Editing Anthracite (section)

== History of mining and use ==
[[File:Coal plant, Madrid c. 1935.jpg|thumb|An anthracite coal breaker and power house buildings in [[Madrid, New Mexico]], {{circa|1935}}]]
[[File:Working together for Victory. Anthracite is a "fighting fuel." America needs it now. - NARA - 534850.jpg|thumb|"Anthracite is a 'fighting fuel'", a [[World War II]] poster promoting anthracite, which was used extensively in military production]]
In southwest [[Wales]], anthracite has been burned as a domestic fuel since at least medieval times,<ref>Owen, George, ''The Description of Pembrokeshire'', Dillwyn Miles (Ed), Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1994, {{ISBN|1-85902-120-4}}, pp. 60, 69–70, 90–95, 139, 255</ref> when it was mined near [[Saundersfoot]]. More recently, large-scale mining of anthracite took place across the western part of the [[South Wales Coalfield]] until the late 20th century.

In the United States, anthracite coal history began in 1790 in [[Pottsville, Pennsylvania]], with the discovery of coal made by the hunter Necho Allen in what is now known as the [[Coal Region]]. Legend has it that Allen fell asleep at the base of [[Broad Mountain (Schuylkill Valley)|Broad Mountain]] and woke to the sight of a large fire because his campfire had ignited an outcrop of anthracite coal.<ref name= "Pottsville">{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date= 31 Jan 2001| title= History |url= https://www.pottsvillepa.gov/html/history.htm |website= City of Pottsville, Pennsylvania - Official Website |location= Pottsville, Pennsylvania |publisher= City of Pottsville |access-date= 19 February 2025}}</ref>

By the late 18th century, it was known in the United States that anthracite could be burnt, but the techniques required to do so were unknown. Anthracite differs from wood and bituminous coal in that it has a higher ignition temperature and needs a fresh air draft from the bottom to burn. Several claims are made about who "first" burnt anthracite coal in the United States around this time, and all such claims originate from Pennsylvania. The city of Pottsville, Pennsylvania claims that their town was founded around an anthracite-fired [[blast furnace|iron furnace]] purchased by [[John_Potts_(Pennsylvanian)|John Potts]] in 1806, which was built on the [[Schuylkill River]] in 1795.<ref name= "Pottsville"/> Pennsylvanian Charles V. Hagner recalls in his 1869 book that an unnamed employee of [[Josiah White]] and [[Erskine Hazard]] accidentally burnt anthracite in their rolling mill at the [[Schuylkill River|Falls of the Schuylkill River]] (after much failed experimentation with burning anthracite)<ref name="Hagner">{{cite book |last= Hagner |first= Charles V. |url= https://archive.org/details/earlyhistoryoffa00hagn |title= Early history of the Falls of Schuylkill, Manayunk, Schuylkill and Lehigh navigation companies, Fairmount waterworks, etc. |pages=42-44 |publisher= Caxton, Remsen, and Haffelfinger |location= 819 & 821 Market Street, Philadelphia, USA |date= 1869 |access-date= February 19, 2025}}</ref> at some point between 1812<ref name=Fritts>{{cite book |last=Frittz |first=Peter |date=1877 |title=History of Northhampton County, Pennsylvania, Illustrated |chapter=XXXIV |page=85 |url= http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/northampton/history/local/davis/davis10.txt |access-date= 19 February 2025}}</ref> and 1815.<ref name="Hagner"/> Judge [[Jesse Fell]] is claimed to be the first person to burn anthracite for the purposes of residential heating in the USA in [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania]] on 11 February 1808. Judge Fell used an open grate in his fireplace to burn anthracite, as an experiment to prove that it was a viable residential heating fuel.<ref name=TimesLeader>{{cite news |last= Lewis |first= Edward |date= 6 February 2022 |title= Look Back: Stone coal first burned for domestic use in 1808 |url= https://www.timesleader.com/news/1538486/look-back-stone-coal-first-burned-for-domestic-use-in-1808 |work= Times Leader |location= Pennsylvania |publisher= Times Leader Media Group |access-date= 19 February 2025}}</ref>

In spring 1808, John and Abijah Smith shipped the first commercially mined load of anthracite down the [[Susquehanna River]] from Plymouth, Pennsylvania, marking the birth of commercial anthracite mining in the United States. From that first mine, production rose to an all-time high of over 100 million tons in 1917.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}

The difficulty of igniting anthracite inhibited its early use, especially in [[blast furnace]]s for smelting iron. With the development of the [[hot blast]] in 1828, which used waste heat to preheat combustion air, anthracite became a preferred fuel, accounting for 45% of US pig iron production within 15 years.<ref>{{cite book
| title = Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics
| last = Rosenberg
| first = Nathan
| year = 1982
| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
| location = Cambridge, New York
| isbn = 0-521-27367-6
| page = [https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/88 88]
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/insideblackboxte00rose/page/88
}}</ref>  [[Anthracite iron]] smelting was later displaced by [[coke (fuel)|coke]].

From the late 19th century until the 1950s, anthracite was the most popular fuel for heating homes and other buildings in the northern US, until it was supplanted by oil-burning systems, and more recently natural gas systems. Many large public buildings, such as schools, were heated with anthracite-burning furnaces through the 1980s.

During the [[American Civil War]], Confederate [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade runners]] used anthracite as a smokeless fuel for their boilers to avoid revealing their position to the blockaders.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Underwood |first=Rodman L. |title=Waters of Discord: The Union Blockade of Texas During the Civil War |publisher=McFarland |page=55 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QxywnKkZSlYC&pg=PA55 |isbn=978-0786437764 |date=2008 }}</ref>

The invention of the [[Wootten firebox]] enabled [[steam locomotive|locomotives]] to directly burn anthracite efficiently, particularly waste culm. In the early 20th century US, the [[Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad]] started using only the more expensive anthracite coal in its passenger locomotives, dubbed themselves "The Road of Anthracite", and advertised widely that travelers on their line could make railway journeys without getting their clothing stained with soot. The advertisements featured a white-clad woman named [[Phoebe Snow (character)|Phoebe Snow]] and poems containing lines like "My gown stays white / From morn till night / Upon the road of Anthracite". Similarly, the [[Great Western Railway]] in the UK was able to use its access to anthracite (it dominated the anthracite region) to earn a reputation for efficiency and cleanliness unmatched by other UK companies.

Internal combustion motors driven by the so-called "mixed", "poor", "semi-water" or "[[Dowson gas]]" produced by the [[gasification]] of anthracite with air (and a small proportion of steam) were at one time the most economical method of obtaining power, requiring only {{convert|1|lb/hph|kg/kWh|sigfig=1|lk=on}}, or less. Large quantities of anthracite for power purposes were formerly exported from South Wales to France, Switzerland and parts of Germany.{{sfn|Bauerman|1911|p=106}}

Commercial anthracite mining in [[Wales]] ceased in 2013, although a few large [[open cast]] sites remain, along with some relatively small [[drift mining]] operations.{{Citation needed|date=August 2017}} Commercial anthracite mining is still ongoing{{Cn|date=March 2025|reason=2015 cite not recent enough}} in Pennsylvania; the state produced a "total of 4,614,391 tons of [anthracite] coal, predominately from surface coal mines"<ref name="PACoalHistory">{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date= 2016 |title= History of Coal Mining in Pennsylvania |url= https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dep/programs-and-services/mining/bureau-of-mining-programs/pa-mining-history.html |website= Official Website of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania |publisher= Commonwealth of Pennsylvania |access-date= 19 February 2025}}</ref> in 2015.