Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Trials of Welsh and Mixed Coals . . .

But the Newcastle colliery proprietors commenced a series of experiments in their own way, which were witnessed by two commissioners from the Admiralty, one of whom subsequently reported that the trials had been made in a boiler made especially for experimental trials of a peculiar "coal," and which "favoured in a remarkable manner the combustion of bituminous coal."

Under these circumstances the Welsh colliery proprietors determined to conduct a series of experiments themselves, on board the Isabella Croll screw steamer, in the Bute Docks, Cardiff.

These experiments were witnessed by Messrs. Taplin and Lynn, two engineer officers sent for the purpose by the Board of Admiralty, the boiler was certified to be a fair type of the marine boilers in general use, and the Newcastle coal employed was of the best description, known as Hartley coal, and carefully screened before submitting it to the test.

The Welsh coal employed was taken from eleven different properties. The results of these experiments confirmed in a remarkable manner the results obtained by Sir Henry De la Beche and Dr. Lyon Playfair.

According to the exhaustive experiments made by these eminent chemists the average of the Aberdare coals tried was : -

Weight of water in lbs. evaporated from 212° by lib. of coal 10.05 The average of the Hartley coals 7.65. Superiority in favour of Welsh coal, 31.3 per cent.

According to Cardiff experiments :— The average of the Aberdare coal was 10.673. The average of the Hartley coals 8.116. Superiority in favour of Welsh coal, 31.5 per cent.

Coming at last to the conclusion that it was useless to dispute the relative merits of Newcastle and Welsh tried singly, the Northern men now conceived the idea and suggested it to the Admiralty, that a mixture of the two coals might obtain results of equal, if not superior, value to that of the Welsh alone.