Journal: 100 Years / A Trip Through The Anthracite Coal Mines

RBH Note: in 1913 black powder was still dominant as a coal-mining explosive, but permissible explosives were making some slight headway. For example, in 1902 there were only 11,300 pounds of permissibles used in coal mining, but in 1913 the quantity was 21,801,285 pounds. However, there were 187,551,653 pounds of black powder used that year. It took many years before the use of black powder ended in coal mining. From the picture of the miner reparing his explosives it’s hard to tell what he’s using, but the fact that a wooden Du Pont powder box is shown, he’s probably not using black powder. That doesn’t mean he’s using a permissible, either, since that was not yet a requirement. It’s interesting that the miners have open flame cap lamps, and the miner is actually smoking a pipe while preparing his explosives.