Ever Hear of a Breaker Boy?

Ever Hear of a Breaker Boy?

    A breaker boy was a 8-12 year-old coal-mining worker who separated impurities from coal by hand in a coal breaker. Elderly coal miners who could no longer work in mines because of age, disease, or accident also worked employed as breaker boys. Use of breaker boys began in the mid-1860s and did not end until the 1920s.

    Boys and girls worked on their hands and knees in the deepest tunnels, dragging carts of coal behind them using chains attached to their belt. As the mines were often dripping wet, they spent all day in sopping wet clothes.

    For 10 hours a day, six days a week, breaker boys sat on benches, perched over the chutes and conveyor belts, picking slate and other impurities out of the coal. They worked atop chutes or conveyor belts and stopped the coal by pushing their boots into the stream of fuel flowing under them, pick out the impurities, and let the coal pass on to the next boy for further processing. Others diverted coal into a horizontal chute at which they sat, then pick the coal clean before allowing the fuel to flow into "clean" coal.

    

Being able to handle slick coal prevented them from wearing gloves. They often left with fingers bleeding from sharp slate in the coal. They lost hands, arms, and feet in conveyor belts & other machinery. Many were crushed to death. They also caught black lung disease.