It was Cousin "Dod" (Mr. George Lauder) to whom we were indebted for a
new development in our mill operations--the first of its kind in
America. He it was who took our Mr. Coleman to Wigan in England and
explained the process of washing and coking the dross from coal mines.
Mr. Coleman had constantly been telling us how grand it would be to
utilize what was then being thrown away at our mines, and was indeed
an expense to dispose of. Our Cousin "Dod" was a mechanical engineer,
educated under Lord Kelvin at Glasgow University, and as he
corroborated all that Mr. Coleman stated, in December, 1871, I
undertook to advance the capital to build works along the line of the
Pennsylvania Railroad. Contracts for ten years were made with the
leading coal companies for their dross and with the railway companies
for transportation, and Mr. Lauder, who came to Pittsburgh and
superintended the whole operation for years, began the construction of
the first coal-washing machinery in America. He made a success of
it--he never failed to do that in any mining or mechanical operation
he undertook--and he soon cleared the cost of the works. No wonder
that at a later date my partners desired to embrace the coke works in
our general firm and thus capture not only these, but Lauder also.
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