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78-727: The forge operated continuously until 1854, when it closed as iron production moved west. The property has been restored and turned into a bed and breakfast as well as the Wolf Sanctuary of Pennsylvania . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Peter Grubb founded the Cornwall Iron Furnace as well as the Cornwall iron mines , the richest source of iron ever found in America east of Lake Superior . In

156-423: A coffee can utilizing a cheap, simple propane torch . A small forge can even be carved out of a single soft firebrick . The primary advantage of a gas forge is the ease of use, particularly for a novice. A gas forge is simple to operate compared to coal forges, and the fire produced is clean and consistent. They are less versatile, as the fire cannot be reshaped to accommodate large or unusually shaped pieces. It

234-803: A forge had to be self-sustaining, employing farmers, lumberjacks, blacksmiths, horses, livestock, etc. Thus the iron master oversaw not just a forge, but a community. In 1767, Old took Coleman to Reading Furnace, in Chester County, Pennsylvania . In 1773, Coleman married Old's daughter, Anne. With the help of his father-in-law, Coleman leased Salford Forge, and began building his iron empire. In 1784, Coleman purchased Speedwell Forge from his father-in-law for 7000 pounds. After selling Speedwell, James Old purchased an interest in Hopewell Furnace in Berks County, Pennsylvania . There are indicators that he worked as

312-500: A smokeless fuel . HG and UHG anthracite account for a small percentage of the total anthracite market. The major producing countries are Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, South Africa and the US. The primary sizes used in the United States for domestic heating are Chestnut, Pea, Buckwheat and Rice, with Chestnut and Rice being the most popular. Chestnut and Pea are used in hand fired furnaces while

390-422: A tool steel face on an anvil is to provide what some call "rebound" as well as being hard and not denting easily from misplaced hammer blows. The term rebound means it projects some of the force of the blacksmith's hammer blows back into the metal thus moving more metal at once than if there were no rebound. A good anvil can project anywhere from 50 to 99% of the energy back into the workpiece. The flat top, called

468-445: A 360-degree angle such as a hold-down tool for when the blacksmith's tongs cannot hold a workpiece as securely as it needs to be. On the front of the anvil, there is sometimes a "horn" that is used for bending, drawing out steel, and many other tasks. Between the horn and the anvil face, there is often a small area called a "step" or a "cutting table" That is used for cutting hot or cold steel with chisels, and hot cut tools without harming

546-668: A Justice of the Courts in Lancaster, and was a member of the State Assembly . Coleman owned several furnaces during the Revolution, receiving many contracts for munitions and chain links, which were stretched across the bays to keep English war ships at bay. Coleman reinvested his profits, buying many forges and furnaces, even the Cornwall iron mine. He became Pennsylvania's first millionaire, and by

624-483: A bed and breakfast. In 2006, the property, which included a summer kitchen and paymaster's office, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals , or the workplace ( smithy ) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging , or to

702-464: A blue dye at the mine before shipping to its Northeastern U.S. markets to distinguish it from its competitors. Culm has different meanings in British and American English . In British English, culm is the imperfect anthracite, located predominantly north Devon and Cornwall , which was used as a pigment . The term is also used to refer to some carboniferous rock strata found in both Britain and in

780-609: A clerk position for the Reading Prothonotary. After two years, he was hired by Peter Grubb Jr. as a clerk at Hopewell Forge, in Lancaster County. However, in 1767, after only six months at Hopewell Forge, Coleman was hired by James Old, who had just leased Quittapahilla Forge in Lancaster County (now Lebanon County). Coleman lived with the Old family, travelling between Speedwell and Quittapahilla. Because of its distance from town,

858-400: A form of recycling . The practice known as reclamation is being applied to culm piles antedating laws requiring mine owners to restore lands to their approximate original condition. Chemically, anthracite may be considered as a transition stage between ordinary bituminous coal and graphite , produced by the more or less complete elimination of the volatile constituents of the former, and it

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936-416: A greater distance away from the hot metals. They are very useful and found throughout the world. Tongs are used by the blacksmith for holding hot metals securely. The mouths are custom made by the smith in various shapes to suit the gripping of various shapes of metal . It is not uncommon for a blacksmith to own twenty or more pairs of tongs; traditionally, a smith would start building their collection during

1014-442: A highly refined tool carefully shaped to suit a blacksmith's needs. Anvils are made of cast or wrought iron with a tool steel face welded on or of a single piece of cast or forged tool steel. Some anvils are made of only cast iron and have no tool steel face. These are not real anvils, and will not serve a blacksmith as such because they are too soft. A common term for a cast iron anvil is "ASO" or "Anvil Shaped Object". The purpose of

1092-412: A minimum carbon content of 95%. They also differ in usage from standard grade anthracite (used mainly for power generation), being employed mainly in metallurgy as a cost-efficient substitute for coke in processes such as sintering and pelletising , as well as pulverised coal injection (PCI) and direct injection into blast furnaces . They can also be used in water purification and domestically as

1170-486: A soft ceramic thermal blanket (ex: Kaowool ). The burner mixes fuel and air which are ignited at the tip, which protrudes a short way into the chamber lining. The air pressure, and therefore heat, can be increased with a mechanical blower or by taking advantage of the Venturi effect . Gas forges vary in size and construction, from large forges using a big burner with a blower or several atmospheric burners to forges built out of

1248-426: Is a ' backdraft ' where there is no fire pot, and the tuyere enters the hearth horizontally from the back wall. Coke and charcoal may be burned in the same forges that use coal, but since there is no need to convert the raw fuel at the heart of the fire (as with coal), the fire is handled differently. Individual smiths and specialized applications have fostered the development of a variety of forges of this type, from

1326-493: Is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre . It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highest ranking of coals. The Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania in the United States has the largest known deposits of anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons . China accounts for

1404-551: Is also being mined. Countries producing HG and UHG anthracite include Russia and South Africa. HG and UHG anthracite are used as a coke or coal substitute in various metallurgical coal applications ( sintering , PCI , direct BF charge, pelletizing ). It plays an important role in cost reduction in the steel making process and is also used in production of ferroalloys , silicomanganese, calcium carbide and silicon carbide . South Africa exports lower-quality, higher-ash anthracite to Brazil to be used in steel-making. Anthracite

1482-445: Is also difficult to heat a small section of a piece. A common misconception is that gas forges cannot produce enough heat to enable forge- welding , but a well-designed gas forge is hot enough for any task. A finery forge is a water-powered mill where pig iron is refined into wrought iron . The anvil serves as a workbench to the blacksmith , where the metal to be forged is worked. Anvils may seem clunky and heavy, but they are

1560-408: Is classified into three grades, depending on its carbon content. Standard grade is used as a domestic fuel and in industrial power-generation. The rarer higher grades of anthracite are purer – i.e., they have a higher carbon content – and are used in steel-making and other segments of the metallurgical industries. Technical characteristics of the various grades of anthracite are as follows: Anthracite

1638-436: Is confined to the contorted portion west of Swansea and Llanelli , the central and eastern portions producing steam coal , coking coal and domestic house coals. Anthracite shows some alteration by the development of secondary divisional planes and fissures so that the original stratification lines are not always easily seen. The thermal conductivity is also higher; a lump of anthracite feels perceptibly colder when held in

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1716-431: Is controlled in three ways: amount of air, the volume of fuel, and shape of the fuel/fire. Over thousands of years of forging, these devices have evolved in one form or another as the essential features of this type of forge: During operation, fuel is placed in or on the hearth and ignited. A source of moving air, such as a fan or bellows, introduces additional air into the fire through the tuyere. With additional air,

1794-423: Is difficult to ignite, and burns with a short, blue, and smokeless flame. Anthracite is categorized into several grades. Standard grade is used predominantly in power generation, and high grade (HG) and ultra high grade (UHG), are used predominantly in the metallurgy sector. Anthracite accounts for about 1% of global coal reserves, and is mined in only a few countries around the world. Anthracite derives from

1872-558: Is divided by size mainly into applications that need lumps (typically larger than 10 mm) – various industrial processes where it replaces metallurgical coke , and domestic fuel – and those that need fines (less than 10 mm), such as sintering and pelletising. The common American classification by size is as follows: Lump, steamboat, egg and stove coals, the latter in two or three sizes, all three being above 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (38 mm) size on round-hole screens. High grade (HG) and ultra high grade (UHG) anthracite are

1950-503: Is fed oxygen by vent paths that have not yet been discovered. These can smolder for years. Commonly, exhaust vents in populated areas are soon sensed and are sealed while vents in uninhabited areas remain undiscovered. Occasionally, vents are discovered via fumes sensed by passers-by, often in forested areas. Attempts to extinguish those remaining have at times been futile, and several such combustion areas exist today. The existence of an underground combustion site can sometimes be identified in

2028-585: Is found in the Lackawanna Coal Mine in northeastern Pennsylvania , United States in and around Scranton , Pennsylvania. Locally called the Coal Region , the deposit contains 480 square miles (1,200 km ) of coal-bearing rock which originally held 22.8 billion short tons (20.68 billion tonnes) of anthracite. The geographic region is roughly 100 miles (161 km) in length and 30 miles (48 km) in width. Because of historical mining and development of

2106-466: Is found most abundantly in areas that have been subjected to considerable stresses and pressures, such as the flanks of great mountain ranges. Anthracite is associated with strongly deformed sedimentary rocks that were subjected to higher pressures and temperatures (but short of metamorphic conditions) just as bituminous coal is generally associated with less deformed or flat-lying sedimentary rocks. The compressed layers of anthracite that are deep mined in

2184-440: Is less than 15 percent. The heat content of anthracite ranges from 26 to 33 MJ/kg (22 to 28 million Btu / short ton ) on a moist, mineral-matter-free basis. The heat content of anthracite coal consumed in the United States averages 29 MJ/kg (25 million Btu/ton), on the as-received basis, containing both inherent moisture and mineral matter. Since the 1980s, anthracite refuse or mine waste has been used for coal power generation in

2262-464: Is now Elizabeth County. By 1750 he built Elizabeth Furnace and began casting five-plate stoves, some of which survive today. Huber hired another German immigrant, Henry William Stiegel , as clerk, and in 1752 Stiegel married Huber's daughter, Elizabeth. In 1757, Stiegel purchased his father-in-law's interest in the furnace. (The township later took its name from the furnace.) James Old (1730-1809) emigrated from Wales in 1750. Arriving in Lancaster, he

2340-494: Is now used as the driveway for Speedwell Forge mansion, and the half-mile racing track is still visible at the top of the hill, in what is now a cornfield. In 1942, Margaret Coleman Buckingham sold the Speedwell property, and surrounding 1,000 acres (4.0 km), to Gerald and Kathryn Darlington. In the 1960s, Pennsylvania state purchased about 500 acres (2.0 km) along Hammer Creek and dammed it, creating Speedwell Forge Lake. In

2418-546: Is of standard-grade anthracite, which is used in power generation. Increased demand in China has made that country into a net importer of the fuel, mostly from Vietnam, another major producer of anthracite for power generation, although increasing domestic consumption in Vietnam means that exports may be scaled back. Current U.S. anthracite production averages around five million tons per year. Of that, about 1.8 million tons were mined in

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2496-399: Is processed into different sizes by what is commonly referred to as a breaker . The large coal is raised from the mine and passed through breakers with toothed rolls to reduce the lumps to smaller pieces. The smaller pieces are separated into different sizes by a system of graduated sieves, placed in descending order. Sizing is necessary for different types of stoves and furnaces. Anthracite

2574-548: Is sold in the United Kingdom under trade names such as Phurnacite , Ancit and Taybrite. On the opposite end from high-grade anthracite coal, semianthracite coal is defined as a coal which is intermediate between anthracite coal and bituminous coal, and particularly a coal which approaches anthracite in nonvolatile character. Historically, from time to time, underground seams of coal have caught fire, often from careless or unfortunate mining activities. The pocket of ignited coal

2652-408: Is usually a large container full of water used by a blacksmith to quench hot metal. The slack tub is principally used to cool parts of the work during forging (to protect them, or keep the metal in one area from "spreading" for example, nearby hammer blows); to harden the steel; to tend a coal or charcoal forge; and simply to cool the work quickly for easy inspection. In bladesmithing and tool-making

2730-514: 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

2808-711: The Greek anthrakítēs ( ἀνθρακίτης ), literally "coal-like". Other terms which refer to anthracite are black coal , hard coal , stone coal , dark coal , coffee coal , blind coal (in Scotland), Kilkenny coal (in Ireland), crow coal or craw coal , and black diamond . "Blue Coal" is the term for a once-popular and trademarked brand of anthracite, mined by the Glen Alden Coal Company in Pennsylvania , and sprayed with

2886-501: The Mohs scale ), its higher relative density of 1.3–1.4, and luster, which is often semi-metallic with a mildly green reflection. It contains a high percentage of fixed carbon and a low percentage of volatile matter. It is also free from included soft or fibrous notches and does not soil the fingers when rubbed. Anthracitization is the transformation of bituminous coal into anthracite. The moisture content of fresh-mined anthracite generally

2964-600: The Rhenish hill countries, also known as the Culm Measures . In Britain, it may also refer to coal exported from Britain during the 19th century. In American English, "culm" refers to the waste or slack from anthracite mining, mostly dust and small pieces not suitable for use in home furnaces. Anthracite is similar in appearance to the mineraloid jet and is sometimes used as a jet imitation. Anthracite differs from ordinary bituminous coal by its greater hardness (2.75–3 on

3042-526: The Schuylkill River . Anthracite was first experimentally burned as a residential heating fuel in the US on 11 February 1808, by Judge Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania , on an open grate in a fireplace. Anthracite differs from wood in that it needs a draft from the bottom, and Judge Fell proved with his grate design that it was a viable heating fuel. In spring 1808, John and Abijah Smith shipped

3120-558: 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. Anthracite iron smelting was later displaced by 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

3198-441: The "face" is highly polished and usually has two holes (but can have more or less depending on the design). The square hole is called the hardy hole, where the square shank of the hardy tool fits. There are many different kinds of hardy tools. The smaller hole is called the pritchel hole, used as a bolster when punching holes in hot metal, or to hold tools similar to how the hardy tool does, but for tools that require being able to turn

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3276-443: The 1730s, Grubb, a stonemason , began mining in what is now known as Cornwall, Pennsylvania , and literally stumbled upon one of the largest and richest iron mines ever found. (It was mined for over 240 years, until the open pit mine flooded in 1972). In 1742, Grubb built the Cornwall Iron Furnace which used a charcoal-fired blast furnace to convert iron ore to pig iron . Peter Grubb's sons, Curtis and Peter Jr. , operated

3354-569: The 1980s. During the American Civil War , Confederate blockade runners used anthracite as a smokeless fuel for their boilers to avoid revealing their position to the blockaders. The invention of the Wootten firebox enabled locomotives to directly burn anthracite efficiently, particularly waste culm. In the early 20th century US, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad started using only

3432-522: The 1990s, Lancaster County purchased about 300 acres (1.2 km) also along Hammer Creek, and created the Speedwell Forge County Park. Today, nothing remains of the forge above ground. There are supposedly some historic artifacts underwater, but the exact location of the forge is no longer known. The associated ironmaster's mansion was fully restored in 2005 by Dawn Darlington, granddaughter of Gerald and Kathryn Darlington, and converted into

3510-403: The anvil's face. Marks on the face transfer into imperfections in the blacksmith's work. There are many types of hammer used in a blacksmith's workshop but this will name just a few common ones. Hammers can range in shape and weight from half an ounce to nearly 30 pounds depending on the type of work being done with it. Chisels are made of high carbon steel . They are hardened and tempered at

3588-407: The apprenticeship. There are various types of tongs available in the market. (1) flat tong (2) rivet or ring tong (3) straight lip fluted tong (4) gad tong Fullers are forming tools of different shapes used in making grooves or hollows. They are often used in pairs, the bottom fuller has a square shank which fits into the hardy hole in the anvil while the top fuller has a handle. The work is placed on

3666-483: The bottom fuller and the top is placed on the work and struck with a hammer. The top fuller is also used for finishing round corners and for stretching or spreading metal. The hardy tool is a tool with a square shank that fits in a hardy hole. There are many different kinds of hardy tools such as the hot cut hardy, used for cutting hot metal on the anvil; the fuller tool, used for drawing out metal and making grooves; bending jigs - and too many others to list. A slack tub

3744-412: The coal forge described above to simpler constructions amounting to a hole in the ground with a pipe leading into it. A gas forge typically uses propane or natural gas as the fuel. One common, efficient design uses a cylindrical forge chamber and a burner tube mounted at a right angle to the body. The chamber is typically lined with refractory materials such as a hard castable refractory ceramic or

3822-417: The cutting edge while the head is left soft so it will not crack when hammered. Chisels are of two types, hot and cold chisels. The cold chisel is used for cutting cold metals while the hot chisel is for hot metals. Usually, hot chisels are thinner and therefore can not be substituted with cold chisels. Also, many smiths shape chisels as to have a simple twisted handle as to resemble a hammer, they can be used at

3900-549: The dies have many aspects to them that must be considered. They all must be properly aligned, they must be designed so the metal and the flash will flow properly and fill all the grooves, and special considerations must be made for supporting webs and ribs and the parting line location. The materials must also be selected carefully. Some factors that go into the material selection are cost, their ability to harden, their ability to withstand high pressures, hot abrasion, heat cracking, and other such things. The most common materials used for

3978-550: The drop forming process is commonly known as a power or drop hammer. These may be powered by air, hydraulics, or mechanics. Depending on how the machine is powered, the mass of the ram, and the drop height, the striking force can be anywhere from 11,000 to 425,000 pounds. The tools that are used, dies and punches, come in many different shapes and sizes, as well as materials. Examples of these shapes are flat and v-shaped which are used for open-die forging, and single or multiple-impression dies used for closed die forging. The designs for

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4056-446: The fine particles used as filter media, and as an ingredient in charcoal briquettes . Anthracite was an authorised fuel in terms of the United Kingdom's Clean Air Act 1993 , meaning that it could be used within a designated Smoke Control Area such as the central London boroughs. China today mines by far the largest share of global anthracite production, accounting for more than three-quarters of global output. Most Chinese production

4134-405: The fire consumes fuel faster and burns hotter (and cleaner - smoke can be thought of as escaped potential fuel). A blacksmith balances the fuel and air in the fire to suit particular kinds of work. Often this involves adjusting and maintaining the shape of the fire. In a typical coal forge, a firepot will be centred in a flat hearth. The tuyere will enter the firepot at the bottom. In operation,

4212-404: The fire's heart and to keep the coal from burning directly so that it "cooks" into coke first. If a larger fire is necessary, the smith increases the air flowing into the fire as well as feeding and deepening the coke heart. The smith can also adjust the length and width of the fire in such a forge to accommodate different shapes of work. The major variation from the forge and fire just described

4290-468: 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. The difficulty of igniting anthracite inhibited its early use, especially in blast furnaces for smelting iron. With the development of

4368-547: The folded Ridge and Valley Province of the Appalachian Mountains of the Coal Region of East-central Pennsylvania are extensions of the same layers of bituminous coal that are mined on the generally flat lying and undeformed sedimentary rocks further west on the Allegheny Plateau of Kentucky and West Virginia , Eastern Ohio , and Western Pennsylvania . In the same way the anthracite region of South Wales

4446-402: The fuel is coal , coke or charcoal the basic design has remained the same. A forge of this type is essentially a hearth or fireplace designed to allow a fire to be controlled such that metal introduced to the fire may be brought to a malleable state or to bring about other metallurgical effects ( hardening , annealing , and tempering as examples). The forge fire in this type of forge

4524-556: The furnaces and forges closed. Speedwell closed in 1854; Cornwall held out until 1883. Some of the furnaces (including Cornwall and Hopewell) survived, simply because the furnaces were too massive to do anything with. Forges, on the other hand, could be completely dismantled and abandoned. As a result, there are no extant forges remaining in America. The Speedwell property remained in the Coleman family, and they began breeding standardbred horses for sulky racing. The quarter-mile training track

4602-437: The heated material, which is very malleable, to conform to the shape of the die and die cavities. Typically only one die is needed to completely form the part. Extra space between the die faces causes some of the material to be pressed out of the sides, forming flash . This acts as a relief valve for the extreme pressure produced by the closing of the die halves and is later trimmed off of the finished part. The equipment used in

4680-491: The highest grades of anthracite coal. They are the purest forms of coal, having the highest degree of coalification, the highest carbon count and energy content and the fewest impurities (moisture, ash and volatiles). High grade and ultra high grade anthracite are harder than standard grade anthracite, and have a higher relative density. An example of a chemical formula for high-grade anthracite would be C 240 H 90 O 4 NS, representing 94% carbon. UHG anthracite typically has

4758-403: The hot core of the fire will be a ball of burning coke in and above the firepot. The heart of the fire will be surrounded by a layer of hot but not burning coke. Around the unburnt coke will be a transitional layer of coal being transformed into coke by the heat of the fire. Surrounding all is a ring or horseshoe-shaped layer of raw coal, usually kept damp and tightly packed to maintain the shape of

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4836-529: The ironworks after 1765 and Peter Jr., who ran the Hopewell Forges on Hammer Creek , hired Robert Coleman . Around 1735, John Jacob Huber, a German immigrant, set up a tavern on Newport Road, which ran from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to the port at Newport, Delaware . (This tavern is now the Forgotten Seasons B&;B.) In 1746 he sold the tavern and purchased 400 acres (1.6 km) of land in what

4914-649: The lands overlying the coal, it is estimated that 7 billion short tons (6.3 billion tonnes) of minable reserves remain. Other areas of the United States also contain several smaller deposits of anthracite, such as those historically mined in Crested Butte, Colorado . Among current producers, Russia, China, Poland, and Ukraine have the largest estimated recoverable reserves of anthracite. Other countries with substantial reserves include Vietnam and North Korea. The Groundhog Anthracite Deposit in British Columbia , Canada,

4992-539: The majority of global production; other producers include Russia , Ukraine , North Korea , South Africa , Vietnam , Australia , Canada , and the United States . Total production in 2020 was 615 million tons. Anthracite is the most metamorphosed type of coal, but still represents low-grade metamorphism, in which the carbon content is between 86% and 97%. The term is applied to those varieties of coal which do not give off tarry or other hydrocarbon vapours when heated below their point of ignition . Anthracite

5070-423: 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 and poems containing lines like "My gown stays white / From morn till night / Upon the road of Anthracite". Similarly,

5148-592: The most economical method of obtaining power, requiring only 1 pound per horsepower-hour (0.6  kg / kWh ), or less. Large quantities of anthracite for power purposes were formerly exported from South Wales to France, Switzerland and parts of Germany. As of April 2013 , widespread commercial anthracite mining in Wales has now ceased, although a few large open cast sites remain, along with some relatively small drift mining operations. Anthracite generally costs two to six times as much as regular coal. In June 2008,

5226-420: The point at which work hardening no longer occurs. The metal (known as the "workpiece") is transported to and from the forge using tongs , which are also used to hold the workpiece on the smithy's anvil while the smith works it with a hammer. Sometimes, such as when hardening steel or cooling the work so that it may be handled with bare hands, the workpiece is transported to the slack tub , which rapidly cools

5304-476: The smaller Rice and Buckwheat are used in automatic stoker furnaces. Rice is currently the most sought-after size due to the ease of use and popularity of that type of furnace. In South Wales , a less elaborate classification is adopted, but great care is exercised in hand-picking and cleaning the coal from particles of pyrites in the higher qualities known as best malting coals, which are used for kiln-drying malt. Anthracite dust can be made into briquettes and

5382-403: The state of Pennsylvania. Mining of anthracite coal continues to this day in eastern Pennsylvania, and contributes up to 1% to the gross state product. More than 2,000 people were employed in the mining of anthracite coal in 1995. Most of the mining as of that date involved reclaiming coal from slag heaps (waste piles from past coal mining) at nearby closed mines. Some underground anthracite coal

5460-403: The term will usually be changed to a "quench tank" because oil or brine is used to cool the metal. The term slack is believed to derive from the word "slake", as in slaking the heat. Drop forging is a process used to shape metal into complex shapes by dropping a heavy hammer with a die on its face onto the workpiece. The workpiece is placed into the forge. Then the impact of a hammer causes

5538-413: The time of his death, his legacy was fully established. Speedwell Forge was used as a training ground for his sons, before being promoted to furnaces. By the 1850s, improvements in coal technology had produced anthracite coal , which burned hotter than bituminous coal. New furnaces burned hotter and were much more efficient, and the industry was moving west to places like Pittsburgh. As a result, many of

5616-620: The tools are carbon steel and, in some cases, nickel-based alloys. The materials that are used most commonly in drop forging are aluminium, copper, nickel, mild steel, stainless steel, and magnesium. Mild steel is the best choice, and magnesium generally performs poorly as a drop forging material. Various gods and goddesses are associated with the forge in a number of mythologies, such as the Irish Brigid , West African Ogun , Greek Hephaestus and Roman Vulcan . Anthracite coal Anthracite , also known as hard coal and black coal ,

5694-456: The warm hand than a similar lump of bituminous coal at the same temperature. Anthracite has a history of use in blast furnaces for iron smelting; however, it lacked the pore space of metallurgical coke , which eventually replaced anthracite. In southwest Wales , anthracite has been burned as a domestic fuel since at least medieval times, when it was mined near Saundersfoot . More recently, large-scale mining of anthracite took place across

5772-618: 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 and woke to the sight of a large fire because his campfire had ignited an outcrop of anthracite coal. By 1795, an anthracite-fired iron furnace had been built on

5850-445: The wholesale cost of anthracite was US$ 150/ short ton , falling to $ 107/ton in 2021; it makes up 1% of U.S. coal production. The principal use of anthracite today is for a domestic fuel in either hand-fired stoves or automatic stoker furnaces. It delivers high energy per its weight and burns cleanly with little soot, making it ideal for this purpose. Its high value makes it prohibitively expensive for power plant use. Other uses include

5928-459: The winter where fallen snow is seen to be melted by the warmth conducted from below. Proposals for harnessing this heat as geothermal energy have not been successful. A vein of anthracite that caught fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania , in 1962 has been burning ever since, turning the once-thriving borough into a ghost town . Geologically, the largest most concentrated anthracite deposit in the world

6006-420: The workpiece in a large body of water . However, depending on the metal type, it may require an oil quench or a salt brine instead; many metals require more than plain water hardening. The slack tub also provides water to control the fire in the forge. A forge typically uses bituminous coal , industrial coke or charcoal as the fuel to heat metal. The designs of these forges have varied over time, but whether

6084-613: Was employed at Windsor Forge in Caernarvon Township . A few years later, he struck out on his own and built Poole Forge, also in Caernarvon Township. In 1760, he and his partner David Caldwell purchased land from Huber along Hammer Creek , and built Speedwell Forge. Robert Coleman (1748–1825) was born in Caste Finn , Ireland , and immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1764. Arriving penniless, his beautiful penmanship soon earned him

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