COKE MANUFACTURE. 557 
blast furnace was patented December 19, 1833, by Dr. F. W. Geisen- 
heimer, of Pennsylvania, and experiments were made at the Valley 
Furnace near Pottsville, which, however, were unsuccessful. Other 
‘ attempts followed, and the first authentic account of success is that of 
a small furnace built near Mauch Chunk, by Baughman, Guiteau & Co., 
in 1838. In 1839 the Lehigh Crane Iron Co. was established, and the 
first furnace was built at Hokendaqua, by Mr. David Thomas, who had 
come out from South Wales, where Mr. Geo. Crane had in 1837 suc- 
ceeded in using the Welsh anthracites. Anthracite coal was used in 
this furnace, and from this time its consumption in the manufacture of 
iron has steadily increased, till in 1872, of the total pig-iron made in 
the country, 52 per cent. were produced in Kastern Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey and New York with anthracite. 
Concerning the first use of raw bituminous coal and coke, we have 
not such accurate information, but in 1845, coke was made at the Clay 
Furnace in the Shenango Valley, Pa., from the block, or Brier Hill 
coal, and in the same year it was abandoned for the use of raw coal. 
This is unquestionably the first instance of the use of raw coal in the 
United States in the iron manufacture, and from that time its use has 
increased in many regions where the open burning coals are found, as 
in Shenango Valley, Pa., Mahoning Valley, O., Central and Southern 
Ohio, Indiana, ete. . 
Coke varies greatly in physical character, depending on the coal 
employed and the method of its manufacture. It is always more or less 
porous, but it may vary from a very light and cellular mass to one com- 
paratively dense and hard. It may be so friable as to present but little 
resistance to crushing, as the coke made from many dry coals and that 
produced in the manufacture of illuminating gas, or it may be very hard 
and resistant, requiring considerable pressure to crush it. The follow- 
ing table gives the results of experiments made upon several cokes to 
determine their resistance to crushing, and gives the pounds per cubic 
inch that were necessary to crush the specimen: 
Pounds per No. of 
: | square inch, experiments. 
Durham coke (Englanq).................5--sescssersersreeens 1,090 2 
Connellsville’ coke) (Penn) irc. ..c ccc scccssoccs sores coorse 1,083 . 3 
In color, coke varies from a dull black to light gray, with a 
brilliant silvery lustre; when hard and dense it is quite sonorous. 
