Coal Miners facts

While investigating facts about Coal Miner's Daughter and Coal Miners Cafe, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In 1921 private police in the US dropped bombs and mustard gas on a coal miners' camp when they went on strike for better working conditions

how much do coal miners make?

The secret police in Communist Romania subjected the leaders of a 1977 coal miners' strike to 5-minute chest X-rays to ensure that they developed cancer

What coal miners do?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what's coal miners. Here are 41 of the best facts about Coal Miner's Daughter Movie and Coal Miners Strike I managed to collect.

where was coal miner's daughter filmed?

Two weeks before the Castle Gate Mine disaster that killed 171 men, the Utah Fuel Company laid off many of the miners without dependents during a shortage of coal sales. As a result, 114 of the men killed in the disaster were married men and left behind 415 widows and fatherless children
Charles Hires, the first person to successfully market a commercial brand of root beer, decided to call his drink "root beer" despite it not containing any alcohol because he wanted to market it to Pennsylvania coal miners
The Columbine Massacre (Not the Columbine you're thinking of). On this day in 1927, a fight between Colorado State Police and unarmed striking coal miners led to machine guns being fired into the crowd of miners. Six miners were killed and dozens were injured.
A Soviet coal miner named Alexey Stakhanov reportedly mined 227 tons of coal in a single shift and was campaigned as the greatest laborer of all time.
After a mine explosion killed 29 coal miners in 2010, a study found that 6 out of 7 tested victims had black lung, including one who had worked in the mines less than five years.
The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent camp of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families back in 1914. The attack ended up claiming over 2 dozen lives, including wives and children of the strikers.
Boston businessman and eccentric Timothy Dexter was tricked into shipping coal to Newcastle, England, then the largest exporter of coal in the world. The ship arrived in port during a miner's strike, selling the coal at a premium and making Dexter a good profit.
In December 1915 a miner in the Red Ash Coal mine (Pennsylvania) forgot his carbide lamp hanging from a timber beam that subsequently caught fire. The mine fire continues to burn to this day and is likely to last another century.
There are only 80,000 coal miners in the US

coal miners facts — What happened to the coal miners at chernobyl?

Coal Miners data charts

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coal miners fact data chart about Coal miner employment versus other US job sectors — Coal miner employment versus other US job sectors

Why did the coal miners strike in 1984?

You can easily fact check why did coal miners used canaries by examining the linked well-known sources.

It is from the lithosphere that we are able to extract natural resources such as coal, various fuels, and metals. It is also important for plants, providing the minerals required for their growth.

85% of the mineral income in Kentucky is derived from coal.

There were two Columbine Massacres, the first was in 1927 when Colorado state police and armed mine guards fired upon a group of striking Coal miners. - source

A year long investigation found that the coal industry was paying doctors and lawyers to defeat benefit claims of coal miners who contracted black lung disease.

In 1921 private police in the US dropped bombs and mustard gas on a coal miners' camp when they went on strike for better working conditions - source

When was the coal miners strike?

The 85-year-old daughter of an illiterate coal miner has been an international jewel thief for more than 6 decades

How many coal miners in the us?

Coal miners used to carry caged Canaries down into the mines, as a detector of toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and methane. The Canary would show signs of distress and/or died before the gases affected the miners, leaving them some time to escape.

Miners used Atlantic canaries to detect leaking of methane gas in the coal mines in the past. Even the smallest amount of methane kills canaries, alerting the miners to escape before level of gas reaches the dose fatal for humans.

In 1974 the British government ordered a three-day work week, because a coal miners' strike caused an electricity shortage. Only essential services like hospitals and supermarkets were exempt; TV stopped broadcasting at 10:30 pm. The "Three-Day Week" lasted for more than two months.

In the U.S., there are twice as many solar workers as coal miners

When was the coal miners strike in england?

During a coal miner strike in 1897, 19 unarmed strikers were shot in the back and killed by police. The police were later acquitted.

In the late 18th Century, Coal Miners in West Virginia Were Paid in 'Company Scrip' or Company Gift Cards That Could Only Be Used to Rent Company Houses or Spent in the Company Store.

In the 1980s, 53 percent of female coal miners said they had been propositioned by their male bosses and 17 percent said they had been physically attacked.

For four years, a Polish-American coal miner served as king of an island off the coast of Haiti, where he practiced voodoo and became fluent in Creole.

How much do coal miners make a year?

Pharmacist Charles Hires was the first to successfully market a commercial brand of root beer. He wanted to call it "root tea,” however his desire to market the product to coal miners caused him to call his product "root beer" instead.

December is the 110th anniversary of the worst month for deaths in coal mining history. Over 3000 miners were killed in December 1907.

In December 1907 coal miners in Pennsylvania who were put out of work by the Naomi Mine Explosion, found work at the nearby Darr Mine, only to have that mine explode 18 days later.

In the US alone, more than 100,000 coal miners were killed in accidents in the twentieth century

That, beginning in December 1943, 1 in 10 British men conscripted for the war effort during WW2 were instead directed to work as coal miners. These men were called "Bevin Boys," and their service was not fully recognized for decades.

A lot of people think diamonds are high pressured coals because of the chemical similarities between the two minerals. But it is not true. Yet both of the elements are from same base element, it's more complicated than that.

The US reached peak coal mining employment in 1923, when there were 883,000 coal miners employed in the US. Today, there are only 50,000 coal miners in the US. Nevertheless, the US produces about 50% more coal that it did 100 years ago.

A coal miner's chance of being crushed, asphyxiated, burned, blasted, drowned, or similarly maimed or killed was more than 1/100 in early 1900's Pennsylvania.

Quentin Wilson, one of the boys featured in the film “October Sky” died just a week ago. Born a coal miner’s son, he went on to be a chemical engineer, and traveled extensively to speak about the Rocket Boys’ childhood.

The term "Redneck" originally came from coal miners wore red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize. Not because poor southern farmers had a sunburned neck.

Due to the dangers of early 20th century coal mines, United States WWI soldiers had a better statistical chance of surviving a two-year period than a West Virginia coal miner.

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