Existing comment:
Iron Breast-Auger and Breast Plate, 1946
An auger is used to drill holes in soft coal for the placement of explosives.
The 1873 discovery of vast high-grade coal fields transformed southwest Virginia into a booming, industrialized area. Steam locomotives -- powered by coal -- carried the products of the mines to Norfolk and Newport News for export worldwide. Coal mining is extremely dangerous. Hazards include suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse, gas explosions, and such debilitating chronic diseases as black lung. |