Category: History - American
Every one knows that mineral coal is dug out from the crust of the earth. But the question frequently is asked concerning it, How and under what conditions was it formed? In order to answer this inquiry it is necessary to have recourse to the science of geology.
Every one knows that mineral coal is dug out from the crust of the earth. But the question frequently is asked concerning it, How and under what conditions was it formed? In ord...
2. CHAPTER II.In reply it may be said that it is a mineral. It is black or brown in color, solid, heavy, and amorphous. The specific gravity of the average Pennsylvania anthracite is about 1....
3. CHAPTER III.It becomes of interest now to examine briefly into the causes and process of the transformation from vegetable substance into coal, to note the character of the vegetation which...
4. CHAPTER IV.The process of growth, deposition, submergence, and burial, described in the preceding chapter, continued throughout the Carboniferous age. Each period of inundation and of the...
5. CHAPTER V.Although it has been within comparatively recent times that coal has come into general use as a fuel, yet there can be no doubt that it was discovered, and that its qualities we...
6. CHAPTER VI.At the beginning of the present century the anthracite or stone coal was in general use, in all the districts where it was found, as a fuel for the blacksmith’s fire and the iro...
7. CHAPTER VII.A wise coal operator never begins to open a mine for the purpose of taking out coal until he knows the character of the bed and the quality of the mineral. This knowledge can on...
8. CHAPTER VIII.The progress that has been made in the science of mining coal within the last half century bears favorable comparison with the progress that has been made in the other industria...
9. CHAPTER IX.The number of persons employed in a single mine in the anthracite regions varies from a dozen in the newest and smallest mines to seven hundred or eight hundred in the largest a...
10. CHAPTER X.A first visit to a coal mine will be prolific of strange sights and sounds and of novel sensations. If one enters the mine by a shaft, the first noteworthy experience will be th...
11. CHAPTER XI.Man is an air-breathing animal. So soon as his supply of air is cut off he dies. In proportion as that supply is lessened or vitiated, his physical and mental energies fail. One...
12. CHAPTER XII.One of the chief dangers to which workmen in the mines are subject arises from the gases given off by minerals and metals. Though these deleterious gases are commonly found in m...
13. CHAPTER XIII.In the act of 1885 it is provided that “no inflammable structure other than a frame to sustain pulleys or sheaves shall be erected over the entrance of any opening connecting th...
14. CHAPTER XIV.A brief history of the discovery and introduction into use of the bituminous coals of Pennsylvania has already been given; but only casual reference has been made to the methods...
15. CHAPTER XV.In the coal mines of the United States boys are employed at two kinds of labor: to attend the doors on the traveling roads, and to drive the mules. This is known as inside work....
16. CHAPTER XVI.A good miner may be called a “skilled workman,” and, as such, he is entitled to greater compensation for his labor than an ordinary workman. He expects it and gets it. There are...