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8 COAL AND TIMBER June, 1905
In 1841, Provance McCormick and James
Campbell, two carpenters, and John Taylor,
a stonemason, and the owner of a farm on
the Youghiogheny
river, including a coal
mine which he operated in a small way,
commenced making coke with two ovens,
and in the spring of 1842, had enough coke
stocked to fill two boats, or about 800
bushels.
These boats they took down the
Ohio river on high water to Cincinnati, O.
On reaching that city they were greatly disappointed
in the little demand for the
new fuel. It was almost totally unknown
there as foundrymen regarded it with suspicion,
calling it "cinders." Campbell, who
went with the boats, remained at the landing
for about three weeks trading his coke
in small quantities, charging eight cents per
bushel for his fuel. He disposed of the
balance to Miles Greenwood, a foundryman,
at Cincinnati, for a patent grist mill. This
mill was shipped to Connellsville, where it
proved to be a failure. It was finally sold
for $30. This was the end of the first coke
manufacturing firm of the Connellsville district.
A part of the cargo which was traded
for the grist mill was boated to Dayton, O.,
and was bought by Judge Gebhart, a former
Pennsylvanian, who then had a foundry in
operation. He used the coke in his foundry
with great success and afterward came to
Connellsville and asked Campbell and Mc­
Cormick to make more of the fuel for him,
but their first venture had ended so disastrously
that they refused.
Tn 1843, the ovens built by Taylor were
rented to Mordecai, James and Sample Cochran,
who used them in making twenty-four
hour coke. When they had coked about
1,300 bushels, it was boated to Cincinnati,
and sold to Miles Greenwood, who in the
meantime had become better acquainted
with the value of coke as a fuel.
Three or four coke ovens were built in
1850 by Stewart Strickler, the product being
also boated to Cincinnati and sold. For
several years thereafter but little coke was
made, though some ovens were built and a
better knowledge of the new fuel attained.
The coke trade increased somewhat in 1851,
and in 1855 there were but 26 coke ovens
above Pittsburg. About that time, Connellsville
coke became to be successfully used
in the Clinton furnace at Pittsburg, and its
value as a fuel was fully demonstrated.
The Clinton furnace was blown in about 1859
to make pig iron from coke. The coke
was first made from Pittsburg coal near the
furnace on the south side of the Monongahela
river. This Pittsburg coke proved unsatisfactory,
the furnace was blown out and
agreements made to secure a supply of coke
from the Connellsville region.
The Clinton furnace was again put in
blast in the spring of 1860, and coke from
the Fayette Coke Works was used. This
coke plant numbered about 30 ovens in capacity.
In 1864, 40 ovens were built on
Hickman run. The product of these ovens
was transported on tramway to the then
Pittsburg & Connellsville railroad (now the
Baltimore & Ohio) until 1871, when the
Hickman Run Branch railroad was built.
In I860, the Connellsville Gas Coal &
Coke
Co. was originated and built 40 ovens near
Connellsville. In 1869, 40 ovens were built
near Dunbar, Pa. These works, as named
before, were all the coke ovens in the Connellsville
district until 1871.
The United States census reports show
that there were but four establishments
making coke as a regular business until 1850.
In 1860, there were 21; in 1870, there were
25. The census reports of 1850 are probably
not correct, while, though the coking industry
was in its infancy then, there were probably
more coking manufactories than reported
by the census agents. The census
returns show that between 1850 and 1860,
all the coke manufactured in the United
States was made in Pennsylvania. Tn the
census of 1870, Pennsylvania is credited
with making 92 per cent, of the coke of
Electric Larry—Made by the Wagner-Palmros
Manufacturing Co., Fairmont, W. Va
the entire country. In 1880, the Keystone
state is credited with 84.18 per cent, of the
product of the country. Of all of the coke
made in Pennsylvania from 1870 until 1880,
Westmoreland and Fayette counties, or the
Connellsville coke region, produced 73.16
per cent, of the total output.
In 1871, the Mt. Pleasant & Broad Ford
railroad, of which H. C. Frick was one of
the projectors, was built. This road opened
the northern part of the Connellsville field
and at once inaugurated the construction of
several coking plants. Oven building continued
with great energy until the total
number in 1873 was 3,673. In this year
the great financial panic occurred and the
iron business commenced to decline; the
price of coke naturally went down with it
until 1879. Then came a sudden and unprecedented
demand, and prices, which had
ranged for several years from 90 cents to
$1.15 per net tons at the ovens, advanced
to $5 per ton. This boom naturally gave -i
wonderful impetus to the coke trade and on
May 31, 1880, there were 6,237 ovens built
and in operation and 1.242 in process of construction
in the Connellsville region alone.
In 1882, the number of ovens constructed
amounted to 8,400.
In 1884, the number of
active coke ovens had reached, in round
numbers, 10,000, against a total of 3,672 but
five years previous. In 1886. the number
of ovens was 10,854, and in 1887, the number
of coke ovens was 12,561, with a production
of 4,296,343 tons of coke; in 1888,
the number of ovens was 13,133, with a production
annually of 4,971,287 tons of coke.
In 1890, the number of coke ovens reached
15,172, and the production 6,464,000 tons.
In 1892, there were 17,250 coke ovens in
the Connellsville district alone, and the
numbers in different parts of the country
had also greatly increased.
The
Connellsville field last
year alone produced 12,427,468
tons of coke, showing the startling
increase in the number of
ovens and the almost incredible
gain in output during the last
13 years. During this interval
of time the industry has grown
with leaps and bounds rather
than gradually, as was true
formerly. This is due to the
unprecedented demand for coke
as fuel, both for steaming and
especially for fuel for the
smelting
of iron ores for the
manufacture of iron and steel.
In 1904, in the Connellsville
field there were 29,119 ovens.
These produced 12,427.46S tons
of coke. At the average price
of $1.75, the gross revenue to
the manufacturer was $21,748,-
069.
The process of coking is very
simple. Ovens are either of the
bee-hive or the retort description.
The former wasteful processes whereby
tlie by-products were almost entirely
lost have been remedied and now the by
products form a very profitable feature ol
the industry.
When the coal is got from the shaft,
drift, or slope, it is dumped into the larries,
approved styles and makes of which are
illustrated in this article. These larries were
formerly drawn upon the bank or block
ovens by horses or mules. Now power has
displaced the mule just as it did in the
haulage from the pit. Compressed air and
electric locomotives and the trolley furnish
the medium used to convey the loaded larries
from mine to coke oven. The coal is
dumped from the larry into" the oven
through an opening in the crown which is
called the "trunnel head."
These larries are
made to carry one charge at a time, and as