By Andy McAllister, Watershed Coordinator
In this continuing series at Abandoned Mine Posts, we take a fascinating journey back through time. It’s a journey of discovery and a journey of connections. It’s the story of how coal came to be part of Western Pennsylvania life and the story of the coal connections that would shape our future.
Part 4: The Birth Of A Giant
So, where have we come to thus far? In our journey, we’ve traced coal’s use from the ancient Romans all the way up to the end of the war of 1812. As mankind evolved and developed a penchant for tinkering, the more mundane uses for coal such as disposing of the dead and heating the living gave way to more novel uses. Coal began to fuel our more creative nature. In Great Britain, that creative use for coal led to the industrial revolution with the birth of the iron industry which of course, led to the creation of steam engine, locomotives, and the iron rails that they operated upon. But, back in Pennsylvania, another industry was waiting to be born.
By the early part of the 19th century, Pennsylvania had discovered the merits of burning anthracite coal (hard coal)—thanks in part to the energy crunch which resulted from the War of 1812. When the war ended in 1815, people in the eastern population centers found that burning anthracite was still a good idea and stayed with it. Also, during the 1820s and 30s, gravity railroads (railroads built on a slope allowing minerals-laden cars to coast down the hill) developed in the anthracite region made anthracite even more available by allowing more coal to be brought to market. Those gravity railroads, engineering feats unto themselves,occurred simultaneously with an even bigger engineering marvel, the construction of the inland canal system. The combination of railroad and canal development resulted in the nation’s largest inland transportation network. Anthracite was finally moving and moving fast! By the 1850s, anthracite was the most used of all types of coal at the time. anthracite fueled the iron production in Pennsylvania and became a primary fuel for the textile industry in New England. The boom years of 1863 and 1864 in the anthracite region and the rest of the northeastern United States would be driven by the need for blankets, firearms, and other goods during a certain domestic altercation. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Back to the 1830s.
Out in western Pennsylvania, use of bituminous coal continued to grow, albeit more slowly than anthracite. Pittsburgh,by virtue of its geographic placement near rivers and within relatively easy reach of raw materials, began to produce significant quantities of iron, brass, tin, and glass products.In Pittsburgh and points west, bituminous coal (soft coal) continued to play an ever increasing role in fueling Pittsburgh’s economy and by 1830, the city of Pittsburgh was consuming more than 400 tons per day of bituminous coal for domestic and light industrial use. It was also around this time that coke, bituminous coal partially burned to remove impurities, began to make the scene. Coke production had begun at the bituminous mines in Great Britain years before but it was only now that coke began to make its mark in America. Why coke? Well, coke burns hotter than ordinary coal. That hotter fire in the blast furnaces would improve the quality of iron produced.
Another big plug for coal use came from the first commercially practical American-built locomotives One locomotive in particular, The Tom Thumb, burned coal and once folks starting seeing how great that was, almost overnight, virtually every American locomotive that burned wood was converted to use coal. So much for wood.
Okay, so now that we have more uses for coal, we needed more of it and better ways to get at it. In walks a creative American by the name of Mr. William Otis and presto, in 1839 the steam shovel is born. The subsequent use of the steam shovel resulted in a plentiful supply of more easily obtainable surface coal. More coal allowed for more growth in industry, which led to more industrial work, which in turn, led to a need for more workers. Interestingly enough, around that time, many European nations were going through some hard economic times—potato famines and whatnot. Quite frankly, their citizens were fed up—and hungry. They wanted a better life and thought that moving to the US, especially the anthracite region, would provide them with more opportunities, not to mention more to eat. After all, it was said that in America, the streets were paved with gold. While this immediate infusion of willing workers to America would be good for the anthracite mining industry, this and successive waves would also benefit a fledgling industry yet to come.
Photo of William Kelly Courtesy of Thompson D. Smith, fourth generation Grandson
In 1847, following a failed stint at managing a dry goods store in western Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgher by the name of William Kelly threw up his hands and decided to try his hand in the iron industry in Eddyville, Kentucky. Kelly had ventured to Kentucky several times on buying trips and became interested in the iron industry there. Kelly persuaded his brother to join him and together they bought an iron furnace and 14,000 acres of timberland and ore deposits. They did rather well with their Eddyville Iron Works. But, iron had its limitations and Kelly knew it. You see, iron, although very functional, just didn’t have the strength and durability that was needed. Steel, a more refined and stronger metal than iron, had long been known. It was produced here and there in the ancient world for small things like swords and the odd dagger or two. However, there just wasn’t a practical way to make steel on a wholesale basis.
As they began to run out of timber for charcoal and with their carbon-free iron deposits dwindling, the brothers Kelly began searching for a more efficient means of refining pig iron while experimenting with making steel.
Around 1850, after several failures, Kelly succeeded in producing iron and steel with his process, although the quality of the steel was still kind of “hit or miss”. He didn’t patent the process right away but continued working on it. It so happens around that same time back in England, an fellow by the name of Sir Henry Bessemer was also working on a way to mass produce steel. In 1855 Bessemer obtained an English patent, and the following year several American patents, on the same process. When Kelly heard of Bessemer’s patents, he became incensed and immediately filed a priority claim. In 1857, Kelly received a U.S. patent superseding Bessemer’s patents. After a lot of hard work, it looked like Kelly’s bread was finally going to be buttered. Not so fast…fate had another obstacle in store for him. Kelly went bankrupt during the panic of 1857. But all was not lost. Before he declared bankruptcy, Kelly sold his patent to his father to keep it in the family.
In 1859, after getting his finances back in order, Kelly renewed his experiments at the Cambria Iron Works in Johnstown, Pa., and by 1862 managed to scrape up enough funds to enable him to build a steel plant out in Michigan. Within two years he produced the first commercial steel using the Kelly process. In 1863 the Kelly Pneumatic Process Company was organized, and the following year a rival company using Bessemer’s patents was organized in Troy, N.Y. With only minimal success with their respective patents and processes, the two companies pooled their resources in 1866. Eventually Bessemer’s process became more widely used. In fact, modern steel, up until the mid 20th century, would be made using technology based on the Bessemer Process.
In the meantime, while all of this was going on , back in the Anthracite region in the 1840s, two brothers by the name of George and Seldon Scranton were toying with using Anthracite for their iron works and eventually for their steelmaking experiments. They wound up being a pretty successful pair with their Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, so successful in fact that in 1850, the citizens of Slocum’s Hollow, where the Scrantons had settled, renamed their town “Scrantonia” in honor of the pair. However, that name just didn’t roll off the tongue well enough and after a year, the townsfolk thought it best to rename the town “Scranton”.
With coal as the keystone, the components were now in place for an incredible transformation in Pennsylvania —a transformation that would shape history – a transformation based on steel—a transformation that would eventually be shaped by the actions of two men, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Steel, America’s modern industrial giant, was born.
