History of anthracite coal mining in Pennsylvania bituminous fuel reaching the US, and there was also a shortage in Virginia’s supply resulting in a fuel crisis (Adams, “Warming the Poor,” 76). Before the war citizens did not like to use anthracite coal because it was difficult to ignite and maintain, but the wartime shortage forced them to start using anthracite. Jacob Cist of Wilkes-Barre promoted the use of anthracite during and after the War of 1812. Jacob Cist’s father was a major investor in the Lehigh Coal Mine Company, so Cist began to transport the company’s coal to Philadelphia by the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers (Dublin, Licht,
Anthracite iron technique & process, which he had conceived in an attempt to improve the efficiency of conventionally fueled furnaces. The first person to employ the hot blast technique to anthracite smelting was Dr. Frederick W. Gesenhainer, who filed for a patent on the process in 1831 and received it in 1833. In 1836, he tried smelting anthracite iron on a practical scale at his property, Valley Furnace, near Pottsville, Pennsylvania, while in the same year White & Hazard's LC&N Co. built two experimental blast furnaces in Mauch Chunk. He produced a small quantity of iron, but due to mechanical breakdowns, could