304 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
Until the year 1775 the coal was carried from the working places 
of mines to the pit bottom on the backs of bearers, who were often 
married women, or full-grown girls, clothed in the same garb as the 
men. In Scotland the female bearers carried the coal to the top of the 
pit on a long and winding stairway. The coal was carried on wicker 
cribs fitted to the backs of the bearers, the cribs being held in place by 
leather straps passing around the forehead. The shameful practice of 
employing females in coal mines was continued until the vear 1842. In 
Belgium this degrading practice still exists. 
At the beginning of the present century the output of the mines 
in England, Scotland, and Wales had reached 10,000,000 tons, giving 
employment to 20,000 miners. The mines, prior to this time, were 
generally located in remote districts, and the miners were regarded as 
outcasts, and were debarred the common rights of other artisans and 
laborers; they were grossly ignorant and brutal, and in dialect and 
appearance were altogether different from people in the surrounding 
country. 7 
They are described in Southey’s life of Wesley as a race as lawless 
as the foresters, their forefathers. When the famous preacher White- 
field proposed going to America to preach the gospel to the Indians, 
many of his friends replied: “If you desire to convert savages, there 
are colliers enough in England.” 
The discovery of the steam-engine, and its practical application to 
mining purposes gave the coal trade its first impetus. This was soon 
followed by the discovery of the manufacture of gas, the hot-blast for 
smelting iron, the steam-boat, and the railroad locomotive, which made 
the use of coal the main spring of our present civilization. 
With the development of the coal trade, consequent on the dis- 
covery of steam, the underground workings of mines were extended in 
size and depth, increasing the danger of mining, and necessitating new 
and improved systems of working. In sinking deep into the earth’s 
crust the miner encountered obstacles, the most difficult and dangerous 
ever met in human enterprise. Intricate galleries, extending miles 
underground, were required to be maintained for the constant passage 
of atmospheric air, to dilute and render harmless the noxious and 
poisonous gases of the mine; massive columns of coal had to be left un- 
wrought in the mines to maintain the superincumbent strata in place, 
machinery of great weight and power had to be applied for lifting coal 
