WATERWORKS. THE Philadelphia Waterworks were begun in the spring of 1799, by constructing a large house, for water power, near the banks of the Schuylkill, southward of High street, (of which see a picture,) and also, another edifice of marble, at the Centre square, as a receiving fountain, (of which also see a picture.) It was an ornamental structure; but with some it nevertheless bore the disparaging name of "the pepper box," in allusion to its circular form and appearance. These works had at first but little encouragement; and to induce moneyed men to adventure their capital, they were offered water free of rent for a term of years. As late as 1803, only 960 dollars was the rental of the water, although nearly 300,000 dollars had then been expended on the enterprise. At same time, one hundred and twenty-six houses were receiving the water free of cost. In 1814, there were two thousand eight hundred and fifty dwellings receiving the water, and paying a rent of 18,000 dollars. In that year, the cost of raising the water was 24,000 dollars. In 1818, the steam engine at Fairmount was set in operation, and raised the water at a saving of 8000 dollars, still leaving an expense of 16,000 per annum; but in 1827, such were the improvements introduced, that the expense of raising the water was but 1478 dollars, while the water rents from the city and districts had risen to 33,560 dollars, and this is still rapidly increasing. In the eventual success of these measures we owe much to the skill and perseverance of J. S. Lewis and Frederic Graff, names which will be always identified with the origin and the renown of a lasting public benefit. Our great benefactor, Franklin, early foresaw the need of a fresh supply of water for Philadelphia, and recommended the Wissahiccon creek for that object; but that, now that the city has so much increased in population, would be drained dry in a week. There was little or no desire expressed by the citizens of Philadelphia, for any other than their good pump-water, till after the yellow fever of 1793. Then, when the mind was alive to every suggested danger of ill health, the idea of pump-water being no longer good found its increasing supporters. But after river water was introduced, many were still very slow and reluctant to give up their icy-cold well water, for the tepid waters of Schuylkill. Numerous pits, however, for other purposes, in time destroyed the former pure taste of the pump-water, and led finally to their total abandonment, and the consequent increased patronage to the present necessary waterworks. ANTHRACITE COAL. "I sat beside the glowing grate, fresh heap'd WHEN the anthracite coal up the Schuylkill, at Mount Carbon, &c., was first effectively discovered-since the year 1800, it was deemed of little value, because they could devise no way to ignite it -a character which its name sufficiently denotes. About the year 1810-11, however, a practical chemist, I believe an Englishman, his name unknown to fame or me, combining science with practice, made such an analysis of the coal as convinced him there was inherent in the mass all the properties suited for combustion. He therefore erected a furnace in a small vacant house on the causeway road (Beech street) leading over to Kensington. To this he applied three strong bellows; these succeeded to give out such an immense white heat from the coal as to melt platina itself! From this experiment, at which two of my friends were present as invited witnesses, were derived such proofs as led to its future general use in our city. It was in the year 1808, that Judge Fell, at Wyoming, made the first experiment to use that coal in a grate of his own construction; a measure in which he succeeded far beyond his expectations. Before that time they had used it only for smith-work. It was first so used in 1768-9, by Obadiah Gore, (an early settler of Wyoming,) and afterwards by all, the smiths there. The Mount Carbon coal was known to exist in the neighbourhood more than fifty years ago; and some search was made, but the coal found being so very different from any which was previously known, it was not thought to be of any value, and the search was abandoned. It is supposed to be fifty years since a blacksmith, by the name of Whetstone, found coal and used it in his smithshop. At a very early period, Judge Cooper declared his belief of the existence of coal in the district, and the Messrs. Potts explored various places along the old Sunbury road, but success did not attend their operations. A Mr. William Morris afterwards became the proprietor of most of the coal lands at the head of our canal; he found coal, and took some quantity to Philadelphia, about the year 1800; but all his efforts to bring it into use failed, and he abandoned the project, and sold his lands to their late proprietor, Mr. Potts. It does not appear that much notice was taken of the coal from the time of Whetstone, and the search made by the Messrs. Potts, until about thirty years ago, when a person by the name of Peter Bastrus, a blue-dyer, in building the valley forge, found coal in the tailrace. About the same time, a Mr. David Berlin, a blacksmith in this neighbourhood, permanently commenced and introduced the use of stone coal in the smith's forge, and continued to use and instruct others in its use many years afterwards. But old habits again became victorious, and appear to have held undisputed sway unti about the year 1812, when Mr. George Shoemaker, a present innkeeper at Pottsville, and Nicholas Allen, discovered coal on a piece of land they had purchased, now called Centreville. Allen soon became disheartened, and gave up the concern to Shoemaker, who, receiving encouragement from some gentlemen in Philadelphia, got out a quantity of coal, and took nine wagon-loads to Philadelphia. Here again, our coal met with a host of opposition. On two wagonloads Mr. S. got the carriage paid; the others he gave away to persons who would attempt to use them. The result was against the coal; those who tried them, pronounced them stone and not coal, good for nothing, and Shoemaker an impostor! At length, after a multitude of disappointments, and when Shoemaker was about to abandon the coal and return home, Messrs. Mellon and Bishop, of Delaware county, made an experiment with some of the coal in their rolling mill, and found them to succeed beyond expectation, and to be a highly valuable and useful fuel. The result of their experiments was published at the time in the Philadelphia papers. Some experiments with the coal were made in the works at the falls of Schuylkill, but without success. Mr. Wernwag, the manager at the Phoenix works, at French creek, also made trial of the coal, and found it eminently useful. From that time forward, the use of the coal spread rapidly, and now bids fair to become a most important and valuable branch of trade, and to produce results highly beneficial to the interests of Pennsylvania generally. The foregoing statement may appear minute, but it is due to the individuals who laboured to force us to see the great benefit which coal is and will be to our state. We are aware that the credit of pointing out the use, and perhaps of discovering the anthracite, has been claimed by and awarded to individuals in another part of our state; but it is within the knowledge of many, that those individuals joined in pronouncing the coal good for nothing. We have abundant testimony also for the facts and dates we have given; from which it appears, that to Mr. David Berlin, George Shoemaker, and Messrs. Mellon and Bishop, we are indebted for the discovery of the use and introduction of our anthracite or stone coal. The Lehigh Coal Company was originated in 1773, on a very small scale, and began its career by purchasing the tract of Jacob Weiss, on which is the large opening on Summit hill, nine miles up from Mauch Chunk. The difficulty and expense of transportation were however such as to dishearten the stockholders, and the property was permitted to lie idle for some years. The first and second coal regions were then entirely unknown. |