History of anthracite coal mining in Pennsylvania coal was being transported annually to Philadelphia using the Schuylkill River (Dublin, Licht, 13) The Wurts brothers, William and Maurice, owned coalfields in the northeastern Pennsylvania anthracite region, but found an unresponsive market in Philadelphia, which was receiving coal from the Schuylkill and Lehigh routes. They saw business potential in finding a connection route between anthracite fields and the New York City market, and so they had the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company incorporated in 1823 (Sciaky, 275-6). The D&H Company built a canal system across parts of the Delaware and Hudson Rivers that stretched from Honesdale, PA to Rondout,
Anthracite difficulty of igniting it. This was a particular concern in smelting iron using a blast furnace. With the invention of hot blast in 1828, which used waste heat to preheat combustion air, anthracite became a preferred fuel, accounting for 45% of US pig iron production within 15 years. Anthracite for iron smelting was later displaced by coke. From the late 19th century until the 1950s, anthracite was the most popular fuel for heating homes and other buildings in the northern US, until it was supplanted by oil-burning systems and more recently natural gas systems. Many large public buildings, such as