242 COAL 



the Romans, coal was mined, but the quantity obtained was 

 very small. It was not until 1238 that the first coal-mine 

 was opened at Newcastle, and after that date, very gradually, 

 coal became an article of commerce. 



Difficulties connected with Coal-mining. One of the great 

 difficulties is to keep the mines free from water, and the 

 miners of old days had very inadequate pumps for this 

 purpose. Then there is the difficulty of raising the coal from 

 the depths of the earth, where it is mined, to the surface ; 

 the difficulty of taking it from the pit's mouth to the place 

 where it is to be used ; and many other difficulties, all due 

 to the fact that coal lies underground and is exceedingly 

 heavy. 



Not much, therefore, could be accomplished until some 

 force was discovered whereby the water could be pumped 

 out from the mines and the coal moved from place to 

 place. 



James Watt. In the year 1736 there was born at Greenock 

 one who was described later as ' no common child ', and he it 

 was who invented the wonderful steam engine. Difficulties 

 which had before been insuperable now vanished ; new mines 

 were discovered and worked, the iron trade revived, cotton 

 and woollen manufactures increased by leaps and bounds ; and 

 there took place what was known as the Industrial Revolution. 



Before the revolution, wherever the grass nourished good 

 sheep and there were streams in which their wool could be 

 washed, there the woollen cloth was woven; and the east, 

 with Norwich as the centre, and the west, with Stroud and 

 Taunton, were the chief woollen manufacturing districts of 

 England. 



The cotton industry was as yet in its infancy, and the bare 

 hills and bleak uplands of the north were but thinly populated. 

 With the advent of the steam-engine, and the working of the 

 coal- and. iron-mines, all this was changed. Instead of lonely 

 mills by the side of little mountain streams, there grew up 

 enormous factories and prosperous towns wherever there was 



