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"Breaker boys", courtesy MSHA.
Quick fact: The coal was crushed, washed, and sorted according to size at the breaker. The coal tumbled down a chute and moved along a moving belt where the "Breaker boys", some as young as eight, worked in the picking room.
They worked hunched over 10 to 11 hours a day, six days a week, sorting rock, slate and other refuse from the coal with their bare hands.
The Ewen Breaker of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, January 10, 1911. Courtesy MSHA.
Quick fact: An 1885 law required boys to be at least twelve to work in the coal breakers and at least fourteen to work inside the mines. A 1902 law raised the age to fourteen to work in the breakers.
Although child labour laws did not allow children under fourteen to work in the mines, some states did not have compulsory registration of birth and boys were passed off as "small for their age".
"Breaker boys" - Hughestown Borough Coal Co., Pittston, PA (1911). Courtesy MSHA.
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Archived article: image not displayed.
Archived article: image not displayed.
Archived article: image not displayed.
Boy running "trip rope" at a tipple. The tripper is a device that discharges material from a belt conveyor. Courtesy MSHA
