 With your kind attention a song I will thrill all you must toil with the pick and the drill and Sweat for your bread in that hole in Oak Hill that goes down down down When I was a boy said my daddy to me Stay out of the mines take my warren said he or would just you'll be choked in a popper You'll be broken down down down But I went to Oak Hill and I asked for a job A mule for a drive or a gangway to rob The boss had come out bill and follow the mob that goes down down down Coal mining has always been a hazardous occupation From the beginnings of the industry coal miners have faced dangerous from roof falls haulage equipment machinery explosions of gas and dust blasting fires and floods Underground coal miners worked 12 to 14 hours a day unsupervised digging coal by hand They supplied their own tools and powder The miner would cut drill load and shoot the coal with explosives a Good shot would drop about a ton of coal to the mine floor The miner then separated rock and slate from the coal and loaded the clean coal by hand into minecars The cars were gathered into trips and transported to the surface The coal was processed on the surface and then loaded into railroad cars or onto barges for shipment to market The average coal miner in Appalachia in 1900 produced a little over 1100 tons of coal This pay was about $42 per month often less Because he was paid by the tons of coal he loaded and because of deductions for rent powder food and other expenses Underground coal miners worked with little or no supervision They were responsible for production and for safety This condition of miners freedom changed over time Mines got bigger and jobs got more specialized Larger mines often had a general foreman who traveled to each section of the mine to look at conditions and to assign work Each section had a boss the ancestor of today's section supervisor General foreman often kept no written records and complained that they had so much to do that They could not visit all sections of their mine during a shift Federal mine health and safety law has grown along with the American mining industry The last month of 1907 came to be called bloody December as 692 miners perished in underground coal mine explosions The greatest of these occurred on December 6th at the Mononga mine in West Virginia The blast destroyed the mines ventilation system smashed equipment caused mammoth roof falls and killed 362 of the 367 men inside the largest single death toll in a mine disaster in US history The loss of life in these disasters especially because they occurred in what had been thought of as safe mines Directed national attention to coal mine explosions and produced an outcry for federal safety legislation In 1910 Congress passed public law 719 to establish the Bureau of Mines Joseph A. Holmes was the Bureau's first director Much of the Bureau's efforts focused on finding ways to prevent coal mine explosions Bureau personnel also conducted first aid and mine rescue training and provided assistance at accident sites From the earliest days of mining the search has continued to find ways to safely and efficiently mine ever larger amounts of coal American mines began to mechanize after the development of the steam engine Electricity began to be used in underground coal mines between 1880 and 1900 early mining machines such as undercutting machines and drills duplicated the steps of hand loading The big problem however was trying to find a way to rapidly load and move coal after it had been mined By the 1920s companies had developed combination cutting and loading machines Conveyors first used in 1902 rapidly found favor in underground coal mines Other machines were developed to carry coal to the belt line By the 1940s mining engineers were seriously looking at machines that could combine cutting loading and transportation of coal This was the continuous mine and by 1948 Machines were available that could cut coal from a seam at approximately five tons per minute Continuous miners were widely adopted in the late 1950s and early 1960s Longwall mining was first tried in the late 1890s But it was not until roughly World War one that interest revived in this mining system These machines had many of the same features of today's longwalls only they were smaller The first longwalls worked across a 42 foot panel Today's longwalls work off a 1,000 foot or larger wide block of coal Miner's jobs became even more specialized as mines mechanized The workforce was divided into small crews Each one bossed by a section foreman who was responsible for all phases Mechanical and human of coal production Close supervision was the norm at many companies to ensure that miners did their job efficiently and there was steady high tonnage production Mechanization presented new safety problems Miners had no place to go if something went wrong Victims were crushed or pinned between their machines and the mine roof or ribs Some were hit or run over by their machines Unguarded machine parts were dangerous Illumination and ventilation were often inadequate a problem that was made worse as the new machines liberated great amounts of dust and gas Which increased the chance of explosions or fires There were also increased dangers from roof falls as working sections were widened to accommodate the mechanical equipment Explosions at the Centralia number five mine in 1947 and at the Orient number two mine in 1952 Killed 219 miners and led to the passage of the federal coal mine safety act of 1952 This legislation gave increased responsibilities to federal mine inspectors Farmington, West Virginia November 20th 1968 an explosion spread by coal dust and methane Rips through nine working sections on the west side of the mine 78 miners die in the blast and 21 survivors make their way to the surface Recovery operations continue until mid 1978 and the mine is permanently sealed in November leaving 19 victims buried inside Congress moved quickly to pass the federal coal mine health and safety act of 1969 a comprehensive piece of legislation based on the belief that the first priority and concern of all in the coal mining industry Must be the health and safety of its most precious resource the miner The sunshine mine a metal non-metal operation near Kellogg, Idaho caught fire on May 2nd 1972 Carbon monoxide and smoke killed 91 miners who were working inside 81 others were evacuated from the mine and two more men were rescued a week later The federal mine health and safety act of 1977 combined coal and metal non-metal mine health and safety law into one piece of legislation The law that is on the books today America's coal mines produce more coal than ever with fewer miners Our nation's miners operate sophisticated machinery and equipment to safely mine coal in conditions that are often very difficult What lies ahead? Safety problems continue to be addressed Concern about safety is reflected in machine design safety features ventilation illumination dust suppression gas detection and many other devices and appliances designed to support mine roof and protect the miner Technology safety and health will continue to go hand-in-hand in the underground coal mining industry where issues such as deep-cut mining remote control equipment mine-wide monitoring noise Air quality an application of diesel equipment in underground operations occupy our attention What about the supervisor? You're right if you think that a supervisor today has to be a manager not just a boss Modern supervisors have to know how to train miners to do their work safely and efficiently Supervisors have to know and be able to apply a variety of general and specialized practical knowledge on the job Examples of this include mining techniques company policies and mine specific plans and programs They also have to understand and know how to apply an array of company rules state and federal regulations Supervisors need to be safety conscious at all times Expect others to work safely and set an example when they do their own This includes performing examination and checks and ensuring that the roof ribs Ventilation and other systems and equipment in the mine are safe and in good working order Supervisors also need to have good people skills to balance the needs of the workforce with the needs of the mining company to be successful You're right if you think it's a tough job and a challenge But it's an important job and one worth doing well