Introduction:
Coal Mining 150 Years Ago

A Day in the Life of a Miner

• Morning
• Arrival
• Descent
• Bottom

As Fireboss

Jobs

Underground Stables

Introduction:
Open-Pit Mining Today

Mining

• Drilling and Blasting
• Removing the Waste Rock
• Loading Coal
• Processing Coal
  • Breaker
  • Coal-fired Dryer

Transporting Coal to the Market

Arrival
We have arrived at the mine. As soon as we get to work in the morning we will need to report in and pick up our little brass discs. These tags are stamped with our individual numbers and are a very important part of the mine's record keeping system. We need them to get paid!⁴

Miner's numbered tags and key. 0552 courtesy of FDHS

The tags are used as a safety measure. They allow the mine to keep a record of every man who goes underground and they also check against duplicate names. If there was ever a real disaster in the mine these tags would let the rescue teams know who is missing. ⁵

Now that we've picked up our tags we also need to pick up our tools and miners' lights. You’ll need an axe, a saw, and gloves and kneepads to keep your hands and knees from aching and blistering. All this equipment may be getting heavy, but there can't be any complaining, we still have to get our headlamps from the lampman otherwise we won't be able to see anything underground in the darkness. At this point, each of us has to hand our tag over to the lampman so that he knows we're going down, once our shift is over our tags will be given back to us.6

Miner's lamp, cord, battery.
MV-98-1565 courtesy of FDHS

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