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Western Canada's early coal miners arrived on the frontier from distant parts of the world and quietly made their contribution to our economic, political, and cultural development. The focus of this narrative is on the timespan that starts with the usage of native coal for fuel by the Hudson's Bay Company's employees at Edmonton House in October 1798 and finishes with the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. Although they were thousands of kilometres apart, the Canadian coal industry was closely linked to the British industry for much of its history. Modern mining equipment, practices,…mehr

Produktbeschreibung
Western Canada's early coal miners arrived on the frontier from distant parts of the world and quietly made their contribution to our economic, political, and cultural development. The focus of this narrative is on the timespan that starts with the usage of native coal for fuel by the Hudson's Bay Company's employees at Edmonton House in October 1798 and finishes with the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. Although they were thousands of kilometres apart, the Canadian coal industry was closely linked to the British industry for much of its history. Modern mining equipment, practices, and laws were imported from Great Britain. British colonists quickly marginalized the Indigenous population wherever they wished to exploit the natural resources. The presence of Asian workers in the coalfields was greatly resented by their co-workers of European ancestry. Colliery owners prospered while life could be wretched for their employees. Unknown numbers of workers were killed, maimed, and sickened. Sudden failures of the coal pillars propping up a mine's roof sent deadly projectiles flying in all directions. Drilling, cutting, blasting, and handling coal produced fine dust, which was explosive and caused lung disease. An explosive gas, firedamp, was liberated from the coal seam as it was exposed. Violent explosions of firedamp and coal dust brought too many fragile lives to a merciless finale. A slow, agonizing death from miners' phthisis was the fate of countless colliers.