The story of Pittsburgh: Coal and coke

Coal and coke (Vol. 1, nr. 4)

Bibliographic data

Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1831622599

Document type:: Multivolume work

Title:: The story of Pittsburgh

Place of publication:: Pittsburgh

Publisher:: First National Bank

Year of publication:: 1919-1930

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1831622963

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-239757

Document type:: Volume

Title:: Coal and coke

Volume count:: Vol. 1, nr. 4

Place of publication:: Pittsburgh

Publisher:: First National Bank

Year of publication:: 1920

Scope:: [ca. 16] Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Coal and Coke

Collection:: Economics Books

sumption in large quantities covers only a comparatively recent period. The Chinese made use of coal in the hoary ages of the past, and Greek writers tell of the knowledge of coal as fuel by people living on the north shore of the Mediterranean Sea as early as the fourth century before Christ. At the time of the Roman invasion of the British Isles, we learn that coal was taken from the outcrop with picks made of flint and hard oak. The first discovery of coal in the New World by white men, is recorded by Father Hennepin, in his journal, as having been made on the banks of the Illinois River in 1679. At the time of the Revolutionary War, coal was shipped north from the Richmond district of Virginia. Anthracite coal was first used by a blacksmith in the eastern part of Pennsylvania in 1796, but was not successfully used in manufacturing until the year 1812, when it played an im- portant part in the fuel supply. As far back as 1684, William Penn was granted a char- ter to mine coal in the hills fronting Pittsburgh. In 1758, coal was discovered in what was soon afterward called “Coal Hill; and in 1760, Thomas Hutchins visited Fort Pitt, and wrote about a “cole” mine on the west side of the Monongahela River. The very earliest successful mining and use of coal in the United States took place within what is now the cor- porate limits of the City of Pittsburgh. One of the first mines was located on what is now Duquesne Heights, Nineteenth Ward, and was known as “Indian Pit.” The first steam engine in Pittsburgh was built in 1794, and after this important event the use of coal increased very rapidly. Not only was coal first mined and used here, but the first coal ever exported was shipped from this district. In 1803 a company of French merchants built at Pittsburgh the ship “Louisiana,” on board which they loaded 350 tons of Pittsburgh coal, “Which was sold for $9 per ton.” By the year 1817, navigation of the Ohio had developed to such an extent that regular shipments of coal were sent south, the chief markets being Cincinnati, Louisville and Maysville. In 1844, the first locks on the

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