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Rhys Evans Journal

A Journal written about the Industrial Revolution of Great Brian

1781- The invention of the Steam Engine

A day in the pit The Steam Engine

Locomotives

January 20th, 1896

Another day of work in the pit speed passed my face. However, this was not a typical day. Today I almost died in the pit along with my best friend Henry. Henry and I barely escaped before the mine collapsed. Boom! Today, with that mine collapse, 11 poor souls were lost. After this horrific experience, I really don’t want to work in the pit, but I have no choice. Dad died 6 years ago and every since then, I was the money earner for the family. As all miners like me would say, the worst thing about working in the pit was that we would have to go back in tomorrow.  The best thing after a day of work in the pit was to see my little brother Idris, my 80 years old grandpa, and my loving mother.  After fish and potatoes for dinner, grandpa would always ask how my day went while mum would take care of little Idris. In addition, grandpa would also tell me stories of him when he was young himself.  Today, grandpa said that he would tell me all about the steam engine. Grandpa started the story by telling me who was the inventor behind the steam engine. He said that Scottish mechanical engineer James Watt invented the steam engine. Grandpa said that he was before the steam engine; mills on farms were powered by wind and water. However, when the new invention came, grandpa said that the steam engine took over the unreliable wind and water resource to operate the mill. Therefore, with the steam engine, mills could run without stopping, thus, producing more output and more work to be done. Then on the other hand, grandpa said that the steam engine was powered with steam, and to get steam, you need heat and to get heat you need coal. Therefore, more and more coal was needed as more and more steam engines were made. With more and more coal needed, more and more people were needed for employment. Grandpa told me that he was one of the thousands of families that moved from the rural countryside to the urban environment, all for the shiny black rock. Coal  Then, grandpa added on and said that the steam engine had a big impact to transportation. Before the invention of steam engines, there were no railways, no locomotive, nothing. To go to distant places, you would have to ride a horse or walk. To move coal, you would have to have a horse to pull the heavy load. Grandpa also said that horses transporting coal was a disaster in the rainy season since most of the horses would get stuck with the coal in thick mud, not being able to move. When the steam engine arrived, it also simultaneously gave birth to locomotives and railways. Adding on, grandpa also mentioned that with locomotives, people no longer needed horses to travel with. Additionally, he also said that horses would no longer be needed for transporting coal. This was a great advantage for the coal industry since locomotives could run in any condition without stopping. As a result, more and more coal was being transported daily. After that night, I learned that without the steam engine, the coal industry would not be what it is today. Without the steam engine, there would be no transport transporting the coal. Furthermore, I also learned that there would be no sustainable energy powering the mills. Nor will there be any sustainable machine pumping water out of the pit.  The following day, I woke up for another day of dreadful work in the pit. Yet today, I knew all about the steam-powered machine which revolutionized the coal industry.

1876- The opening of Pendyrus Coal Mine

New Pendyrus Coal mine

The Davy Lamp

Miner like me with our Davy lamps

January 22nd, 1896 The Pendyrus Coal mine was considered home to me. In fact, I was born in this same exact town, same as my younger brother Idris. My whole childhood was based around this mining community, from the time I learned to walk to the time when I started to work 333 yards deep inside the earth, digging out the shiny black rock. However, since I was an infant when the mine opened, I did not really know anything about the Pendyrus coal mine until last night when Grandpa told me all about it.

The night before… Grandpa said that when father was still around, he would always walk back from pit no.9 with his face black with coal dust everywhere. Grandpa said that he would come home everyday and ask the same question, “Why did we even bother moving in here, this is hell!”

Then, with this in mind, grandpa explained to me why our family moved from the rural countryside to the urban environment I am living in right now. Grandpa said that his father and him moved into the pit towns mainly because of employment. The coal mine owners simply needed more and more people to work since they wanted more and more money, resulting in higher productivity. And to do so, they needed employment.  My beloved grandpa then explained the big boss of the Pendyrus mine. Grandpa said that Alfred Tylor opened the Pendyrus mine. By listening to grandpa’s story, I learned that Alfred Tylor was very well educated and he even certified as a geologist! Although he lived in London, hundreds of miles away to escape the pollution, grandpa explained to me that the pit town was still named after him. The Pendyrus mine was a huge success for Alfred as employment just never stopped coming.  As a result, more and more people moved in and the environment was getting worse and worse. Grandpa explained that sanitation was the bomb. Grandpa said he warned dad that the water in the rivers were contaminated with diseases, but dad ignored him and that was what caused his death. Grandpa added on and said that he was just one out of the thousands of people in he mining community that contract the diseases and resulted in death. At this moment, I really wanted to punch father since he drank the dirty water despite grandpa’s warnings. I urgently wanted to kick him if he was still alive right now.  On the other hand, grandpa said that Alfred tried to reduce mine accidents by issuing a Davy lamp to every single miner. Grandpa explained to me that methane was what killed a lot of miners. That is why Sir Humphry Davy invented the Davy lamp to prevent these kinds of accidents.  In fact, I have a special Davy lamp, which was passed, from my great-grandfather to me. All I know is the basics of the Davy lamp. That is when the flame turned blue; I know it was time to leave the pit since the methane levels were rising. With this in mind, grandpa told me that the Davy lamp decreased the numbers of accidents in the coal mine. Thus, miners like me felt safer when working down in the mine. The Davy lamp was then issued to every miner in the whole of Britain. The Davy lamp is so important to me that I would not work without one.  Through grandpa’s story, I learned that the Pendyrus mine had both positive and negative effects to the community. One thing that benefited for all coal miners like me was that there was a sustainable place where we could work and earn money. In addition, the invention of the Davy lamp has also proven that working in the mine was safer. But on the other hand, sanitation killed lots of innocent lives in the pit towns.  The next day, I woke up with a fresher mind about the history of the Pendyrus Coal mine.  

January 28th, 1896- Pendyrus Mine disaster

Pendyrus mine disaster The dead

Sunday, January 27th, 1896

Another miserable day has landed on me. Just a few days earlier in the pit, an uncontrolled fire busted out and as a result, I got fourth degree burns on my entire legs. This morning, I was attempting to go to work with my burns, but then, at the door, grandpa stopped me and said that I was not physically fit for work.  I really do hope the wounds would heal so that by tomorrow, I would be able to work. I urgently need to work since if I didn’t work, I would not be paid and I would not be able to feed my family. I just really hoped that I never got the injured in the first place. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.  That night, grandpa acquired a nurse to check up on my burns. But, as expected, the bad news came. The nurse said that I would not be able to work for another week since the burn needed time to heal. In addition, she also explained that if I did work, the burn would get worse and worse. Monday, January 28th, 1896 Five in the morning, I woke up to the sounds of explosion. Kaboom!! Bang!! Simultaneously, I felt the ground shake violently, like a volcano which was about to erupt. But the thing was that there were no volcanoes around Tylortown. I looked down and in the streets, I saw people running like angry bulls. Just as I jumped onto the porch of the house to investigate the chaos, I saw a giant fireball, hurdling into the air. People around me who were running like angry bulls had stop running. I felt time slow down and the seconds slowly tick by me. Then, with a moment of notice, time went back to full speed. It took some time for my head to get around. It was then when I figured out I had just witnessed the unthinkable.  I tried to ask people nearby for answers for what happened, but all I got was the same response from everybody.  “I don’t know, I’m just as curious as you.” I even asked the inspector what was going on and even he did not know.  I decided that tomorrow would be a better day to ask for answers.  Tuesday, March 1st, 1896 I woke up with grandpa shoving the morning paper into my face. On the headline it read: Mine Disaster in Tylortown. I continued to read the morning paper about the mine disaster. As I read along, the paper stated that 57 people along with 80 horses had been perished with the mine explosion. In addition, pits 6,7,and 8 were cut off. Then at this moment, I thought about if I had gone to work yesterday. If I did indeed go to work, the death toll would’ve been 58. Thank god I didn’t go to work because of my injury. Maybe god decided that I was too young and didn’t deserve to die yet.  I continued reading the morning paper and it indicated that after the explosion, Mr. Hannah, the manager of the Pendyrus mine had sent a rescue party. The rescue party found 32 survivors in the pit following the explosion. Adding on, I also learned that the explosion occurred in pit 7 since the bodies of the dead there was more terrible than elsewhere.  After I finished reading the morning paper, Mum told me as a result of the mine disaster, the queen personally wrote a telegram to convey her majesty’s expression of distress to the lost ones.  Wednesday, March 9th, 1896 Finally, after two weeks out of the pit, I could finally go back to work. Work in the pit was more demanding than before since the mine explosion forced pits 6,7,8 to close. Nobody mentioned the mine disaster since then. But from what I can tell, the mining community of Tylortown would all remember that catastrophic day.

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Davy Lamp "The Miners Hymns Resource." Pinterest. N.p., n.d.

Web. 17 Mar. 2015. "Tylorstown Colliery Disaster. 28th. January 1896."

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Bibliography