Oilwick Lamps

Consol Marking | CONSOLIDATION COAL - Hard to find copper face lamp with brass hook, 2 1/8 in. high to top of lid, 1 5/8 in. base dia., 2 3/8 in. spout length, marked on font COMPLIMENTS OF THE CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY OF MARYLAND FROSTBURG APR 29, 1897, double spout, ex-Bob Guthrie collection, unfired condition [The Consolidation Coal Company of Maryland, also known as Consol, was founded and incorporated by a charter from the Maryland legislature in 1860. Frederic Walcott was elected the company’s first president and the board of directors included several prestigious members such as William Aspinwall, Erastus Corning and John Forbes among others. The company actually started operations on April 19, 1864 in Western Maryland through the purchase of lands of several small coal operators including the Ocean Steam Coal Company, the Frostburg Coal Company and Mount Savage Iron Company. Headquartered in Cumberland, MD, the first year production of the company totaled 33,000 tons of coal. The company quickly became the largest bituminous coal producer in the eastern US, operating several mines in Maryland’s George’s Creek Coalfield. The George’s Creek Coalfield is the best documented coal district in Maryland. It has been the most productive field in the state since mining began in the 1820s, focusing on the Pittsburgh Seam (called the Big Vein, now mined out) and the low-volatile Upper Freeport Seam (locally called the Davis Seam). The Pittsburgh seam here was as much as 14-ft thick, and much lower in sulfur than its occurrence around Northern West Virginia or Eastern Ohio. During the 1800s, the coal was used locally by iron furnaces and blacksmiths. George’s Creek coal was considered a premium grade of coal, and, as its reputation spread, some of it began to be shipped to distant steel mills like Maryland Steel Company at Sparrows Point, Maryland; or shipped to the East Coast to fuel ocean liners. Coal was shipped on the C&O Canal and by rail after the B&O reached Cumberland in 1842. In addition to the B&O, the Western Maryland and Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroads provided rail service to this coalfield in the 1900s. By the 1920s the Big Vein was exhausted and production from the George’s Creek Coalfield declined. Consolidation Coal Company continued to expand its operations into Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia. Coal production reached 1.5 million tons per year in 1897 and by 1927, the company was the largest producer of bituminous coal in the US. The company had grown to 9000 employees by 1933 producing over 7.3 million tons of coal annually. In 1945 the company merged with Pittsburgh Coal Company and its headquarters were moved from Cumberland to Western Pennsylvania. Consolidation Coal was purchased by the Continental Oil Company (Conoco) in 1966 hoping to capitalize on its large natural gas reserves. By the mid-1970s, the company operated 56 mines and employed nearly 20,000 miners. In 1981, Conoco and Consolidation Coal were purchased by DuPont which eventually sold its coal mining interests to a German energy company, Rheinbraun. Renamed Consol Energy, the company today is the leading producer of high-BTU bituminous coal in the United States and the U.S.'s largest underground coal mining company. The marking on the font of this oil wick lamp is thought to commemorate the 1897 opening of the company’s Ocean Mine No. 7, a banner mine for Consolidation Coal. Located approximately 3 miles southwest of Frostburg, the mine employed over 1000 men and was the largest underground mine in the George’s Creek Coalfield. Closing in 1924, the mine set the highest production level of a bituminous coal mine (5705 net tons/day max) in the country.]

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