COAL: A Human History (p.103-p.162)

At the beginning of this reading my first rxtn was, argh!! more history, United States/North American history; it opened with the British coming to North America and finding nothing but TREES. Even though this chapter was still full of more COAL, I would like to share some pictures that I encountered in my reading since, in my opinion, this would bring some interest to the history of COAL.


Bone-softening disease: children were prone to this because of the smoke-filled slums (caused by lack of sunlight)









Pittsburgh covered in smoke, due to the coal mines (1913)

There were more images which I could not add, but this are some of the causes that the use of coal in its beginning was so damaging to the health and the surroundings of the people that lived in cities who worked with coals.

One thing that I forgot to mention was how coal was first being transported and as technology advanced it made its changes. At the beginning people transported coal in small boats in which they struggled a whole lot. Usually a great part of the coal being transported was a waste singe barrels of coal fell to the sea. They also struggled when a boat had a whole they had to figure out a quick way to fix it, usually by covering it with some of the clothing they were wearing. As the advancements were being made coal began to be transported by trains, which was better option.