coal mining: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

Mongolia: coal mine

Children hauling coal up the slope of an English mine; from an engraving of the 1840s.

A longwall miner shearing coal at the face of a coal seam; from an underground mine in southern Ohio, U.S.

Inserting steel bolts to support the roof of an underground mine in West Virginia, U.S.

Schematic diagram of a flotation separation cell.

coal miner loading a drill hole with an explosive

Company-owned coal miner homes, Holden, West Virginia, 1920s

Exposed wall of a coal pit near Haybro, Colorado, showing distinct dark coal seams layered with lighter rock under a clear sky.

The harsh realities of coal mining in the early 20th century

The never-ending underground fire of Centralia, Pennsylvania

Learn how Poland's rich mineral resources sulfur and bituminous coal are mined

Labor Unions: Teddy Roosevelt and the Coal Miners' Strike

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

self-contained self-rescuer longwall method room-and-pillar mining shortwall method thick-seam mining Today in History—September 4: The Largest Labor Uprising Ends longwall shield advancing longwall method retreating longwall method continuous room-and-pillar mining coal liquefaction coal utilization bituminous coal subbituminous coal anthracite lignite sapropelic coal coal classification maceral brown coal

Key People

default image

August Thyssen

German industrialist

default image

Amelia zur Helle Thyssen

German industrialist and philanthropist

Hardie, drawing by Cosmo Rowe; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

J. Keir Hardie

British labor leader

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th earl of Shaftesbury, oil painting by George Frederic Watts, 1862; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th earl of Shaftesbury

British industrial reformer [1801–1885]

Stinnes, Hugo

Hugo Stinnes

German industrialist

Arthur Cook, 1926

Arthur James Cook

British labor leader

Thyssen, Fritz

Fritz Thyssen

German industrialist

Rhondda

David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda

Welsh industrialist

default image

William Reid Clanny

British physician

default image

Neal Shover

American academic

John Scott Haldane

John Scott Haldane

British physiologist

Frederick Augustus Abel, engraving.

Sir Frederick Augustus Abel

British chemist