| Lackawanna Coal Mine Continue |
| The miners were paid for the number of cars of coal they produced. There were other jos besides being a miner and boys as young as 7 or 8 worked in other jobs for the mine. As shown in the diagram below, the wages of the mine workers at the Lackawanna coal mine. |
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| Another mining process involved the miners using dynamite and breaking up the coal into large chunks. They would put dynamite with blating caps and wires into drilled holes (they would push them in very deep). Then the miners would pack the hole for safety reasons. Then they would yell "fire in the hole" to warn that they are blowing up dynamite. They would blow up the dynamite by using a big black box with enough electricity to set off the dynamite. |
| Coal Formation and age |
| Coal is made up of compressed bits of dead plants. Dead plants accumulate in low oxygen settings and as the dead plants accumulate a bed of peat forms. The peat bed eventually gets buried uder other sediments and undergoes heat and pressure. The peat begins to transform into a low grade coal. Then after more pressure it transforms into a different coal and even more pressure makes anthracite coal. The coal is usually classified into three groups, Lignite, a brown coal, Bituminous coal, soft coal, and Anthracite, or hard coal. Anthracite coal is dense, hard and shiny. About 250,000,000 BC to 400,000,000 BC Anthracite coal was formed. This was during the Carboniferous Geologic Period. At this time Pennsylvania, where the coal is located, was a hot, muggy, plain covered with steaming swamps. The picture below is a piece of Anthracite coal. |
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| Environmental Impacts |
| Many people died working at the mines from rock falling, harmful gases and other hazerdous conditions. To check for gases they use to use Canary (birds). If the bird suffocated then there was harmful gases. Later on a new invetion called the Davy lamp, detected gases because its light grew in size when gases were in the air. Also many people eventually got sick from working in the mines long term. They got a bad cough and weezed badly. Below are pictures of Davy lamps. |
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