Video Parts (4)
This clip is Part 1 of a 4-part film.
Coal Mining / Tacoma, Puget Sound, and the San Juan Islands, Washington Part 1
Description
The original catalog description provided by the Ford Motor Company reads as follows: a. Miners operate manual coal drill, use picks and crowbar to break coal from seam, load coal cars in mine with hand shovels, ride loaded coal cars - miner shoes mule. “A powerful steel cable hauls the cars to the surface, a thousand feet in 23 seconds.” Loaded coal cars raised to top of elevator, emptied into chute. “The diamond drift. Drift mining consists in driving a tunnel straight through the side of a mountain to the coal vein. This tunnel runs for a mile before coal is reached.” “Trains, electrically hauled, convey the coal from the drift.” Locomotive pulls coal cars from tunnel - cars are emptied by dumping. (Above caption repeated.) Miners with lunch pails leave mine by elevator. “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Miners after work. “A mining community near Scranton, Pennsylvania. The large buildings are collieries or breakers where the coal is broken to size, sorted and the slate removed.” Cranes and culm - banks - coal colliery machinery. “‘Stripping.’ Earth removed to a depth of fifty feet from the coal vein permits the coal to be taken out with a steam shovel.” “Miners’ homes, well-built and comfortable, are erected the coal companies.” “Culm dumps. Coal not of a marketable size and refuse is piled in the culm dump. Washing redeems a large percentage of it for fuel.” Coal is washed, sorted, placed on conveyor belt. “Leaving the coal fields for the freight yard where the coal is sorted for shipment.” Loaded railroad coal cars. Coal freighter with tugboat, ‘Luchenback Line, New York, USA.’ “On the way to hearth and fireside.” Freight train - people pick up coal from beside tracks - coal train crosses snow-covered countryside. [1916] b. Panorama of Tacoma - business district. “Extensive coastwise and foreign commerce is negotiated at Tacoma’s waterfront.” Drawbridge - ships at anchor and in dry dock. “Looking south on Pacific Avenue, the main business artery of Tacoma.” Horse-drawn vans and pedestrian traffic. “Numerous parks and open spaces relieve the congestion of a busy city. Wright Park.” Greenhouse, residential areas. “Point Defiance Park, bordered on three sides by Puget Sound, presents a beautiful panorama of shade trees and sea shore.” “A few miles from Tacoma lies Olympia, the capital of Washington, we’ll journey there for a few moments visit -- this is the Capitol Building.” [1916]
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