History of anthracite coal mining in Pennsylvania Mine Company with other businessmen from Philadelphia. The company had a slow start because of the difficulty in igniting anthracite coal and the inability to transfer the coal to urban markets (Dublin, Licht, 11). Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre discovered a solution to ignite anthracite in 1808 with the usage of an iron grate that allowed the coal to light and burn easier. Demand for the anthracite coal increased slightly (Dublin, Licht, 12). Brothers Abijah and John Smith were the first to successfully transport hard coal when they moved 50 tons on an ark down the Susquehanna River to Columbia
Anthracite power-generation. The rarer higher grades of anthracite are purer – i.e., they have a higher carbon content – and are used in steel-making and other segments of the metallurgical industries. Technical characteristics of the various grades of anthracite are as follows: Anthracite is divided by size mainly into applications that need lumps (typically larger than 10 mm) – various industrial processes where it replaces metallurgical coke, and domestic fuel – and those that need fines (less than 10 mm), such as sintering and pelletising. The common American classification by size is as follows: Lump, steamboat, egg and stove coals, the