The Lehigh Crane Iron Company (later simply the Crane Iron Company) was a major ironmaking firm in the Lehigh Valley from its founding in 1839 until its sale in 1899. It was founded under the patronage of Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, and financed by their Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, which hoped to promote the then-novel technique of smelting iron ore with anthracite coal. This was an important cost and energy savings technique, since either an expensive charcoaling nor coke (as needed for Bituminous coals from anywhere) producing process and transport costs was totally eliminated so produced a great acceleration in the underpinnings of the American industrial revolution.