 

 temperature as may be obtained in an air furnace, without the assistance 

 of a blast. 



Stone Coal Culm is chiefly derived from the small, produced in work- 

 ing the Coal, and which, when the texture of the Coal is good, bears a 



