"Stone Lodge was situated on a moor within a mile or two of a great town — called Coketown in the present faithful guide-book."
I wonder what "coke" meant to Dickens.When I was young, very large quantities of soft coal were converted into gas for home heat, and the residue, a gray sponge was called coke, which was used in making good steel, because the sulfur had been removed.It was also used for home heating.
The sponge was composed of coal similar to anthracite,hard coal. Dickens can have known none of this. Remember that the Titanic sank because its steel plates were brittle from the impurities in the coal used in smelting it.
According to this site
http://britishhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa060300a.htm, coke has been used as a fuel for manufacturing iron since 1709.
Bingley
Dear Bingley: I hadn't realized that coke was made so early. Searching for "Abraham Darby coke iron" brought up a site with a bit more information:scroll down 1/3
http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/darbyo.htmI'm surprised to learn that they were able to make the equipment needed to make coke. I wonder if they were also able to use the gas produced in the process.
The link from Dr Bill shows the Iron Bridge at Ironbridge in Shropshire. The bridge itself is still standing and maintained in excellent condition, though now it carries only foot traffic. This stretch of the Severn river, the Ironbridge Gorge, although little known, is the birth place of the industrial revolution. In 1986 U N E S C O, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, inscribed Ironbridge Gorge as a World Heritage Site in its Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural Natural Heritage.
U N E S C O states that "In Ironbridge, known worldwide as the symbol of the Industrial Revolution, all the elements of progress developed in an 18th century industrial region can be found, from the mines themselves to the railway lines. Nearby, the blast furnace of Coalbrookdale, built in 1708, is a reminder of the discovery of coke, which, together with the bridge at Ironbridge, the first metallic bridge in the world, had considerable influence on the evolution of technology and architecture."
It is a fascinating area full of industrial archaeology and yet, in it's current sleepy passivity, also full of charm and beauty.
I couldn't help but smile at this extract from Dr. Bill's link:
Darby was not the first man to use coke as a substitute. Nearly a century before, Dud Dudley (1599-1684), illegitimate son of the 5th Earl of Dudley, had experimented with it in his father's ironworks, but with only limited success.
Bingley