Report
of the
LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY
to the
STOCKHOLDERS
JANUARY 14, 1839.
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REPORT
At and Election hold on the 14th of January 1839,
the following named persons were chosen officers of THE LEHIGH COAL AND
NAVIGATION COMPANY
for the ensuing year: viz.
President
JOSEPH WATSON
MANAGERS.
Josiah
White, Jonathan
K. Hassinger,
Erskine
Hazard, John
McAllister,
Timothy
Abbott, James
McAlpin,
Thomas
Earp, Nathan
Trotter,
John
Cook, Joseph
R. Jenkes.
Treasurer.
Otis Ammidon.
EDWIN WALTER,
Secretary.
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REPORT
The Managers of the Lehigh Coal
and Navigation Co. submit to the stockholders the following report:
The general interruption of business
in the manufacturing districts of our country existing at the close of the year
1837, and the large stocks of the various kinds of Anthracite coal which
remained on hand at that time (which combination of unfavourable circumstances
was stated inthe last annual report) induced us to plan and conduct the mining
operations of the company, in 1838, on a scale less extensive than in the
previous year. The same causes also operated to produce a falling off in the
business of the Schuylkill and Lackawanna regions.
There were taken from the
Company's mines, and sent to their landing at Mauch Chunk, in the past season,
154,693 tons, of which 153,547 tons were shipped down the Lehigh Canal, and to
various markets, by way ofthe several channels radiating from its debouche at
South Easton, viz. the Delaware
Canal to Bristol; the Delaware and Raritan Canal to the Company's depot at
Perth Amboy; and the Morris Canal to Newark, and to Jersey City ....
...............
The principality of Wales, in
Great Britain, along, makes annually about 300,000 ton of iron, amounting to at
least $15,000,000. As the demand for iron, for railroads, steamboats and other
purposes, is so much beyond the supply as to keep up the price of the article
in England fifty per cent higher than it has sometimes been, we think the
presumption a reasonable one that a business may be done here, ere many years,
in that article, equal to say one-fourth of that in Wales; and indeed we have
on the Lehigh Navigation enough of water power and of anthracite coal, and (by
embracing with it the iron ore on the Morris Canal) a sufficiency of iron ore,
to meet a demand for iron equal to the whole quantity that is made in Wales.
The Company have put upona plane of twelve hundred feet
in length, at their Room Run mines, an iron band, one-twelfth of an inch in
thickness by three inches in width, as a substitute for rope or chain, which
has answered their most sanguine expectations. It has been in use three months,
and has passed down 15,764 tons of coal. No doubt is entertained but that it
will save fully three‑fourths of the cost of ropes onthe planes.
Two large steamboats, the Passaic and the Independence,
passing between Now York and Newark and Perth Amboy, have been put into
successful operation with anthracite coal, the former having used it during all
the last year, and the latter for several months past, proving its superiority
for economy, convenience and cleanliness, over bituminous coal or wood; one ton
of anthracite effecting as much as one cord and three quarters of wood. One of
these boats, the Independence, moves at the rate of 17 miles per hour. The
Company's steam tow boats Pennsylvania and Convoy, continue to be run with
anthracite coal with the most desirable success, the former occasionally towing
upwards of one thousand tons of freight at a time. It is believed that so soon
as the practice of passing a portion of the escape steam under the grate bars
of the furnace, is added to other valuable improvements, already adopted, the
use of anthracite coal will become general, not only in our steam boats on
fresh water, but also in the large steam ships, now crossing the Atlantic to
and from England; This article being abundant and cheap here, and as it is
understood, there also.
The experience of Garrett &
Eastwick, of Philadelphia, in successfully using anthracite coal in their
locomotive engines, has received additional confirmation during the past year,
on the Columbia Railroad; also on the Sunbury branch of the Danville and
Pottsville Railroad, on which they have used no other fuel for several months
past, in drawing their coal. The Beaver Meadow company, and the Hazleton and
Laurel H111 Coal companies, have their locomotives in use all burning
anthracite coal exclusively.
Mr. Ross Winans, of Baltimore,
has brought one of his locomotives on to the Columbia railroad, and we are
gratified in stating that we have seen a letter addressed to him from John
Brandt and James T. Paxton, the former the superintendent of the machinery used
on that road, and the latter the manager under whose charge the locomotive was
run, from which the following is extracted: "The engine was put to work at
transporting burthen, and remained in
regular operation for about one month. .....