Read complete books and articles on: Coal Mining

Coal Mining - physical extraction of coal resources to yield coal; also, the business of exploring for, developing, mining, and transporting coal in any form. Strip mining is the process in which the overburden (earth and rock material overlying the coal) is removed to expose a coal seam or coal bed. Excavators either dispose of the overburden or store the waste material for replacement after the coal has been extracted. Once exposed, the coal is usually removed in a separate operation. Surface soil is often stripped separately and spread back onto the reclaimed surface. The environment can also be protected by seeding or planting grass or trees on the fertilized restored surface of a strip mine. The term strip mining is most often used in reference to coal mining, although the process may also be used to extract certain metallic ores as well. Sometimes the terms open-pit, open-cast, or surface mining are used in the same sense, although they usually refer to metalliferous mining or the mining of other minerals. Underground coal mining is the extraction of coal from below the surface of the earth. The coal is worked through tunnels, passages, and openings that are connected to the surface for the purpose of the removal of the coal. Mechanical equipment breaks the coal to a size suitable for haulage. Alternatively, the coal is drilled, and the resultant holes are loaded with explosives and blasted in order to break the coal to the desired size. In order to protect the miners and equipment in an underground coal mine, much attention is paid to maintaining and supporting a safe roof or overhead ceiling for the extraction openings. Long-wall mining is a method of underground mining believed to have been developed in Shropshire, England, near the end of the 17th cent. A long face, or working section, of coal, some 600 ft (180 m) in length, is operated at one time. The miners and machinery at the working face are usually protected by hydraulic jacks or mechanical props which are advanced as the coal is extracted. The excavated, or gob, area is either allowed to cave in, or is filled in by waste material called stowing. The Anderton shearer is a widely used coal cutter and loader for long-wall mining. It shears coal from the face as it moves in one direction and loads coal onto an armored conveyor as it travels back in the opposite direction. It is ordinarily used for coal seams greater than 3.5 ft (9.1 cm) in thickness.

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Coal Mining

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

In the Kingdom of Coal: An American Family and the Rock That Changed the World » Read Now
by Dan Rottenberg. 332 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

A former "Wall Street Journal" reporter tells the extraordinary story of coalthrough the eyes of two families--one the magnates, one the miners--over fivegenerations while locked together, for better or worse, in a common quest.
2.

Regulating Danger: The Struggle for Mine Safety in the Rocky Mountain Coal Industry » Read Now
by James Whiteside. 268 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...32 Chapter 3 Early Coal-Mining Legislation in the Rocky Mountain...demanded enforcement of the states coal- mining laws. On this count the coal miners...workers died as the...
3.

Dying for Coal: The Struggle for Health and Safety Conditions in American Coal Mining, 1930-82, in Social Forces » Read Now
by Michael Wallace. 29 pgs.

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...and Safety Conditions in American Coal Mining, 1930-82 * MICHAEL WALLACE...determinants of fatal and nonfatal coal mining injuries in the U.S. from 1930-82...safety...
4.

Risking the Lives of Coal Miners: The Miracle in the Mine at Quecreek Was a Feel-Good Story, but One That Also Raises Serious Questions about the Lack of Accountability of Coal-Mining Operations, in Insight on the News » Read Now
by Sheila R. Cherry. 5 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
5.

Injuries and Illnesses among Bituminous and Lignite Coal Miners, in Monthly Labor Review » Read Now
by Jack Reardon. 7 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...and illnesses incurred by workers mining coal. This article describes mining...the history and work processes in coal mining, provides information about...
6.

Coal and Unionism: A History of the American Coal Miners' Unions » Read Now
by David J. McDonald, Edward A. Lynch. 232 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...expression than in the mining communities. Small unions of coal miners sprang up in almost...recesses of the earth, mining and putting out this coal which makes these...
7.

The Challenge of Interracial Unionism: Alabama Coal Miners, 1878-1921 » Read Now
by Daniel Letwin. 290 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...11 2. Birmingham Coal Mining District 33 Preface HIS...DeBardeleben and Pratt , the Cahaba Coal Mining Company Aldrich and Sloss...the time Birmingham was founded, coal...
8.

Notes from Underground; Some Surprising Lessons about Productivity and Job Satisfaction from the Coal Mines, in Washington Monthly » Read Now
by Peter Gray. 6 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
9.

The Making of Federal Coal Policy » Read Now
by Robert H. Nelson. 263 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...will also be the location of much coal mining and face consequent infusions...desirable areas in the West for coal mining. The Powder River Basin in northeast...protection...
10.

Moving the Earth: Cooperative Federalism and Implementation of the Surface Mining Act » Read Now
by Uday Desai. 256 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This empirical study provides an introduction to the dynamics of regulatory federalism and is the first book to focus on the major issues involved in the regulation of surface mining. A broad spectrum of contributors, most with first-hand experience, describe the forces that have shaped the...
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This empirical study provides an introduction to the dynamics of regulatory federalism and is the first book to focus on the major issues involved in the regulation of surface mining. A broad spectrum of contributors, most with first-hand experience, describe the forces that have shaped the implementation of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act since 1972. They offer varying perspectives for understanding technological and market considerations, intergovernmental procedures and problems, interest group forces, the role of the courts, Congress, and the states.
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11.

Forgotten Frontier: A History of Wyoming Coal Mining » Read Now
by A. Dudley Gardner, Verla R. Flores. 243 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...FRONTIER A HISTORY OF WYOMING COAL MINING A. Dudley Gardner and Verla...frontier: a history of Wyoming coal mining/ A. Dudley Gardner, Verla R...Introduction xi 1 Wyoming...
12.

Poor but Proud: Alabama's Poor Whites (Chap. 5 "'Dark as a Dungeon, Damp as a Dew': Alabama's Coal Miners") » Read Now
by Wayne Flynt. 476 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...places in the tenant, timber, textile, mining, and iron-making systems. These chapters...point. Beneath them came miners mainly of coal, but also iron ore and even gold ...
13.

Monacans and Miners: Native American and Coal Mining Communities in Appalachia » Read Now
by Samuel R. Cook. 329 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Monacans and Miners sheds new light on the indigenous and immigrant communities of southern Appalachia by comparing the political, economic, and social experiences of the Monacans, a historically significant Native American group in Amherst County, Virginia, with those of Scottish and Irish settlers...
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Monacans and Miners sheds new light on the indigenous and immigrant communities of southern Appalachia by comparing the political, economic, and social experiences of the Monacans, a historically significant Native American group in Amherst County, Virginia, with those of Scottish and Irish settlers who made their home in Wyoming County, West Virginia, in the late eighteenth century.
The Monacans are the descendants of a powerful people who both fought and traded with the Powhatan Indians. As a tide of English settlers swept through Virginia and continued west, some Monacans took refuge in the Blue Ridge Mountains. For the next few centuries the Monacans, like some other Native American groups in the Southeast, were legally classified as black and not permitted to vote or hold office. Many were only forced into indentured servitude, laboring in apple orchards for large landowners. Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic resurgence of Monacan ethnic and political identity and independence. Theyhave won legal recognition as a tribe, collaborated with local universities to document their history, and worked to create a tribal museum.
Samuel R. Cook tells the story of the Monacans in a uniquely comparative way. Their changing fortunes and relationships with outsiders are juxtaposed with the experiences of Scottish and Irish settlers in rural Wyoming County, West Virginia, a region now dominated by the coal industry.
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14.

Mill & Mine: The Cf&I in the Twentieth Century » Read Now
by H. Lee Scamehorn. 247 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
15.

Electricity in the American Economy: Agent of Technological Progress » Read Now
by Sam H. Schurr, United States 32d Congress. 443 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This book documents and analyzes the existence of a strong, and growing, synergy between technological progress and the use of electrified production techniques in the United States during the twentieth century. The authors use two types of information in their work: case studies of the ways in...
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This book documents and analyzes the existence of a strong, and growing, synergy between technological progress and the use of electrified production techniques in the United States during the twentieth century. The authors use two types of information in their work: case studies of the ways in which technological progress in particular industries and economic sectors has depended upon the adoption of electrified methods of production and aggregative long-term national economic statistics that measure the changing relationship over time between increases in the use of electricity and other factor inputs and the growth in industrial productivity. Eleven of the book's thirteen chapters cover the case studies, while the remaining two chapters and the statistical appendix contain the broad quantitative findings and supporting data.
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16.

Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890-1930 » Read Now
by Price V. Fishback. 286 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

While most studies of labor in the coal industry focus on the struggle to organize unions, this work offers a more diverse and quantitative examination of the labor market. It regards the economic lives of the bituminous coal miners in the early twentieth century. Fishback's analytic framework...
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While most studies of labor in the coal industry focus on the struggle to organize unions, this work offers a more diverse and quantitative examination of the labor market. It regards the economic lives of the bituminous coal miners in the early twentieth century. Fishback's analytic framework encompasses competition among employers for labor, the legal environment, institutional development in response to transactions costs as well as the impact of labor unions on the coal industry. Utilizing economic theory and statistics, Fishback reveals the models hidden in the descriptions of events, and then tests their internal consistency as well as the hypotheses they generate.
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