Anthracite iron and nail factory), had determined how to burn anthracite in iron working processing furnaces during the War of 1812, but its use in smelting operations was hit or miss, dependent upon the material packing geometries of any particular charging load in a cold blast furnace. The earlier development of coking of bituminous coal, as well anthracite coke enabled the smelting of iron using local coal sources with cold blast air in blast furnaces after the latter 1830s allowed the production of the vast quantities of iron that built the fundamental infrastructure of the early North American Industrial Revolution — which
History of anthracite coal mining in Pennsylvania are surrounded by sandstone ridges, which help to “protect” the anthracite (Hornberger et al., 20-2). There are four different anthracite coalfields in Pennsylvania, all located on the eastern side of the state. The Northern field is located predominantly in the Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wayne Counties; the Western Middle field in Northumberland, Columbia, and Schuylkill Counties; Eastern Middle field mainly in Luzerne County but extending into Schuylkill, Carbon, and Columbia Counties; the Southern field in Carbon, Schuylkill, Lebanon, and Dauphin Counties (Latzko, 8). Anthracite differs from bituminous in usage in that it has better heat quality and fewer disadvantageous by-products,