History of coal mining

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coal has been used for centuries, in many parts of the world.

Around 1800 it became the main energy source for the Industrial Revolution, the expanding railway system of countries being a prime user. Britian developed the main techniques of underground mining from the late 18th century onward with further progress being driven by 19th and early 20th century progess. ^[1]

By 1900 the United States and Britain were the chief producers, followed by Germany.

However oil and its associated fuels began to be used as alternative from this period onward. By the late 20th century coal was for the most part replaced in domestic as well as industrial and transportation usage by oil, natural gas or electricity produced from oil, gas, nuclear or renewable energy sources.

Since 1890 coal has also been a political and social issue. Coal miners' labour unions became powerful in many countries in the 20th century, often leading the Socialist movement. Since 1970 environmental issues have been paramount, including health of miners, damage to landscape, air pollution, and contribution to global warming.

Coal remains the cheapest energy source by a factor of 50% and even in many economies (such as U.S.) it is the primary fuel used in electricity generation.

Contents 1 Early history 2 The Industrial Revolution 3 The UK 4 The U.S. 5 1900 6 Post World War II Europe 7 2007 8 Notes 9 Bibliography 9.1 Britain 9.2 United States 9.3 World 10 External links

[edit] Early history

Coal was first used in various parts of the world during the Bronze Age, 1000-2000 BC. The Chinese began to use coal for heating and smelting in the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). They are credited with organizing production and consumption to the extent that by the year 1000 AD this activity could be called an industry. China remained the world's largest producer and consumer of coal until the 18th century.^[2] Roman historians describe coal as a heating source in Britannia. ^[3]

The earliest use of coal in the Americas was by the Aztecs. They used coal not only for heat but as ornaments as well. Coal deposits were discovered by colonists in Eastern North America in the 18th century. ^[4]

Early coal extraction was small-scale, the coal lying either on the surface, or very close to it. Typical methods for extraction included drift mining and bell pits. In the UK, some of the earliest drift mines (in the Forest of Dean) date from the medieval period. ^[5]

As well as drift mines, small scale shaft mining was used. This took the form of a bell pit, the extraction working outward from a central shaft, or a technique called room and pillar in which 'rooms' of coal were extracted with pillars left to support the roofs. Both of these techniques however left considerable amount of usable coal behind.

[edit] The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the 1700s and later spread to Europe, North America, and Japan, was based on the availability of coal, and industry was transformed and greatly expanded in scale and scope with the invention of the steam engine in the late 18th century. International trade expanded exponentially when these coal-fed steam engines were built for the railways and ships in the 1810-1840 era. Coal was cheaper and much more efficient than wood in most steam engines. As central and northern England contains an abundance of coal, many mines were situated in these areas. The small-scale techniques were unsuited to the increasing demand, with extraction moving away from surface extraction to deep shaft mining as the Industrial Revolution progressed.^[6]

As early as the 1750s, men, women, and even children as young as five worked in these mines. Conditions were often brutish and many perished or were injured in the early stages of the industrial revolution without compensation. The worst single disaster in British coal mining history was at Senghenydd in South Wales. On the morning of 14 October 1913 an explosion and subsequent fire killed 436 men and boys. Only 72 bodies were recovered.

[edit] The UK

Early coal extraction in the UK was as described previously, or in some areas unessecary given the availablity of coal on beaches (for example the Northumberland coast)^{[citation needed]}

Deep shaft mining in the UK started to develop in the late 18th century^{[citation needed]}, although rapid expansion occured throughout the 19th and early 20th Century^{[citation needed]}.

Coal extraction passed into Government control in 1947, although coal had been a political issue since the early part of the century. The need to mantain coal supplies (a primary energy source) had figured in both world wars.

As well as energy supply, coal in the UK became a political issue, due to conditons under which coilers worked and the way they were treated by colliery owners. The General Strike of 1926 was in part due to concerens coilers had over working conditons^{[citation needed]}. Much of the 'old left' of British politics can trace it's origins to coal-mining areas.

Technological development throughout the 19th and 20th century helped both to improve the saftey of coillers and the productive capactiy of coileries they worked

In the late 20th Century, improved integartion of coal extraction with bulk industries such as electrical generation helped Coal mantain it's position despite the emergence of alternative energys supplies such as oil,gas, and from the late 50's nuclear power (in respect of electrical generation). More recently coal has faced competiton from renewable energy sources and so called bio-fuels.

However the 1980s and 1990s saw much much change in the coal insustry within the UK, with the industry contracting, in some areas quite drasticly.^{[citation needed]} Many pits were 'uneconomic' to work at current wage rates compared to 'cheap' North Sea oil and gas, and in comparison to subsidy levels in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

It is also claimed ^{[citation needed]}, however that some contraction was politically motivated given the links coal workers had with left-wing politics. The Miners' Strike of 1984 and subsequent scuffles may have figured in the Conversative govt's thinking to substantialy reduce the industry and effectivly privatise the National Coal Board (by then British Coal), selling off a large number of pits to private concerns throught the mid 1990's.

Currently coal is still extracted in the UK, but in lower quantities than at its peak.

[edit] The U.S.

Anthracite (or "hard" coal), clean and smokeless, became the preferred fuel in cities, replacing wood by about 1850. Anthracite from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Region (and later from West Virginia) was typically used for household uses because it is a high quality coal with few impurities and stoves and furnaces were designed for it. The rich Pennsylvania anthracite fields were close to the Eastern cities, and a few major railroads like the Reading railroad controlled the anthracite fields. By 1840, hard coal output had passed the million-ton mark, and then quadrupled by 1850.

Bituminous (or "soft coal") mining came later. In the mid-century Pittsburgh was the principal market. After 1850 soft coal, which is cheaper but dirtier, came into demand for railway locomotives and stationary steam engines, and was used to make coke for steel after 1870. ^[7]

Coal Producing States, 1889 [8]
	Coal Production
State	(thousands of tons)
Pennsylvania	81,719
Illinois	12,104
Ohio	9,977
West Virginia	6,232
Iowa	4,095
Alabama	3,573
Indiana	2,845
Colorado	2,544
Kentucky	2,400
Kansas	2,221
Tennessee	1,926

Total coal output soared until 1918; before 1890, it doubled every ten years, going from 8.4 million tons in 1850 to 40 million in 1870, 270 million in 1900, and peaking at 680 million tons in 1918. New soft coal fields opened in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, as well as West Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama. The Great Depression of the 1930s lowered the demand to 360 million tons in 1932. ^[9]

The United Mine Workers (UMW) was successful in its strike against bituminous mines in the Midwest in 1900, but its strike against the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania turned into a national political crisis in 1902. President Theodore Roosevelt brokered a compromise solution that kept the flow of coal going, and higher wages and shorter hours, but did not include recognition of the union as a bargaining agent. The union grew strong until about 1920, when it collapsed after a national strike. Under the leadership of John L. Lewis the UMW became the dominant force in the coal fields in the 1930s and 1940s, producing high wages and benefits. Repeated strikes caused the public to switch away from anthracite for home heating after 1945, and that sector collapsed. ^[10]

In 1914 at the peak there were 180,000 anthracite miners; by 1970 only 6,000 remained. At the same time steam engines were phased out in railways and factories, and bituminous was used primarily for the generation of electricty. Employment in bituminous peaked at 705,000 men in 1923, falling to 140,000 by 1970 and 70,000 in 2003. Environmental restrictions on high-sulphur coal, and the rise of very large-scale strip mining in the west (especially the Powder River fields in Wyoming and adjacent states), caused the sharp decline in underground mining after 1970. UMW membership among active miners fell from 160,000 in 1980 to only 16,000 in 2005, as non-union miners predominated. The American share of world coal production remained steady at about 20% from 1980 to 2005.

[edit] 1900

Coal production of the world: 1905

Europe :-		Tons.
United Kingdom	1905	236,128,936
Germany, coal .		121,298,167
--- lignite		52,498,507
France		35,869,497
Belgium		21,775,280
Austria, coal .		12,585,263
--- lignite .		22,692,076
Hungary, coal .	1904	1,031,501
--- lignite		5,447,283
Spain. .	1905	3,202,911
Russia. .	1904	19,318,000
Holland	---	466,997
Bosnia, lignite		540,237
Rumania ---		110,000
Servia .	1904	183,204
Italy, coal and lignite	1905	412,916
Sweden .		322,384
Greece, lignite	1904	466,997
Asia
India .	1905	8,417,739
Japan	1903	10,088,845
Sumatra	1904	207,280
Africa :-
Transvaal	1904	2,409,033
Natal	1905	1,129,407
Cape Colony	1904	154,272
America :-
United States	1905	350,821,000
Canada .	1904	7,509,860
Mexico		700,000
Peru	1905	72,665
Australasia :-
New South Wales	1905	6,632,138
Queensland		529,326
Victoria		153,135
Western Australia		127,364
Tasmania .		51,993
New Zealand</a> .		1,585,756

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica (11th ed.) online

[edit] Post World War II Europe

Post World War II much of Europe's coal mines passed into effective government control, with the British coal mines being nationalised under the control of the National Coal Board in 1947.

In Eastern Europe, government control of Coal was an outcome of Communist rule after 1945.

Co-operation on coal trading was also responsible for the 'European Coal and Steel Community' treaties. These are seen by some as a direct catalyst for the EEC and European Single Market

[edit] 2007

Today coal is used for various industries. Over 50% of electricity in the United States is generated by coal. Coal is also the most common source material for creating coke, a clean-burning high-energy fuel used for smelting iron ore and other purposes. Another common use of coal is manufacturing Portland cement. The energy policy of the United Kingdom acknowledges expanded use of coal conflicts with its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and yet admits that, with natural gas and oil reserves diminishing in the North Sea fields, conversion of coal to oil or simple combustion of coal may see expansion in the future. World reserves amount to about 984 billion tons, with the largest amounts in the U.S., Russia, China, India and Australia. At current rates this is enough for 190 years of production; new reserves are discovered annually.

^[11]

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

The following books represent the best scholarship available on coal mining in major countries.

[edit] Britain

• Carolyn Baylies; The History of the Yorkshire Miners, 1881-1918 Routledge, 1993
• John Benson; British Coal-Miners in the Nineteenth Century: A Social History Holmes & Meier, 1980 online
• Robert W Dron. The economics of coal mining (1928)
• B. Fine. The Coal Question: Political Economy and Industrial Change from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (1990)
• Michael W. Flinn, and David Stoker. History of the British Coal Industry : Volume 2. 1700-1830: The Industrial Revolution (1984)
• Robert Lindsay Galloway. A history of coal mining in Great Britain
• Hatcher, John. The History of the British Coal Industry: Volume 1: Before 1700: Towards the Age of Coal (1993)
• Margot Heinemann. Britain's coal: A study of the mining crisis (1944)
• Edward Hull. The Coal-fields of Great Britain: Their History, Structure and Resources: With Descriptions 1905
• James Alan Jaffe. The Struggle for Market Power: Industrial Relations in the British Coal Industry, 1800-1840 (2003)
• W. Stanley Jevons, The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines (1906).

[edit] United States

• Sean Patrick Adams, . "The US Coal Industry in the Nineteenth Century." EH.Net Encyclopedia, August 15 2001 scholarly overview
• Sean Patrick Adams, Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
• Harold W Aurand. Coalcracker Culture: Work and Values in Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1835-1935 2003
• Morton S. Baratz, The Union and the Coal Industry (Yale University Press, 1955)
• Frederick Moore Binder, Coal Age Empire: Pennsylvania Coal and Its Utilization to 1860. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1974.
• Perry Blatz, Democratic Miners: Work and Labor Relations in the Anthracite Coal Industry, 1875-1925. Albany: SUNY Press, 1994.
• David Alan Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880-1922 (1981)
• Phil Conley, History of West Virginia Coal Industry (Charleston: Education Foundation, 1960)
• Keith Dix, What's a Coal Miner to Do? The Mechanization of Coal Mining (1988), changes in the coal industry prior to 1940
• Melvyn Dubofsky and Warren Van Tine, John L. Lewis: A Biography (1977), leader of Mine Workers union, 1920-1960
• Alfred Chandler, . "Anthracite Coal and the Beginnings of the ‘Industrial Revolution' in the United States," Business History Review 46 (1972): 141-181.
• Carmen., DiCiccio, Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1996
• Coal Mines Administration, U.S, Department Of The Interior. A Medical Survey of the Bituminous-Coal Industry. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1947. online
• Howard Eavenson, . The First Century and a Quarter of the American Coal Industry 1942.
• Ronald D, Eller. Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880–1930 1982.
• Price V. Fishback. Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890-1930 (1992)
• Verla R. Flores and A. Dudley Gardner. Forgotten Frontier: A History of Wyoming Coal Mining (1989)
• Jonathan Grossman "The Coal Strike of 1902 – Turning Point in U.S. Policy" Monthly Labor Review October 1975. online
• Katherine Harvey, The Best Dressed Miners: Life and Labor in the Maryland Coal Region, 1835-1910. Cornell University Press, 1993.
• A. F. Hinrichs; The United Mine Workers of America, and the Non-Union Coal Fields Columbia University, 1923 online
• Herman R. Lantz; People of Coal Town Columbia University Press, 1958; on southern Illinois; online
• John H.M. Laslett, ed. The United Mine Workers: A Model of Industrial Solidarity? Penn State University Press, 1996.
• Fred J. Lauver, "A Walk Through the Rise and Fall of Anthracite Might," Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine 27#1 (2001) online version
• Ronald L. Lewis. Black Coal Miners in America: Race, Class, and Community Conflict. University Press of Kentucky, 1987.
• Priscilla Long, Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry Paragon, 1989.
• Richard D. Lunt, Law and Order vs. the Miners: West Virginia, 1907-1933 Archon Books, 1979, On labor conflicts of the early twentieth century.
• Edward A. Lynch and David J. McDonald. Coal and Unionism: A History of the American Coal Miners' Unions (1939)
• Robert H. Nelson. The Making of Federal Coal Policy (1983)
• Bruce C. Netschert and Sam H. Schurr, Energy in the American Economy, 1850-1975: An Economic Study of Its History and Prospects. (1960) online
• Glen Lawhon Parker, The Coal Industry: A Study in Social Control (Washington: American Council on Public Affairs, 1940)
• Phelan, Craig. Divided Loyalties: The Public and Private Life of Labor Leader John Mitchell (1994)
• H. Benjamin Powell, Philadelphia's First Fuel Crisis. Jacob Cist and the Developing Market for Pennsylvania Anthracite. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978.
• Dan Rottenberg, In the Kingdom of Coal: An American Family and the Rock That Changed the World (2003), owners' perspective
• Sam H. Schurr, and Bruce C. Netschert. Energy in the American Economy, 1850-1975: An Economic Study of Its History and Prospects. Johns Hopkins Press, 1960.
• Curtis Seltzer, Fire in the Hole: Miners and Managers in the American Coal Industry University Press of Kentucky, 1985, conflict in the coal industry to the 1980s.
• Joe William Trotter Jr., Coal, Class, and Color: Blacks in Southern West Virginia, 1915-32 (1990)
• U.S. Immigration Commission, Report on Immigrants in Industries, Part I: Bituminous Coal Mining, 2 vols. Senate Document no. 633, 61st Cong., 2nd sess. (1911)
• Richard H. K. Vietor and Martin V. Melosi; Environmental Politics and the Coal Coalition Texas A&M University Press, 1980 online
• Anthony F.C. Wallace, St. Clair. A Nineteenth-Century Coal Town's Experience with a Disaster-Prone Industry. Knopf, 1981.
• Robert D. Ward and William W. Rogers, Labor Revolt in Alabama: The Great Strike of 1894 University of Alabama Press, 1965 online coal strike
• Kenneth Warren, Triumphant Capitalism: Henry Clay Frick and the Industrial Transformation of America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996.
• John Alexander Williams. West Virginia and the Captains of Industry 1976.
• John Alexander Williams. Appalachia: A History (2002)

[edit] World

• Dorian, James P. Minerals, Energy, and Economic Development in China Clarendon Press, 1994
• Barbara Freese. Coal: A Human History (2003)
• Jeffrey, E. C. Coal and Civilization 1925.
• Nimura Kazuo, Andrew Gordon, and Terry Boardman; The Ashio Riot of 1907: A Social History of Mining in Japan Duke University Press, 1997
• Martin F. Parnell; The German Tradition of Organized Capitalism: Self-Government in the Coal Industry Oxford University Press Inc., 1998 online
• Norman J. G. Pounds and William N. Parker; Coal and Steel in Western Europe; the Influence of Resources and Techniques on Production Indiana University Press, 1957 online
• Huaichuan Rui; Globalisation, Transition and Development in China: The Case of the Coal Industry Routledge, 2004 online
• Elspeth Thomson; The Chinese Coal Industry: An Economic History Routledge 2003 online.
• World Coal Institute. The Coal Resource (2005) covers all aspects of the coal industry in 48 pp; online version

[edit] External links

• Encyclopedia britannica 11th ed 1913
• [World Coal Institute] on current issues
• Abandoned mine Research
• Mining History Network numerous links (many are broken)
• Coal mining in Wales
• Dueling Mythologies, by Gilbert Wesley Purdy. A book review/essay that contains considerable information on coal mining in the early 20th century.
• Down the Mine — George Orwell essay on a visit to a coal mine