From Coal to Coke

From Coal to Coke. . , The soft, crumbly, low-sulfur coal extracted from this valley was ideal for processing into a charcoal-like substance called coke. Coke was and remains an essential fuel for blast furnaces in the nation's steel mills., To turn coal into coke, crews loaded freshly mined coal into heavy, brick-lined ovens and baked it for days. As the coal heated, it went through four distinct stages of chemical transformation: sweating, gassing, and striking, then igniting into a blaze., Throughout the burning process, smoke poured from the oven – first pale blue, then white, then dark brownish-yellow, and finally, a deep black. When the smoke stopped the coal’s impurities had been completely burned off and transformed into red-hot coke., A team of men worked to transform coal into coke. The charger lit the fire, the leveler leveled the coal inside the oven, and the dauber bricked up the oven door leaving only a crack for air at the top. When the cooling process was completed, a quencher sprayed water on the fire, and a drawer or coke puller scraped the coke out of the oven and onto the ground.,

"At Coketon there are already more than 400 ovens in operation….They are build in double rows on each side of the railroad track. Wednesday night the flames from more than 400 furnaces present a scene long to be remembered." , , WVC&P Annual Report, 1892