Mines, miners, and machines: Coal mine mechanization and the eastern Kentucky coal fields, 1890-1990

To meet the energy demands of the nation's industrial revolution, the American coal industry expanded tremendously between 1890 and the early 1920s. Within this context, the coal fields of eastern Kentucky were developed and the mountain people became dependent upon coal mining employment. In 1950 the coal industry employed more than fifty percent of eastern Kentucky's workers. Between 1950 and 1990, however, the coal operators in eastern Kentucky emulated their counterparts in other coal producing regions and replaced thousands of coal miners with modern labor-saving machinery. In 1990 the underground mining business in Kentucky's eastern counties produced about twice the tonnage that was mined in 1950 with only a fraction of the mid-century workforce. Focusing mainly on the coal fields of eastern Kentucky, this dissertation examines the process and impact of underground coal mine mechanization in the United States between 1890 and 1990.; Chapter One examines coal mine mechanization during the 1890 to 1950 period, and demonstrates that the process altered the nature of minework but did not result in widespread unemployment among eastern Kentucky's coal miners. Chapter Two shifts to the national level and reveals that thousands of deep miners were indeed displaced as the result of mechanization between 1950 and 1970. Chapters Three and Four demonstrate that the 1950s and 1960s were characterized by labor strife, mechanization, worker displacement, and {dollar}rm socio economic{dollar} hardships in the eastern Kentucky coal fields. Chapter Five examines coal mining and mechanization at both the national and eastern Kentucky levels during the 1970 to 1990 period, and shows that the process of mechanization and worker displacement stood out as a major element of continuity in coal mining during those decades. This study makes clear that by 1990 the coal industry's need for large numbers of underground coal miners had faded into history along with the old pick miners and mule-drawn mine cars of an earlier age.