During the night he pondered over the matter, and in the morning asked his Quaker friend to take him to the spot where he had found the black stone. The spot was shown him; he examined the substance carefully. The Quaker carried to the house a considerable quantity of the substance, and then the Yankee said,—
“I think we can make this stuff burn if we can only draw a fire through it. Now, what we want to do is to fix up something so as to make the fire go where we want it to.”
The Quaker assented to the proposition, and asked if it were possible.
The Yankee said, “Yes. I know how it can be done; but before I tell you I want to buy half of the land where you found that stone.”
A bargain was struck very speedily, and the Yankee hunted around the establishment, and found a piece of sheet iron, which he fashioned into a blower. He then built up a small, narrow fire-place, and fitted his blower to the front. “The next thing,” said he, “is to make something like a grate;” and they took some rods of iron and fashioned them into a rude grate.
“Now,” said the Yankee to the Quaker, “build a good fire of wood, so that it will fill the bottom of that grate.”
The Quaker followed the directions, and when the fire was well started, the Yankee threw a peck or so of the coal on the top and put up the blower. The fire was drawn directly among the fragments of coal; in a little while the blower was removed, and the coal was found to be a red, burning mass, which threw off an intense heat.
Both were delighted with the discovery; and thus was opened the first anthracite coal mine in America.
DISCOVERY AT BELLINGHAM BAY.