Newport, Wales and was the largest masonry dock in the world. Although coal exports from Newport were by now modest compared to the Port of Cardiff (which included Cardiff, Penarth and Barry), Newport was the place where the Miners' Federation of Great Britain was founded in 1889, and international trade was sufficiently large for 8 consuls and 14 vice-consuls to be based in the town. In 1898 Lysaght's Orb Works opened and by 1901 employed 3,000 staff. Urban expansion took in Pillgwenlly and Lliswerry to the south; this eventually necessitated a new crossing of the River Usk, which was provided by the
Coal industry in Wales from shallow deposits for local use and by the beginning of the eighteenth century, a trade in coal was developing along the coast from such areas as Pembrokeshire, Llanelli and Swansea Bay. As surface deposits were exhausted by opencast mining, shallow pits were dug, and later bell pits, with more coal being extracted from short galleries. Soon, horizontal shafts were being dug into the hillsides and barrows manoeuvred along wooden tracks. During the Industrial Revolution, Wales was at the forefront of the development of new technologies for the mining industry. These innovations included the use of water power for winding