Coal And Coke

It is interesting to note that during the period that has elapsed since the Institute's formation, wood charcoal, anthracite and bituminous coal, as well as beehive and by-product coke, have been used as blast-furnace fuels, that the reign of supremacy of each fuel was associated with specific periods, and that each successive era was marked by a production of pig iron greater in quantity than the one it followed (Fig 1). The transition of the manufacture of blast-furnace iron from charcoal to anthracite and then to beehive coke, and ultimately to by-product coke, is a reflection of the economic limitations of each fuel coupled with availability sufficient to meet the increased demands of each succeeding decade. It is a pattern that has been followed almost without exception in the history of pig iron in every country. CHARCOAL Colonial production of iron relied exclusively on wood char- coal as a fuel, and the iron industry of this count recognizes the important role played by this fuel. Charcoal iron has been available to consumers since the beginning of the organized iron industry in America in 1645, by John Winthrop at Saugus, Mass.,1 and although its greatest use antedates the formation of the Institute, it is still used to some extent. Until about 1840 nearly all of the pig iron manufactured in the United States was made with charcoal, and it continued as a principal smelting fuel until 1855.2 After that time, more pig iron was produced with other fuels, despite the fact that