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Journal entry final
- 2. Coal, the Fuel for Transportation Journal Entry #1 A Locomotive using a Steam Engine Steam Engine Idea
- 3. The Leader of Iron 1805 Journal Entry #2 Blanaevon Ironworks
- 4. Laws with Good Intentions 1842 Journal Entry #3 A drawing of one of the poor miner boys
- 5. Pendyrus, My Life 1876 Journal Entry #3 Two photographs of Pendyrus Colliery, my home
- 6. An Explosion that Blew Up the Revolution 1896 Journal Entry #5 A drawing of a coalmine explosion
- 7. Works Cited Sites Used "Tylorstown." Tylorstown. Rhondda Cynon Taf Library Service, n.d. Web. May 2013. "The 'Gilchrist-Thomas' Process." Blaenavon World Heritage Site:. World Heritage Site, n.d. Web. May 2013. McLamb, Eric. "The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Ecology. Ecology Global Network, 18 Sept. 2011. Web. May 2013. Hadar. "The Industrial Revolution as a Turning Point in World History." - WriteWork. N.p., June 2003. Web. May 2013. "Industrial Revolution." Industrial Revolution. Princeton University, n.d. Web. May 2013.
Hinweis der Redaktion
- My father, Gareth Evans, died in a coalmine of South Whales. He climbed down into the hazardous, pitch black coal pits everyday all day, and my mother says that every day when he left home for work, she would wonder helplessly if he would ever come back, or if he would die from one of the ever present dangers inside the coal mines. One day, he did. He died from the black lung; a disease where black coal dust accumulates in a person’s lung until they cannot breath anymore, a terrible illness that my father contracted and died from when I was just a young boy. My mother told me many stories about him and his life and the life of a coal miner in general, and told one story about an innovative invention called the steam engine, which was created by a man named James Watts, who came up with the idea using models made by previous inventors like Thomas Savery who created his model in 1698 and Thomas Newcomen who created his soon after that.The steam engine used coal as fuel and fueled locomotives more efficiently, this made locomotives more suited for transporting such heavy valuables as ironstone and limestone. I was lucky enough to see a locomotive using one of these engines and the monster of a train puffed out more coal smoke than a thousand cigarettes put together! Amazing. My mother tells me that this invention greatly helped Gareth and other miners, because before the invention of the steam engine, horses and sometimes even miners would have to lug the heavy material around.Horses and men could only walk so far and especially with such heavy material like ironstone and limestone on their backs, and horses would often die on these excursions.The other problem with horses and men carrying the heavy valuables was they couldn’t go very fast, making taking these valuables anywhere a huge, long and strenuous and dangerous event. The steam engine eliminated all of these problems. It could hold an almost infinite amount of material traveling at an almost infinitely great speed without ever getting tired or dying. The other great function of the steam engine is that it raised the price of coal. Because everyone wants to use this steam engine, and because the steam engine uses coal as fuel, the demand for coal has increased and is increasing at an unbelievable rate. Now, Gareth and the other miners can work less hard and get more money. The steam engine also was bringing in money for the empire, which I hear was pretty important. The steam engine can transport iron and limestone to sell to other countries as efficiently as anything in the world today, which brought in tons of money for our empire. Overall, the steam engine brought in more money to my family and the families of the thousands of other miners and our beloved empire, and it marginally increased the safety of the life of a miner, which makes it in my mother’s opinion, a great invention. I would not be surprised if more inventions using coal for fuel would be created. It made living in the gray, polluted mining towns lined with small, cheap houses connected to each other a little bit easier.
- The town of Blaenavon led Whales’ iron production in 1805. My mother told me a story once, of when Blaenavon’s coalmine started this innovative project that they called the “Gilchrist-Thomas Process.” It was a new, more efficient way to excavate iron ore using coal as fuel. This is the second invention created using coal as its fuel, the first being the steam engine created in 1781. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Gilchrist invented the idea, and they named it the “Gilchrist-Thomas Process.” They invented the process through years of secret experimenting in the town Blanaevon. They came up with their idea using the Bessemer convertor, created in 1856. A device created by Henry Bessemer, used for converting pig iron into steel. This apparently was a great change because all previous methods of excavating ironstone had been expensive and inefficient. Iron was a high valued commodity that Blaenavon had in its valley, in abundance, but because of the previous ineffective methods of iron excavation, Blanaevon had not had much of it’s iron mined yet. Iron was used throughout the world and because of the invention of the “Gilchrist-Thomas Process,” Blanaevon would be able to sell very much iron and make very much money.Blanaevon also had an advantage in selling iron and limestone because the process was invented in Blanaevon, and although the experiments conducted by Percy and Sidney in secret, the mine owner found out about them and bought a share of the patent, making him able to use the process in his mine. This invention, like the steam engine, apparently positively affected most social classes. It affected the hard working, coal miners, because the value of coal went up because the iron works owners and workers needed it more, and because when the miners get more money, the scoundrel mine owners get more money too, the higher class people like the mine owners were also positively affected. My mother says that the mine owners sat in their palace-like luxurious homes doing nothing, and then would have the audacity to squeeze the poor, hard working miners dry of the little money they made as is. It is absolutely outrageous! Even though I was not alive to be affected by it at the time, I am outraged to hear about those vulture mine owners! Anyway, it also affected our beloved empire because they got money from the tons of iron ore being shoveled out of the Blaenavon factory, which was subsequently sold around the world. It also affected the workers and owner of the iron works, because they got more money because of the iron that they are producing and selling. Even though the ironworks workers had to pay more money for the ever-growing popularity and subsequent expense of our coal, the money they were making for their in-genius iron ore extraction process made up for it. This invention improved the amount of money my father made, which seemed to be one of the biggest issues my family had when my father was alive, which is why I believe the invention was useful and overall positively effective. The Gilchrist Thomas Process increased production of iron and limestone, which were key to the industrial revolution and funding of the empire. So I guess this invention was pretty good in that sense too.
- The Mines Act of 1842 saved the lives of my mother and siblings. My mother tells me a story about a mines act created by the British Parliament in 1842. It stated that no female was to be employed underground, and that no boy under the age of ten was to be employed underground. My mother thought that while this act had good intentions and basically made the mines less hazardous, which is what she always wanted, she also talked about how it was not their choice to put their children in the pits, they were forced to. Apparently, the mine owners were so cold and evil and would pay the miners such little money that to be able to provide basic needs such as food and shelter for their families, the miners would not only have to work themselves half to death, but also have to work their poor children half to death. It was not like the coal mine owners paid money by the hour, they paid for the amount of coal that you bring in, and they don’t pay much for that at all. It was inhumane, and I can’t believe the scoundrel mine owners forced the miners to do such terrible things! The mine owners were not really affected by this act at all, which really drove my mother and father up the wall. No matter what laws the government put up banning things that the miners do, it will not affect the heartless coal mine owners. It doesn’t matter if the miner is dying and cannot even move, the mine owner will not let up. He or she will tell that miner that if he doesn’t work, he will not make any money, and then because he cannot possibly work, his family will starve, while the mine owner sits in his golden throne in a luxurious mansion in London. It is hard for me to believe these kinds of stories. They are so outrageous! The Act did seem to me to have good intentions and brought some good change. It saved very many people. I once heard a statistic stating that in 1814 there were over two thousand women and girls working in the pit. These outrageous statistics were what led to the creation of the act, and people like Lord Ashley who began inspecting mines shortly before the act was created found the statistics. Frankly, I am pretty happy with the act because as a result of it I can’t be forced into one of those hell pits, and neither can my mother and siblings. Although the act helps me in that way, it leave us with much less money and an even more over worked father, who is now dead, and less money means less food and shelter. I believe that they should have added a clause to the Mines Act implicating some kind of a minimum wage or some other law against the inhumane pay and work conditions of a miner.
- Pendyrus was my life, and the life of many other miners. There was a story that my father would tell me, when he was still alive, about a coalmine called Pendyrus that opened in 1876. My dad worked in this coal mine until the day he died. It was located in the Rhondda valley, which was one of the most coal rich valleys in all of South Whales, maybe even the entire world, and my father worked there. I heard that it’s name changed form Pendyrus to Tylorstown, when Alfred Tyler became the owner. Tylortown had an interesting history. It has being passed around to many different owners. A man called Thomas Wayne sank the first mining shaft into the area in 1858, before the mine had a name or was such a booming operation. Then, in 1876, Alfred Tyler bought the mineral rights of Pendyrus, naming it Tylortown. Tyler created a second colliery, adding to the one that was created by Thomas Wayne. It was at that time that Pendyrus became such a popular and successful mine. it grows in popularity every minute, it seems. Because of the mines great success, David Davis bought the rights in 1894. David Davis owns the coalmine that my own father worked in! David Davis is as famous as any of the top celebrities, around coalmines. He was the inventor of the Davis Lamp! The invention changed us miners lives by making it much easier for miners to see in the pitch-black coalmines. Tylorstown was such a huge mine. It brought in coal miners from all over South Whales! My father said it was one of the biggest coalmines in the world at the time. The influx of people was not considered a very good thing however, in the eyes of the miners. The more miners coming in to Tylortown, the cheaper the housing and the more cramped the spaces became.This, obviously made many miners unhappy. I find it interesting how success like the success of a coalmine can bring such a huge number of miners into a town that there is hardly any space for them. It was a very serious issue, however, and many families were driven out to less known coalmines, or were forced, like my father was, to stay and live in the cramped and cheap housing. This mine affected the production of coal very much, I hear. Because it was such a huge mine and because it was situated in the coal rich valley, known by it’s Gaelic name, Rhondda, it excavated and sold more coal then any other coalmine at the time. Coal fueled iron and limestone production and the locomotives that transported it, and it was this production of such materials that fueled the industrial revolution by providing money and stability for the empire. The coalmine played a huge role in the Industrial Revolution and provided pay for many miners and mine owners. One issue with the mine was that the pollution produced by the mine turned the vivid green, rural, valley, Rhondda, into a gray, smoggy, wilted, and urban colliery. The Rhondda will never be the same. I had been living in Tylortown my whole life, and I can understand the value it had to my family and the empire, and it is a very meaningful place to me.
- There is one story my mother told me that I would never forget. I remember the first time I heard it too. It was my 11th birthday and as a kind of ceremony, my mother sat me down in one of our old man like, frail wooden chairs in our small, gray home, the walls covered in green streaks from the mildew. She told the story of the Pit explosion of January 28th, 1896. That day, 57 men and 8 horses died. Luckily, if there was anything at all lucky about it, it was early in the morning and there were only a fraction of the people working in the mines at the time of the explosion. To this day, my family and I still go to the solemn oldgraveyard packed with the bodies of poor miners, every week to pay our respects. I always knew how hazardous the mines were, but to think, an explosion killing 57, good, hard-working men! How could the mine owners and our empire have let miners work in an environment that could actually explode!The explosion was created by something that could have happened any day too. It was not even a mistake or purposeful attack by a human! It was a gas shot that rushed out of a gas pipe ina miner named Daniel William’s stall that started the explosion. My mother tells me that it was routine to let off a shot of gas occasionally.Apparently, coal dust is very unstable and flammable, and the gas shot lit up the coal like a match lights up a scrap of paper. How in the world could the Empire have let us work so hard everyday in an environment surrounded by a material that is so flammable, with candles and Davy Lamps and gas pipes everywhere? Not to mention the number of people in the pits at one time! Luckily that Mines Act of 1842 prevented women and children from working in the mines. That would be an even worse scenario. The only human who caused this was that bloody idiot David Davies. Before I knew about the explosion and the way he ran Tylortown, I had a lot of respect for him. He was a great inventor and did help miners see in the pitch-black pits using his Davy Lamp, but even that invention was faulty! The Davy lamp let out gas that led to other coalmine explosions, maybe even the one in Tylortown! Anyway, I had a lot of respect for him until he became a monster coalmine owner just like the rest. Actually, he was even worse than the rest, which I didn’t believe could be possible. Not only did he treat his hard-working miners poorly like the other mine owners did, he treated his mine poorly, which lead to the death of 57 of them. 57! He used his moderate success to weasel his way into a job that he had no idea how to do. Well, at least the explosion put an end to the mining in that area. It was not because Davies decided that it was to dangerous, it was because the explosion made the coal around the area un-minable. If it wasn’t for that, I strongly believe that he would have put his miners right back to work. The explosion also gradually ended the entire revolution, and while the old me would say good riddance, the new me realizes the positiveimpact it had on the world, and Great Britain, because of the wealth it accumulated as a result of the iron and limestone sold to other countries, and the inspiration Great Britain gave to other countries to industrialize themselves.