“ ANTHRACITE COAL ” SILENT 1920s PENNSYLVANIA COAL MINE & MINING EDUCATIONAL FILM XD45714
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2021
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This black and white 1920s silent film, possibly an Eastman classroom film, depicts the operations of the “Mammoth Slope” anthracite coal mine in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, showing a day in the life of an average coal miner (TRT 12:22).
Opening title card: “Anthracite Coal” (0:08). Intertitle: “The Miners Go To Work.” A crowd of men in caps and coats walk across a bridge carrying pails (0:10). A man standing at a doorway greets coal miners as they arrive for work. A man sets down a pail and watering can, then removes his coat. A pulley system carries away his clothing, which is exchanged for a work uniform (0:17). The miner, William Betz, removes an identification tag from a board, and repositions a peg to “clock in” (0:54). In an open-air workshop, men hammer on anvils, with furnaces in the background. Bill picks up a pick axe (1:00). A man approaches a shed with tin siding labeled, “Dynamite.” A crate is presented to him (1:12). A line of miners pick up oil-wick lamps from a stockroom window (1:24). A crew of miners assemble. A team waits for a mining car. A car pulled by cables, loaded with several men, enters a mine shaft, labeled “Mammoth Slope” (1:34). POV the descending cable car (2:16). Intertitle: “Anthracite coal is found in folded layers” (2:23). An illustration shows multiple sloped mineshafts, running parallel to one another (2:30). Two miners with headlamps prod a drill into a wall carved with diagonal lines (2:39). “Heavy timers are used to make mines safe.” A wide shot of massive piles of wooden logs. A timber mill cuts logs down to size, and a mining car carries a load of timber away (2:43). POV the mining car entering a darkened tunnel, and traveling through a narrow pathway (3:15). “Testing for gas and loose rock before blasting” (3:34). A miner with a Davy lamp checks for firedamp flammable gas and examines a wall marked for blasting (3:42). Drilling a hole for dynamite blasting (4:09). Inserting explosives (4:21). “After the blast.” A scene of rubble is examined (4:53). A mining car carrying tools is filled with the excavated rock, then pushed away and dumped (5:30). “Mining in close quarters.” Two men shovel debris into a chute. A white mule pulls a minecart into position to receive a load of rubble. The mule carries the cart of rocks away (6:20). Closeup on a large chunk of coal. A train of mining cars, led by an overhead cable, barrels into darkness (7:33). POV the mine ride, revealing crude walls lined with timber. A light at the end of the tunnel (7:46). Emerging into daylight (8:03). “At the breaker.” A cart ascends rapidly up a chain-towed incline to the top of a silo, then races down again, transporting raw coal (8:11). Men rapidly sort the coal on a conveyor belt. Vibrating chutes direct the rocks on their way (9:07). “More culm than coal is taken from the mines.” A worker sorts large rocks out of the coal supply. “More water than coal is taken from the mines.” An elevator rises out of a well, then sprays a forceful stream of water (9:30). Sorting coal by hand (10:26). A mechanical conveyor belt filters the lumps of coal and sprays them with water for cleaning (10:35). Rocks empty from three chutes and into three hopper cars marked, “Nut, Stove, Egg” (10:51). A locomotive engine arrives alongside the hopper cars. Carrying away the train cars of coal (11:12). “The miner’s day is done” (11:43). Men exit the mine, crowded onto a minecart (11:50).
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What you saw was typical of life in Northeastern PA. My Father & both Grandfathers were underground anthracite coal miners. My grandfather’s face was tattooed by the coal dust he was exposed to when blasting occurred. My Dad suffered from “Black Lung.” I remember 9th grade in Glen Lyon, PA, watching endless processions of small coal cars coming out of the mine shafts at the end of the day. The breaker devided the town into an East Side & a West Side; and the huge, I mean REALLY HUGE, culm bank burned right behind my house. It would literally glow at night, & the sulfur smell of rotten eggs was worse when it rained. Mine cave ins & deaths were not uncommon. Strip mining thru the area was equally devastating to the land, resulting in deep crevices which were not repaired until decades later. What this life did, was instill in my parents recognition of the value of education for the children; about 96% of my Newport Township class went to college! This film literally brought tears to my eyes, realizing what my Dad, Granddad, & countless others endured on a daily basis! I probably would not have survived that life. I hope they are all at rest in heaven.
All of my male ancestors worked in the anthracite mines of northeast PA when they came from Europe. My dad was trapped in a squeeze in the late sixties and said to himself "if I ever get out I will never come back"
He never did go back and became a truck mechanic.
My dad was a coal miner in Lancashire before he joined the Army for the war, he often commented that the war was preferable. That says something considering he was in the "Poor bloody Infantry". Thank God I never had to work down the pit.
@7:08 those horses never saw daylight again for the rest of their lives. The cruelty of man never fails to depress.
My town, Glen Lyon, PA, had a large “ Mule Barn”, which housed the working mules. That was before my time. I remember the small locomotives which were used to pull the loaded coal cars from the mine shaft.
There was a field behind my grandmother's house full of retired "Pit Ponies" when I was little. We kids used to cadge carrots and apples to feed them. They were cared for by retired miners and wintered in a barn on a local farm.
You can still see the old shafts as holes on the sides of the mines, scraped away by present mining operations. Plenty of culm still visible in the area too... Mountains of it.
Unimaginable, but there it is. From start to finish, backbreaking, bone crushing, deadly hard labor.
Stunning film, and a perfect soundtrack.
I forgot to mention that the water pump shown at 9:50- 10:15 is most likely the "Scranton Central Water Shaft" built in 1905 to lower the water table in the area to benefit all of the mines under Scranton. There are many pictures and videos of this system in operation. So this is another separate location of the filming.
Well done.
I might add your name is strongly Welsh. We mined here in PA as well in Wales... for generations.
I am the first generation in my family who never worked in the coal mines. Going back at least 5 generations.
I swear it is truly in my blood and soul. My dad left the mines to join the Navy and never looked back. … broke the cycle.
I’ve toured mines and explored many caves. I feel comfortable and at home underground. I like the constant temperature and I like the dark.
I’m grateful for all who speak the mines. It is hard, dangerous work.
On the discussion of location.
A] In the scene at 7:32 the coalman holds a large rock of coal, one can see how shiny it is. It is definitely ANTHRACITE. Anthractie (in the USofA) has only been mined from the UPPER, MIDDLE, & LOWER Anthracite fields of northeastern Penna.
B] There have been hundreds of coal breakers throughout the the USofA. One can “Google” the images to see the variety of structures but in all cases, these were very tall buildings made of steel beams and sheet-metal siding. Most of them have some number of windows for interior lighting. However, by seraching through all of the Google images, only one such building matches the image at time-point 8:14 that clearly shows the 7 stories of evenly-spaced window rows. That building is the St. Nicholas Coal Breaker in Mahanoy City, PA which is in the middle anthracite coal field.
C] Mahanoy City was served by the P&R Coal and Iron company, a subsidiary of the Reading company that owned many mines and short lines in the lower & middle coal fields. This explains the P&R C & I branding on the rail car at 9:45
D] From time-points 11:30 to 11:40, there is a train branded Lehigh Railroad. This line was located east & south of Mahanoy City, along the Lehigh River so it was likely not filmed at Mahanoy City.
E] At TP 2:06 there are men riding into a mine with the name of “Mammonth Slope 2” over the entrance. This would have been the first slope shaft opened by the Colonel J.W. Moore Coke Company in Westmoreland County near Pittsburg, PA. This was very much in the center of the western bituminous coal fields of Pennsylvania so certainly not where the anthracite mining was filmed.
F] At 11:22-11:30 the film shows another breaker with evenly spaced windows, flat roofs and a separate, two-stack boiler-house. I could not find a picture that matches this image on the internet so it is unknown which breaker it is or where it is.
G] My conclusion: This film was recorded from multiple sites.
Nicely done research on your part. Thank you. My family worked for Lehigh Coal & Navigation in Coaldale.
An amazing film. I can't believe I never saw this before! Thank you for posting!
Very nice to see what those hard working men went thru .⛏️🙏🇺🇸 No sugar coating the work that they endured .A tip of the hat to the workers and family's .case from north wash state along the coast
Wow,one of the greatest videos on UA-cam for sure.
Grandfathers and great grandfathers all worked in the Anthracite (Scranton) mines....Grandma had one cousin who when of age started working in the mines but quickly left and travelled out west. His parting words were "when they put windows in those mines, I'll be back"
LOL, wise man.
Boy, that looks like fun!
This is an idealized video from that era. Most of the cars that got miners in didn't even have tops, and they had to lay down to avoid hitting their heads because the shaft was so narrow. It was not fun. It was hard dangerous work that killed you young.
I don't think its the Westmoreland slope. I think it's located I Pottsville. If you look closely, you can see the P&R Coal and Iron name on the cars, and the caboose says Lehigh Valley on it.
High quality stuff.
It never occurred to me until watching this, what if you didn’t like a coworker and having to be scrunched next to him going down the slope every shift and back up, how many “fatalities” were the result of animosity being intentionally injured from someone that didn’t like them? Food for thought.
Great video.
Fascinating
Loved it
Santa having enough coal to give to all the naughty kids implies to the fact that some of his elfs work as miners in order to extract it.
Awesome!!!!!
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I watch this and almost feel a foreigner to these people. This started the undustrial revolution and now regular dirt has more energy in it than coal ever could. All you have to do with beach sand in India is grind up the beach sand to release the thorium for molten salt thorium reactors and will forever free men from going deep in horrible mines for energy. Molten salt thorium reactors with supercritical co2 for the working fluid making the turbine 1/10th the size of a massive steam turbine. Also for using the heat for much lower cost chemicals.
Please a reputable scientific journal regarding salt thorium reactors
200 years and still stuck in a depressing, and economically depressed place. Yet prices are as high as being in the City, which stunts people from leaving when all the jobs are low payin.
I believe there is an Anthracite Coal museum in Scranton PA ...
They actually have a mine shaft from which you can go down into the mine. Scary.
There’s all sorts of mining museums and villages in NE Pennsylvania
Working in a coal mines was how actor Charles Bronson got his steel body not lifting weights. Coal mining is continuous repetitive hard work.
naw. That is genetics. Lots of people worked in the mines and they don't look like Charles Bronson. It's brutal work, but you dont get swoll from murdering your body everyday. Miners even back in these days range from string bean looking dude to Jon Goodman.
Not any more it's not. Coal mining today that is still underground is all long wall mining done with the machine that looks like a giant chain saw. Not too much physical labour involved.
@@Mercmad You ought to give it a try then. After that come back here and give your findings. It's not like these men had it but is still pretty tough work. Coming from a man that spent 45 years underground,
What mine was this from?
We don't know unfortunately.
Just men trying to feed there family
"There" where? Homonyms and homophones. "Their", "they're" and "there".
Clean coal !!
Gesus, what people have to do to put food on plates amazes me. Probably not far off this in 3rd world countries. I'm so spoilt.
And yet so many people complain about America today. They have no idea how good they have it.
Imagine you are the guy that has to test for loose rock, likely bringing down rocks onto yourself.
_you're_ not _your_
@@coloradostrong there's always one.
(One year later... I think what is more horrendous is that you assumed that humans gender. That's way worse than "one of those" correcting your grammar-- the people making up their own world and forcing it on you.) About youre ;-) comment, I wanted to say that we are so soft these days without real threats to our lives that we have to create drama (such as nationally agreeing there are more than 2 genders). Our soft lives have been built on the shoulders of these heroes and the ones before them. I wonder to myself what we are giving to our next generation...
@@n.c.1201 Geez! Lighten up Francis!
I'm getting black lung from watching this
Western Pennsylvania
What did "egg", "stove" and "nut" mean?
The size of the coal chunks. I heat with nut coal, roughly the size of a nut (acorn to walnut size).
Now they sell grape and rice coal as well.
Size, for different stoves.
a simple job, yet dangerous as it is simple
Have you guys seen the latest on Tracy Kroh? Investigators have recordings from suspect Mark Warfel saying this...
Kim: "Well, how did he kill her?"
Warfel: "I would say he choked her because she was so little."
Warfel doesn't say how he knows the information but offers details.
Warfel: "He very likely put her in one of them mine shafts."
Kim: "What mine shaft?"
Warfel: "Up around Loyalton."
you folks should do a better job on research. Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania is in the bituminous coal patch. anthracite is in northeast Pennsylvania in three patches. this, then, could be bituminous mining in Westmoreland, county, or, it is anthracite mining from somewhere in northeast, pa. which you have inadvertently mislabeled.
They didn't make this film, friend. It's from 1920....
Correct. I think Periscope confused the Mammoth Mine (site of a big disaster in 1891) with this mine, which I think is one of the ones named Mammoth Slope in Schuylkill County, PA.
Maybe you should complain to the people who made it?
99% of UA-cam experts are so tiresome. God uses them to remind us of how fooolish we could look should pride, arrogance or loneliness beset us.
please 1080p HD.
You actually think they filmed in 1080p in the 1920's?
Gtfoh. It was great.
The mine buildings look like China in 2021.
They have huge coal resources and intend to use them to continue building their nation as the US focuses on pronounce usage, equity and woke liberalism. Get ready for president Xi Jinping some day if we don't wake up.
A valuable historical record of how each and every lump of coal (and billions more from mines all over the World) were carefully withdrawn from underground and placed into fires 🔥.
And then the atmosphere was filled with trillions of particles of carbon dioxide, to remain there for decades, gradually causing the ice caps to melt, along with the glaciers . . .
And so the people of Kiribati 🇰🇮 and other low-lying Nations around the world lost their homes and livelihoods due to oceans rising.
Such is the impact of the *Industrial Revolution.* It's all James Watts fault of course . . .
This is horrible, it shows minors working.
We might have to increase coal mining a lot because of the possible failures of renewables
I don't see heavy manufacturing being powered by solar or wind.
Lol. Biggest decline in coal mining was under the one-term loser's maladministration. Thermal coal is dead in the civilized world and is never coming back. Coking coal will survive while steel demand remains high.
This is where we’d be if the MAGA folks and climate change deniers had their way.
@@neilpuckett359 electricity doesn't give a shit how it's produced and electric motors in heavy manufacturing doesn't either.
F