2. 1781 – Invention of Steam
Engine
Today something absolutely terrifying and nerve wrecking
occurred. When life for us miners was finally improving, an ear
piercing explosion, followed by several cries from animals and
humans, occurred. Did our lives even improve after the
invention of the steam engine?
Everyday, my mother would start doing the chores around our
tiny and cold house, located in a town called Merthyr Tydfil in
the valley of Wales, after we left. My dad, little brother Idris,
and I would wake up an hour before her. We would leave
before the sun rose and head off to the other side of the
mountain where a pit boss would hopeful allow us in to start
mining the precious anthracite that is only located in Wales. I
remember the times when I was sick and how every other day
at 6 at night or in the morning, I would see my dad come in the
door camouflaged with the night and the only thing visible on
him would be the fresh blue scars. The moment he saw us, he
would light up and seem to glow brighter than the furnace on
Sundays. My dad and I never liked to talk about our 24 hours
in the three-foot mines. Idris was too little to understand or
remember. I would constantly have nightmares about the
screams and rumblings I hear everyday from explosions in
nearby pits. The dead bodies scattered on the pool of human
and animal waste. The stench, the nibbling of the rats and the
biting of the creepy crawlies crawling up your bruised and
beaten body, and the water that would flood the mines and
prevent us from working and earning precious money. And as
we all know, money is the difference between life and death.
Minors that worked with my dad
3. But then, something finally changed.
I remembered how my father would talk with great
excitement about the invention of the steam
engine in 1781 invented by James Watt. His
invention was not only used to easily and efficiently
pump out the water from the mines, but also
allowed major transportation systems in England to
grow by helping to quicken the transportation of
goods. This invention of the steam engine started
the high demand for coal because people realized
that the steam engine was a more efficient and
reliable way of transporting coal.
Every time I finished listening to his amazing
stories about the steam engine, I would also get
very excited and dream of the day where I wouldn’t
have to spend time with my family, whom I care so
much about, like it was going to be the last. The
steam engine changed our lives for the better.
First Steam Engine by James Watt
4. 1805 - Blanaevon Iron
Works
In 1805 Uncle Gwallter, from my dad’s side died an
extremely excruciating death in the Blanaevon Iron Works
located in South Wales. Even though I never met him, since
I wasn’t even born at the time, I was still able to imagine the
kind of life he was living through. A different life from ours,
but we were all able to understand and relate to it. We are
still very furious about the incident and at the money pigs
that lived in mansions with a heater and has three meals a
day, everyday.
In the same year, the first ironworks started to operate and
producing cheap and low quality iron by using limestone,
iron stone, and coal. This was very good news for my dad,
brother, and I because we were finally going to use
stronger and longer-lasting tools down in the pit. However,
we had to work harder because the demand for coal was
now greater than ever. Nevertheless, it was good news for
the richer folk who were now able to live in sturdier
buildings made of iron. Unfortunately, those who were
working in the ironworks were less fortunate. Working
above ground in the ironworks was just as dangerous as
working down in the mines. There were multiple and
different risks for each. Uncle Gwallter unfortunately
suffered and died because of those risks.
Old Pictures of Uncle Gwallter
when he was a farmer
5. Limestone and ironstone were heated using coal
power in blast furnaces at extremely dangerous
temperatures. Thus was one of the hazards, high
temperatures. Uncle Gwallter’s face was melted
off when iron, the temperature of molten volcanic
rock, spat into his face. The melted iron flowed
through channels where they were blocked by an
iron or stone boulder, also known as a bun. As
the molten iron pile grew larger, Uncle Gwallter,
and some other men, would use an axe and start
chipping away the boulder so the iron would
keep on flowing into chambers that separated
like a branch called pig iron. The danger of
hacking away at the bun was the possibility of
the melted white iron spurting at your face. That
was exactly how Uncle Gwallter died. Even
though Uncle Gwallter and many others were
killed by the shearing hot and silver devil, the
work in the ironworks was still not done. Finally,
workers had to rake away the melted iron to cool
it down.
Based on this tragic event, I will always be
thankful for my still beating heart and the iron
tools that I use everyday knowing that someone
sacrificed their lives, to give us all the iron.
The Blanaevon Iron Works,
where Uncle Gwallter died
6. 1842 –Mines Act
Thank you Queen Victoria. Thank you for my
education and for my happy ten-year childhood. The
Mines and Collieries Act spared me 10 years from
working in the mines.
I wasn’t born at the age, but my father would tell me
the stories of the Mines Act everyday when we
headed to the pithead. It’s my most favorite story,
because I am grateful for it every single day of my life.
I can only imagine a life where children as young as
five or six having to work in the pit of hell. These
children had to work in the dangerous conditions as
trappers, opening and closing ventilation doors down
in the mines. This was their job, suffocating
underground filled with methane, dust, rats, human
and animal feces, hazardous rocks that could cut
through their not fully developed bones, and boys and
girls wearing only trousers and working bare breasted,
making girls unfit for marriage and mothers.
Sometimes they would fall asleep in the pitch black
and would get run over by the carts. If they survived
those experiences, they would then become a hurrier.
The job of a hurrier is to push horse loads of coal like
an animal.
Children working in mines as a
hurrier and trapper
7. What finally made the public aware of these
conditions was death. I would always ask each time
to father why only death always acted like the icy
water splashing the face of a sleepy person. He
would always reply with a sigh and say who knows
why. In 1838, a stream overflowed into a ventilation
drift after a violent thunderstorm causing the death
of 26 young children between the ages of 8 and 12.
Finally someone became aware of what these boys
and girls had to go through. Working like rats,
digging away at coal underground in the pitch dark,
no child should have gone through that experience.
After the death of 26 young children who still had
their whole life ahead of them, Queen Victoria
ordered an inquiry. Commissioners visited these
mines to gather information of the conditions that all
of these poor children had to work in and published
it to the public. I bet that those miner owners
must’ve been very embarrassed after seeing so
many shocked and disgusted reactions from the
Victorian society.
The act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
passed on 1842. Till this day not one single child
under the age of 10 will ever, ever work in the
hellish mines down in the pit. Thank you Queen
Victoria, thank you.
Thanks to Queen Victoria, I had
a happy and healthy childhood
8. 1876 – Pendyrus Coal Mine
Opened
In 1876 father and mother, being pregnant with me,
moved to a new valley called Ronndha located in
Tylertown. They hoped for a better life, a fresh start,
and a good future for their future children. They were
attracted to this place in particular because their
urban relatives had just built a new mine called
Pendyrus Coal Mine because of the high demand of
coal from the empire due to the need of iron for the
ships. A new mine means a place that doesn’t have
hundreds of rats and creepy crawlies, suffocating
pollution, or coal dust everywhere…. at least not yet
anyway.
My father, being an optimistic guy, would always say
how great it was at first. However, my mother, being
the pessimist, would always shake her head and
point at the window with an expression that said
“mhm”. They had just had a baby boy and girl, their
house walls weren’t black, the sky was blue, the mine
that my dad worked at, pit 8, wasn’t covered in
human and animal waste, and they rested easily
knowing we didn’t have to work in pit 8 at age 5.
Here’s where my mother would pitch in and tell me
what happened only a month later.
Our new home Ronndha
9. Their one-month-old baby girl died, and I was their
only child. They realized that no matter where they
went, the high infant mortality rate would never
change because of the conditions that we were living
in. The more people moved in trying to find a job in
the new mines, the more steaming coal was dug out,
and the more money the Tyler family made. My baby
sister had died of cholera, the walls were no longer
bright brown, the sky was not blue, the mines were
covered in feces, and they no longer rested easily
knowing that I had to work underground for two 12
hour shifts a day in that environment in less than 10
years. People were dying in the mines again and
explosions occurred every other day. Thankfully,
Alfred Tyler gave each of us a Davy Safety Lamp
that was used to detect high levels of methane.
Whenever the blue flame reached a certain height,
the levels of methane would be too high and so
everyone had to escape as quickly as they can.
Thanks to this lamp, I grew up knowing who my dad
was. Personally, I think my mom is wrong. She could
point to Alfred Tyler, the mines, the window, or the sky,
but she can’t point at this family. We are all happy
together, and I am glad to see my breathing father,
my hard working mother, and my rosy cheeked little
brother who was born 12 years later.
My dad sitting in the middle
having lunch in Pit #7
10. 1896 Monday 28th January – Pendyrus Mine
Disaster 5:30 AM
Did our lives improve after the invention of the steam engine?
Yes it did, I have a healthy little brother, mother is still alive, but
my father… My father died of black lung at the age of 55. I was
devastated. He was my hero and I looked up to him for all of my
life. Now he is gone.
6 years have passed and I am still mourning over the death of
my father. My younger brother is now 8 years old and is almost
eligible to work in the mines. Since my mom is too old to work in
the mines, I am now the supporter of the family. I work hard, and
I suffer everyday, but it’s worth it. My shift at the mines just
started approximately 4 hours ago, based on how much my
Davy lamp has burned. I am covered in dust, I have blue marks
all over my hands, my muscles are all sore, and I stench of
vomit and feces. To worsen my condition, I haven’t been feeling
very well lately. I can’t breath well, I talk like I have been running
for 5 hours, and whenever I cough, black dust comes out of my
mouth. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I just started having
this problem yesterday. My shift is almost over though. In just
two hours I would switch places with my buddy Afel and go back
home. However, I must hurry because I haven’t been collecting
a lot of coal today. I have only filled one cart and time is running
out. Then, as if from emerging from hell itself, the bit boss kicks
me out and doesn’t even give me any money. I can no longer
work for today and it is only approximately 5:20.
My buddy Afel in front of the pit horse
11. This is my life, my painful and sad life. I hate the
pits and what they make me do. I hated what they
made my father do, and his resulting death. I hate
the loud bang of clappers as they locked me in
hell for the day. I hate working my every muscle
just to be exploited at the end of the day. As my
anger and frustration grows bigger and harder to
control, the ground starts to shake and birds start
to flutter out of their hidden nests. In the distance,
I can see a cloud of smoke with red and orange
flares in the background. The strong push of the
wind carries the sound of screams and cries from
man and animal. I rush back towards the mines,
ignoring the pain in my muscles, fearing the most.
Smoke and ash comes out of pithead #7. That’s
the pit I work in! Realizing that I could have died in
this mine, today, not even 10 minutes ago at 5:30,
I fall to the ground and start to cry. I am no longer
angry or frustrated, I now understand to respect
the way I live, appreciate what I have. However, I
am also confused to why this was my fate. Why
must I, and only I, live while all of the 57 people I
work, with must die? Spare me of this guilt and
confusion! I know now to respect and appreciate
my life, spare me!
Pit heads #7 and 8 before disaster struck
12. Conclusion
There were many consequences that occurred after the Industrial revolution that still affects us today. However, some
effects didn’t last that long because it was improved or didn’t work at all. For example, the only way to collect the coal
was to make people and animals dig the coal in terrible conditions underground for hours. Now, life in the pit improved
and became more sanitary and a lot less laborious thanks to the many drills and machines. However, there were some
good consequences that still affect us today. Such as, the Davy Safety Lamp that miners still use today. Of course,
people modernized it a bit; however, the main concepts and functions of the safety lamp is still the same.
Many people argue that the industrial revolution is still happening today. However, I am talking about the major transition
between an agricultural life to an urban life. During that time, a lot of things stayed the same, and a lot didn’t. When the
demand for coal was booming, children as young as 5 would work with the adults in the terrible conditions of the mines;
however, thanks to Queen Victoria, that didn’t last long. The Mines Act banned pit bosses and pit owners to allow
children under the ages of 10 to work in the mines. The reason why child labor in the mines didn’t last long was because
of the disgusted and shocked reactions from the Victorians who knew that child labor is a terrible way of getting
something done. Which leads to my next point. The steam engine lasted a very long time, and is still used today,
because it is a reliable piece of machine that will never stop as long as we keep feeding it coal. The steam engine was
used throughout the industrial revolution to transport coal and other supplies, and also used to pump out the water in
the mines. Today, we modified it to work longer and better; however, the concept and functions of the steam engine is
still basically the same.
Thanks to the industrial revolution, the whole way human beings work changed and urbanized. In the best, we relied on
the weather in order to grow our crops. We relied on the tired and unreliable animals and humans to transport those
crops. Family would have to work together just to make one pair of shoes that we can so easily purchase in a nearby
shopping mall. The invention of the steam engine, invented by James Watt, made pushed that start of change. The uses
of coal for all sorts of purposes are still very important today. We use coal to generate electricity, production of steel and
cement. Even though the purposes of coal has changed during and after the industrial revolution, the coal itself, is still a
majorly important factor in the modern day life.
13. Citations
Steam engine: "James Watt Steam Engine." Some Interesting Facts. N.p.,
n.d. Web. <http://someinterestingfacts.net/wpcontent/uploads/2012/12/james-watts-steam-engine.jpg>.
Child Labor: "Child Labor in Mines." A Web of English History. Dr Marjorie
Bloy, n.d. Web. <http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/childmin.htm>.
Queen Victoria: "Queen Victoria." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web.
http://someinterestingfacts.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/james-wattssteam-engine.jpg
Pit head #7 and 8:
"Rhonnda Valleys." Blogs. N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://blogs.isb.bj.edu.cn/nikitas/files/2012/05/Rhondda-Valleys-TylorstownPendyrus-Colliery-Pits-6-and-7.jpg>
The rest of the pictures are collected by Mr. Fidler in his collect folder
Some were gathered from:
http://www.rhonddaheritagepark.com/
"Rhonnda Valleys." Rhondda Heritage Park. N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://www.rhonddaheritagepark.com/>.
