These well-authenticated instances of the use of anthracite appear to destroy the commonly accepted belief that Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes Barre was the first person whose attempts to burn this coal in an open grate were rewarded with complete success. Nevertheless the value of Judge Fell’s experiments cannot be questioned, nor can he be deprived of the full measure of credit due to him for bringing those experiments to a successful issue. Until the year 1808 all efforts in the Wyoming valley to burn the “stone coal” of the region without an artificial air blast had utterly failed. People did not believe that it could be done. The successes of Evans and Graff in this direction were either not known or not credited. It is certain that Judge Fell had not heard of them. His opinion that this coal could be made to burn in an open fireplace was based wholly on the reasoning of his own mind. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and had come to Wilkes Barre some years before from Berks County. He was a blacksmith by trade, the proprietor of the best hotel in town, and he came afterward to be one of the associate judges of Luzerne County. When he had fully considered the matter of burning the stone coal, and had reached definite conclusions, he began to experiment. At first he constructed a grate of green hickory sticks, and the presumption is that the fire he kindled in it was a success; for he began, immediately afterward, to make an iron grate similar to the grates now in use. The work was done by his nephew Edward Fell and himself in the blacksmith shop of the former, and was completed in a single day. Judge Fell took the grate home late in the afternoon and set it with brick in the fireplace of his bar-room. In the evening he kindled in it, with oak wood, a glowing coal fire, and invited a large number of the most respected citizens of the place to come in and see the stone coal burn. Only a few came, however, in response to his invitation; they believed his theory to be impracticable, and feared that they might be made the victims of a hoax. But to those who came the fire was a revelation. It cleared the way for immense possibilities. Judge Fell himself realized the importance of his discovery, and thought the incident worthy of record. Being a devoted member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, he chose from his library a book entitled “The Free Mason’s Monitor,” and wrote on the fly-leaf, in a clear, bold hand, this memorandum:―― “Fe’b 11^th, of Masonry 5808. Made the experiment of burning the common stone coal of the valley in a grate in a common fire place in my house, and find it will answer the purpose of fuel; making a clearer and better fire, at less expense, than burning wood in the common way. [Signed] JESSE FELL. “BOROUGH OF WILKESBARRE, _February 11^th 1808_.”