After around 1915, miners debated which technology they favored to light their work underground, a carbide lamp or a battery light. Both were superior to candles and oil lamps that would blow out when ...

Calcium carbide is created by heating a lime and carbon mixture in an arc furnace to a temperature of between 3,632 to 3,812 degrees. Calcium carbonate is a fairly hard substance that reacts violently ...

Mining historian David Skoniecki describes the components of a carbide miner’s lamp during the Plymouth Historical Society presentation ‘The Tools that Kept the Miners Working’ at the First ...

The depth, the dark, and the dangers inherent in mining created a uniquely dangerous working environment for the miner. Miners faced death from collapsing mines, oxygen deprivation, and haulage ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. This cotton miner’s cap has a leather ...

Labor underground without light is like working blind. To understand the entirety of the darkness, you almost have to experience it. Unlike a nighttime bedroom, a mine has no moonlight seeping in from ...