Preview
Creation Date
1905
Description
In this image, an anthracite coal mine worker can be seen supervising the use of a tandem automatic slate picker. Scranton, Pennsylvania was a major producer of clean burning and long-lasting anthracite coal, leading to several productive mines being opened around the city. Before the automatic slate picker was implement, anthracite coal mining companies used children as young as six years old for the dangerous and often deadly work of picking unwanted slate debris from harvested coal. The introduction of the automatic slate picker arose during the public outcry against employing children, allowing for the end of child labor in the anthracite coal mining industry as well as improving efficiency and productivity in the coal breaker facilities.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Keywords
coal, mining, slate picker, Scranton, Pennsylvania
