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THE FIRST ANTHRACITE PIG IRON.

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THE FIRST ANTHRACITE PIG IRON. MANUFACTURED BY DAVID THOMAS, YNISCEDWYN. We have received a copy of the "Bulletin" newspaper, of the 10th December last, pub lished at Philapelphia. In one of the lead- ing articles reference is made to the first manufacture of anthracite pig iron with an- thracite, coal, by the application of hot blast, by the late Mr. David Thomas, the pioneer of the American Anthracite Iron Trade, who left Yniscedwyn Iron Works, Swansea Valley, in the year 1839, for Ameri- ca We have pleasure in reproducing the article, as it will no doubt interest many locally, who have recollection of the famous pig iron made at Yniscedwyn. We are also pleased to note that prominence i9 given in the article to the name of our respected townsman, Mr. E. Roberts, metal broker, who wrote in 1883 a biography of the late Mr. David Thomas referred to, and a copy of which Mr. Roberts presented to the Royal Institution of South Wales. Institution of Soujfch WaJes. The following is the article mentioned above — THE FIRST ANTHRACITE PIG IROX. Readers of the Bulletin will r. member that we published in its columns a few weeks ago a circumstantial account of the first suc- cessful application of the hot-blast to the smelting of iron ore with anthracite coal this result having been attained by David Thomas in 1837 at a furnace of the Ynisced- wyn Iron WNkio, in Wales, then operated fey George Crane. This account was embodied in an address by Samuel Thomas, of Cata- flauqua, Pa., at the meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers at San Fran- cisco in September, 1899, and was in part ex- tracted from a biographical sketch of David Thomas written by Edward Roberts, of Swan- eoa, Wales, and published in the number for October, 1883, of the Red Dragon," the national magazine of Wales. We have had this issue of the Red Dragon in our own hands. Mr. Roberts's narrative must be re- garded as authentic and conclusive by reason of his free access to the records of the Ynis- cedwyn Iron Works during his long connec- tion with them. Since the above-mentioned account was published in the "Bulletin" we have seen an autograph letter written in October last by Mr. Roberts to Mr. Samuel Thomas, the son of David Thomas, which confirms the state- ments made in the Red Dragon and in- corporated by Mr. Thomas in his San Fran- cisco address. From this letter we quote the following sentences I duly received your kind letter of 20th September last, with two copies of your ad- dress before the Mining Engineers at San Francisco, for which please accept my warm- est thanks, as the reminiscences are to me most interesting, and they are a correct re- cord of the origin, and the originator, of the manufacture of anthracite iron-making tn this country-that is by your father and his inventive methods.I endorse all you cay with reference to hiq initial experiments and suc- cess at Yniscedwyn Iron Worhs. When I wrote the article in the "Red Dragon" fotr October, 1883, your father's personality and his works were so interesting and fascinatin g to me that I felt strongly that. hi& life should have a permanent place in the history of the iron trade of this country, and you will be glad to hear that my facts are accepted by .all.' We are glad that Mr. Roberts, by his time- ly article in the Red Dragon" seventeen years ago, has given the true story of the first successful application, of the hot-blast to the manufacture of pig iron with anthra- cite coal. That work was done at Ynisced- wyn by David Thomas."

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ST. MATTHEWS 'WELSH CHURCH.I

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