History of Coal and its Use
A valuable natural and economic resource used for fuel.
Hundreds of millions of years ago , prehistoric plant life decayed in layers called peat. Wide areas of the earth’s surface eventually sank and were covered with water, which put tremendous pressure on these layer of peat and gradually turned it into coal. The earth’s crust bulked and folded, causing more pressure and heat, which helped formed the high quality coal formed in PA. Today.
Type of Coal Found in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has rich deposits of Anthracite, which is hard, and Bituminous or soft coal. The anthracite coal industry started first, but bituminous coal became more popular once heavy industry such as steel increasingly turned to coke, a derivative of bituminous coal as the fuel of choice. Andrew Carnegie used this energy source to build his steel empire with the Carnegie Steel Company and later the U.S. Steel Corporation.