“I have experienced the use of them” (the Lehigh coals) “in a close stove and also in a fireplace that may be closed and opened at pleasure, so constructed, as to cause a brisk current of air to pass up through a small contracted grate on which they were laid. I find them more difficult to be kindled than the Virginia coal, yet a small quantity of dry wood laid on the grate under them is sufficient to ignite them, which being done, they continue to burn while a sufficient amount be added to keep up the combustion, occasionally stirring them to keep down the ashes. They produce no smoke, contain no sulphur, and when well ignited exhibit a vivid bright appearance, all which render them suitable for warming rooms.”
This letter is dated “Philadelphia, Feb. 15th 1803,” and is signed “Oliver Evans.”
The second letter is similar in its recommendation and report of success, and states that the writer, “Fredk Graff, clerk of the Water Works of Phila ... made a trial of the Lehigh coals in the year 1802 in the large stove at the Pennsylvania Bank in Phila.”
So far as is known these are the first recorded instances of any successful attempts to burn anthracite coal in grates and stoves. Dr. James of Philadelphia has also left on record the fact that he made constant use of anthracite coal for heating purposes from the year 1804.
These well-authenticated instances of the use of anthracite appear to destroy the commonly accepted belief that Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes Barre was the first person whose attempts to burn this coal in an open grate were rewarded with complete success. Nevertheless the value of Judge Fell’s experiments cannot be questioned, nor can he be deprived of the full measure of credit due to him for bringing those experiments to a successful issue.
Until the year 1808 all efforts in the Wyoming valley to burn the “stone coal” of the region without an artificial air blast had utterly failed. People did not believe that it could be done. The successes of Evans and Graff in this direction were either not known or not credited. It is certain that Judge Fell had not heard of them. His opinion that this coal could be made to burn in an open fireplace was based wholly on the reasoning of his own mind. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and had come to Wilkes Barre some years before from Berks County. He was a blacksmith by trade, the proprietor of the best hotel in town, and he came afterward to be one of the associate judges of Luzerne County. When he had fully considered the matter of burning the stone coal, and had reached definite conclusions, he began to experiment. At first he constructed a grate of green hickory sticks, and the presumption is that the fire he kindled in it was a success; for he began, immediately afterward, to make an iron grate similar to the grates now in use. The work was done by his nephew Edward Fell and himself in the blacksmith shop of the former, and was completed in a single day. Judge Fell took the grate home late in the afternoon and set it with brick in the fireplace of his bar-room. In the evening he kindled in it, with oak wood, a glowing coal fire, and invited a large number of the most respected citizens of the place to come in and see the stone coal burn. Only a few came, however, in response to his invitation; they believed his theory to be impracticable, and feared that they might be made the victims of a hoax. But to those who came the fire was a revelation. It cleared the way for immense possibilities. Judge Fell himself realized the importance of his discovery, and thought the incident worthy of record. Being a devoted member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, he chose from his library a book entitled “The Free Mason’s Monitor,” and wrote on the fly-leaf, in a clear, bold hand, this memorandum:—
“Fe’b 11th, of Masonry 5808. Made the experiment of burning the common stone coal of the valley in a grate in a common fire place in my house, and find it will answer the purpose of fuel; making a clearer and better fire, at less expense, than burning wood in the common way.
[Signed] Jesse Fell.
“Borough of Wilkesbarre,
February 11th 1808.”
The complete success of Judge Fell’s experiment was soon noised abroad, and a new era of usefulness for anthracite coal set in. From Wilkes Barre up and down the entire Wyoming valley fireplaces for wood were discarded and grates were set for the burning of the new domestic fuel. This was followed, not long after, by the introduction of stoves, so that by 1820, says Stewart Pearce in his “Annals of Luzerne County,” grates and coal stoves were in general use throughout the valley, coal for domestic purposes selling at three dollars per ton. At the time of Judge Fell’s experiment there was no outside market for the product of the mines of the Wyoming valley. The distances to the large cities and manufacturing centres were too great, the means of transportation too rude, and the knowledge of the use of anthracite too limited, to warrant any serious effort to create a foreign market for it. The attempt had nevertheless been made in 1807 by Abijah Smith, who shipped an ark-load of coal down the Susquehanna River to Columbia, and was obliged to leave it there unsold.