“BITUMINOUS COAL” 1928 EASTMAN EDUCATIONAL FILM PITTSBURG COALFIELD MINES& MINING (SILENT) 18454
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This 1928 silent educational short produced by Eastman Classroom Films depicts operations at a coal mine near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, showing minecarts, simple tools, and harsh working conditions (TRT 14:55).
Opening titles (0:10). Coal miners riding in a mining car exit the tunnel of a coal mine stenciled, “Be Careful Today.” The men’s faces are grim as they pass by, wearing headlamps and hats (0:14). The miners climb out of the mining car (0:29). A line of miners hand in buckets and headlamps at a small window with instructions posted on either side (0:38). A map of the Midwestern United States. A circle encompasses the borders between Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. A closer look pinpoints Pittsburgh. A black mass indicates coal country (0:48). A wide shot of a minecart loaded with men, entering a coal mine. A POV closeup entering the darkened mining tunnel. Intertitle: “Entering a Mining Shaft” (1:23). Workers march into an elevator in single file, as a man counts them, holding two others back. The elevator descends (1:55). A large mine shaft elevator pulley system spins, winding cable (2:22). Down the elevator. A man waves to an approaching minecart. A crew of men march in under small, fluttering United States flags (2:35). POV riding a minecart. The cart pauses at an intersection, allowing for another cart, piled high with chunks of coal, to pass (2:54). A man operates a large, motorized chainsaw, which cuts into a wall of coal. A team of two men operate a hand-cranked drill (3:42). Dynamite is inserted into the drilled hole. A man with a lamp and a pickaxe inspects the wall (4:30). The fuse is lit. The wall explodes (5:17). Title: “Air in a mine is kept pure and clean.” (5:34). A ventilation fan spins near a sign: “Danger, Keep Out.” A sprinkler car on the mining rail tracks sprays the walls of the mine down with water (5:41). Men shoveling and lifting large chunks of coal into a cart. A parade of carts filled with coal (6:08). An exterior shot shows the ascent of a cart of coal up an elevator shaft and into a silo (7:16). Older workers sort coal on a conveyor belt (7:35). A mechanical sorting machine filters the coal by size. Large pieces continue down a conveyor belt and into railroad cars (7:46). Title: “About half the coal is used for making steam” (8:22). A steam locomotive carries over 20 carts filled with coal along a railroad track near a riverbed (8:25). Title: “Making coke from coal” and another procession of railcars (8:49). The following sequence depicts the process by which fuel is heated and distilled into fuel. A machine rotates. More conveyor belts (9:21). Finely ground coal is ground and washed with water, then rushes uphill on another conveyor, which passes a man in a suit, bowtie, and hat for scale (9:55). Title: “Beehive coke ovens” and an elevated exterior shot of smoke pouring from large ovens as workers walk by below, and a large cart drives on rooftop tracks (10:23). The finished product is raked out of a stone oven. A man with a trowel seals up an archway on the side of the massive oven (10:48). Title: “Modern retort coke ovens” and a wide shot of the same. Four large vessels head towards the camera on rails. “Coal is changed to coke in twelve hours” (11:17). A closeup of the retort ovens’ semi-automated process (12:14). A glowing hot slab of coke is dumped into a hopper car, bursting into flames on contact. The camera traces the car’s path to a cloud of smoke rising into the air (13:03). The finished product is dumped into a large pile by men operating large levers (14:12).
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Most people alive today don’t have even an inkling of a clue of how much terribly hard work and misery these men that worked in these industries 150 years ago endured. Not a clue. These men built the world we know today.
and the steel mills the coal went to
Amen Brother!
Those workers really did build this country!
Loved the bit at 4:42 where the fireman appears with a safety lamp & does a gas test . The colliers have just bored & charged the hole, while wearing lit carbide lamps. Talk about shutting the stable door when the horse's bolted! Incredible.
4.00 one mistake and he could lose a foot, and here I am sitting at a keyboard in a comfortable office. Those men EARNED their living.
You are kind of a panzy aren't you?
@@tempestvideos9834 no mate, I'm 67 left school at 16 to work on the railways as a fitter in diesel locos. I'm still work, albeit in a light work environment. I've done more than my share of hard graft. So no, I'm not a pansie
This film is an amazing treasure from history. Mining is essential to human development and it’s amazing to think about the changes in safety, efficiency, and focus on environmental impact over the last 100 years. Think of the revolutionary changes coming in the next 100 years as the industry transitions to zero emissions, workforce diversity, and real-time reclamation; all while delivering the building blocks of the future for civilization. We are quietly entering the most dynamic time in mining’s history and this film brings it into sharp focus.
The first mine in the film, with the "Be Careful Today" sign, is the Export No. 2 mine in Export, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County. This entrance has been excavated, and is in the process of being restored as an educational and interpretive site to teach the history of mining in the community.
This is like a scene from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis".
Its amazing to see the scale and magnitude of processes and equipment applied to unlock the potential energy of King Coal ... the stuff that turned the US into the most powerful society in the 20th C.
(Today they have no use for it - because they don't know what they have until its gone.)
Great movie.
Took away the trees and put 'em in a tree museum.
Charged the people a dollar and a half just to see them.
You don't know what you've got
till
it's
gone!
"Big Yellow Taxi" ... Joni Mitchell
I had the same impression.
Uhh, we have no use for it because its old,unsafe technology..welcome to 2021
I just happen to live right in the center of that giant bituminous coal area.
😎🇺🇸
When i want to use some, i simply walk down to the local train tracks, pick it up off the ground, fill up a bucket, take it home.
It falls off the rail cars.
I am from the future somewhat, What can this be used for?
@@Kriswixx well, a lot actually. Yet, I can only speak about my own experiences:
Years ago I became fascinated with blacksmithing, and although most wood types are superior in producing heat, coal if this special type of coal is availed, it just makes more sense. It's easy to break into 1-3 inch chunks which is ideal for a forge. It also is excellent for heating, bituminous coal burns much more cleanly than all other more high sulphur types. So, it doesn't produce much residue that becomes dangerous in the vent, exhaust pipe, or flu...whichever term is applicable.
Those are the only two things I've ever used it for.
In industrial settings, much more can be done with it. I believe they made coke out of it (the kind used for steel production, not the kind some people snort, or drink 😂), coke is basically partially burned coal, that is burned without letting much oxygen into the fire.
You can still find the remnants of old coke ovens all over the area of Western Pennsylvania where I live. It was a huge industry here many years ago. The process involves setting a large amount of coal on fire (several tons) in a large brick oven constructed for the purpose, then basically burying the fire and waiting for awhile, then uncovering it and loading the partially burned coal into a hopper, then repeating again.
Most power generating plants today, still are coal powered. They had to install special scrubbers that extracted the poisonous elements from the exhaust. That's another reason bituminous coal is desirable, it has much less impurities, so it produces a lot less nasty fumes when used.
That's all I got.
Take care.
😎🇺🇸
@@d.cypher2920 you win the internet with your response!
@@d.cypher2920 Thank you Doc. I needed that. Its refreshing to know there are thinkers, teachers and well wishers out there. I learned a lot. Such a cool thing to have access to! Blacksmith away good sir, talent like that needs to carry on through the ages. I had no idea being a city boy with American indoctrinated school system being what it is, knowledge must be sought on our own these days. Thanks for the brain bits. Be well.
@@Kriswixx indeed, self 'reeducation' probably necessary. It was for me.
Be well!
😎
All my uncles and their sons on my mom’s side worked in the mines in Kentucky.
The music is very fitting for the subject.
The mood is as black as a coal miner's lungs. You could see the dust everywhere.
Only adequate airflow ventilation and water mist keep the dust down, both were inadequate in the film.
Outstanding
This stuff is art. Non-fiction fantasy. The world's tallest dwarves working the world's smallest dwarf mine.
I think this music playing in the background will turn any video into an artistic sci-fi movie clip.
"Air in a mine is kept pure and clean." Tell that to the untold many who died of black lung.
Stop your whining ya ass bag, this was a hundred years ago! Sheesh get a life snowflake 🤮
Lol the part where they're standing on the bridge and his clarinet slips out of hands into the river.
Good old clean coal. I have carried coals to Newcastle.
You're so right Jim. The '69 strike in the UK was over the NCB X-Ray programme. The mobile X-Ray vans visited all the collieries and anyone with ( I think it was ) 10% 'shadow ' on their lungs were stopped from working underground. That meant some people's wage went down from £14-£16 a day to £2-10s a day. Through no fault of their own. I was an electrician and in '67 I was on an old contract face which paid me £2 13s 7p a day!
You have no idea what you are talking about
Our country would have been third world had it not been for our mines and mills.
For those that don't know,making coke from coal is the equivalent of making charcoal from wood.I burn it in my forge and Bituminous coal is like an oily sponge that you have to condense down to usable fuel.
Sounds quite toxic...
coke burns much hotter than coal and is essential in the making of steel.
This footage is completely amazing!
God Bless those poor hard working ppl, the things they had to do daily are nothing less than extremely dangerous and terrifying..
yet they did them..
day after day after day.
That hustle, strength and endurance is America.
I would guess the original music for this film was more triumphant.
Uh, silent movie. May have had a piano / organ score, but then, maybe not. It's for education, not entertainment.
The music gives me goose bumps
Gives me tumors then they tell me IT'S NAACHTT A TOOOMAHH.
Makes it feel like a mine that was abandoned for a 100 years, then one night this footage was captured on security cameras set up just to keep vandals out.
Sad ... but reality .... god bless this hard working souls .....🌞
Watching this prompted me to rewatch the various versions of the song "Dark as a Dungeon" (Wall of Voodoo's being my favorite)
I like the music!
“Workin' in the coal mine
Goin' on down, down
Workin' in a coal mine
Oops, about to slip down
Workin' in a coal mine
Goin' on down, down
Workin' in a coal mine
Oops, about to slip down”
Everybody now!
To pmch from Patrick Anthony: the last line of that song,which was "0 Lord,how long can this go on??"answer
: 7 months!, to our next lay off !but sometimes it was fun to actually get paid 34.50 to $70 per hr. To work out.
@@patrickgrippo2897 czcams.com/video/708q7LjMGso/video.html
Check out Richard Burton talk about coal mining in Wales. Great interview.
Film gets an A÷, and music as well.
I concur
Porcelain by Moby like in the dicaprio movie The Beach would of sufficed too.
Kind of an eerie sadness looking at these people working in these mines knowing that most of them probably died of complications directly related from working in them.
Millenial Pittsburgher (35yo 2021)..fascinating. I always knew the Pittsburgh coal seam built the town. All the little towns (e.g. Russelton, Bairdford, Creighton) were company towns that existed because of the mines. I've tried to locate the portals and have historical photos (yep, know the risks). Oil was discarded as a waste from the salt wells in Natrona Heights (Natrona=latin natrium=salt) until Samuel M. Kier built a 10 barrel still in downtown Pittsburgh..long before the Drake oil well in Oil City. I have a healthy respect for what came before us. imo..we should go *back*. simpler times..laypeople were either farmers or miners. If anybody is interested, there is an outcrop of the Pittsburgh coal seam on W. Liberty Ave outbound on the right hand side behind one of the car dealerships. Walk right up and grab a piece. Can anybody can identify any of the mines or places (or people!) in this film?
I'm not convinced they're from Pittsburgh proper. I see the water spray tanker marked "CW&F Coal Co." so maybe this footage is from Orient No. 1 or No. 2? speculation on my part.
Thereare out crops where coal falls out on maps all over Western PA.these maps are found in libraries&from D.E.R. Freeze -thaw cycles knock it loose.
The first mine is the Export No. 2 mine in Export, Westmoreland County.
Really great film! The scale of machinery, etc., is amazing! BTW, it's Pittsburgh, not Pittsburg. Pittsburghers like their "h"!
There is 6Pittsburg's , but only 1 Pittsburgh in the USA. Are you a Burger, Arr??
@@drohegda Expat, ATM, but yeah. You? :)
@@arrrg3846 Yes I am, at one time Mt. Washington was named Coal Hill.😎
My mother was born near here in 1924. Her welsh ancestors worked underground.
@@martinphilip8998 Tough and dangerous work!
They use that mine still till this day MSHA uses it as a practice mine to practice emergency procedures, test new means of air filtration and circulation. Can not speak on much else it is a federal site its fenced in gated and has armed guards I have worked on the grounds around this place it's crazy seeing this mine knowing how old it is and what the workers went through to complete it some of the most fearless people accepting to work underground when underground is the end result in life
There is no telling how much of or what is down in those old shafts and tunnels. The government is using them and private industry as well. Man made warehouses and industrial facilities. You gotta do something with the hole after the coal is gone....😁
there is more to washed gravel and coal than meets the eye
This is an idealized video. Conditions were not good, and they didn't care about miner safety.
Silent and Educational? First part I agree with
I have one of those flame safety lamps pictured at aroiund the 5 min mark
old geezers at the screens
Anyone know what the lantern looking thing is from 4:50?
It’s a lamp used to test for CH4 (Methane Gas). An open Flame burns inside a glas cylinder. Outside air/gas is drawn in through a fine metal mesh and leaves through the top metal mesh. If Methane gas is present, the flame changes color and grows in size. There is a scale on the glas cylinder which tells the approximate Methane concentration. Because of the metal mesh, no hot gasses can escape and cause an explosion. Ingenious design, which was later replaced by more precise electronic gas sensors.
it is a Davy lamp invented by Sir Humphrey Davy in the early 19th century. It works like Uli says.
Like the small U.S of A. flags fluttering at the mouth of the ore elevator starting at 6:58
I'm waiting to see a steel mill powered solar or maybe wind mills.
How thick were the coal seams, anyone know?
I wish there was more info on the processes. Just think how much energy was lost to achieve the end product.
And stunningly polluting and unsafe. But also a stark reminder how sophisticated and complex industry was back then. We like to think we live in a high-tech world, but its been like that for ... centuries.
It's most likely a mine in the Pittsburgh seam, which varies regionally, but averages about 6' and has rider seams in close proximity that can add to the total thickness.
@@dgrub Was the man with the lamp testing for methane gas, he then lit the fuze to blow the charge. I find it astonishing that they used explosives in coal mines because of the risk of a gas explosion. All the deep mines are closed now in the U.K and where I live in the Midlands the coal seams were thirty feet thick. I know that there was no other way of doing things back then but making coke was so inefficient, just think of all the lost heat
Yep, checking for methane. I actually have a similar lamp that is more decor than functional and is meant to replicate the originals, kinda like a model car or something.
It was definitely a dangerous job and still is, relative to others. But surprisingly explosions aren't the main concern. Electrocutions, roof collapse, rib rolls, crushing by vehicles, etc., are all more likely to kill a miner. It's like comparing an airplane crash to a car crash. Car crashes are far more common but a plane crash is scarier and gets more attention.
About inefficiency... i agree. I live in an area where i can travel to multiple centuries old iron furnaces and coke ovens. You can look in person at the old ways, and then down the river at the huge steel and coking plants and see the increased efficiency. But i guess that's life! We used to spend hours to make one arrow for a bow. It was tedious and slow, but it was the beginning of something greater. We wouldn't be where we are without this history! And thanks to your ancestors for kicking it all off with the steam engine! 😁
The mine I worked in ran from 3 foot to 12 foot in height
Cue “Sixteen tons”
“Air in the mine is kept pure and clean “??
dust control
Ha yeah, neither clean nor pure.
You put the wrong music to this silent film. :(
I’ve carried coals to Newcastle.
Small American flags at 7:00
at 414 look at the structure of the coal.square chunks -looks just like petrified giant tree
Maybe this is why:
eastturkeyexpedition.com/tours/noahs-ark/
if you think you have a hard life think again .
I hope people down load these videos, because no one is printing this stuff anymore. God help us if EMP or solar flare hits.
They deserved union wages
$2 a week was good money
This is why the union was created- now it’s just a political arm that keeps the worthless employed
Spelled Pittsburgh wrong bud. Sincerely, a yinzer
Do your homework, it started as Pittsburg.
From a yinzer ;)
I don't think this was the good old days
If you would like, there is and old book from the 70s it is called ""The Good Old Days....They were terrible. It explains about how things use to be the opposite. It is a good read, the paperback should be cheap.
Why the gloomy, ominous music? I would think American natural resources providing American jobs should be upbeat.
Worst job in America.
these men were lucky to have jobs to feed their family. sadly these men probably did not live long lves
Why is that?
Here in Australia it’s one of the higher paying jobs.
It’s a great job here in America! Unfortunately corporate elites along with democrats want to get rid of coal under the guise it’s dirty and sell us their all new solar wind garbage that doesn’t work half the time!!
@@brosefmcman8264 , we have the same issues here in Australia. I’ve watched the slow decline of the industry for over 20 years now.
i worked in the mines untill 1991, was the best job that i ever had!!!!!!!!!!!
The music sucks
Awww, are you upset?