9781422285534

39 Chapter Four: The Coal Industry

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution and the discovery of North American coal reserves, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, coal has been a huge part of the energy business and a way of life for millions of people. Over this period, its uses spread to iron and steel making, railroad locomotives, factory furnaces, ovens and kilns, home heating, and countless other consumer uses. In 1882, coal powered North America’s first plant to generate electricity for public users—Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station in New York. That was the beginning of coal’s massive use by the electricity industry. A Century of Coal By 1920, total US coal production had reached almost 700 million tons (630 million metric tons), about two-thirds of today’s level. At that time, the United States had

Coal miners taking a lunch break more than 2 miles below ground, in 1910.