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Scared of School: 1908
Submitted by Dave on Thu, 09/25/2008 - 3:30pm.
September 1908. Grafton, West Virginia. "Tipple Boy and Drivers. Maryland Coal Co. mine near Sand Lick. Boy with mule was afraid at first to be in the picture; another boy said he feared we might make him go to school." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.
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Lamps
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Sat, 11/22/2008 - 2:08pm.
Those are oil lamps on their hats. Shaped like a little watering can, they held whale oil with a wick that went down the spout.
Mine Headlamps
Submitted by rob on Wed, 10/01/2008 - 5:10pm.
Oops, I just looked at the other photo of open-flame headlamps (which in fact I'd never seen before). Were the carbide (enclosed) variety considered "safety devices"?
Great site full of the America I grew up in. Thanks...
Carbide lamps..
Submitted by Rob on Wed, 10/01/2008 - 4:37pm.
Those are, in fact, carbide lamps, which worked by dripping water (regulated by a valve) onto rocks of calcium carbide in the body of the lamp. The amount of water determined the amount of gas produced, and therefore the brightness of the flame.
I was born in coal mining country in the 40's, and later came to discover through a friend how the flammable gas produced by calcium carbide could be used to power deafeningly loud paint-can cannons.
Also, BTW, most of us would rather have gone to work than school, I think...
My Sweetheart's the Mule
Submitted by Mattie on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 7:57pm.
My grandfather, who started working in a coal mine about a decade after this photo was taken, used to sing this ditty to me:
My sweetheart's the mule in the mines
I drive her without reins or lines
On the bumper I sit
And I chew and I spit
All over my sweetheart's behind.
Carbide Lights
Submitted by 1stgear on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 4:06pm.
I think the name of the lamps on the boys heads were carbide lights. My dad has a couple of the ones my grandfather wore.
Headgear
Submitted by madelaine on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 2:41pm.
I would love to know what is on the boys' hats.
[Headlamps like these. - Dave]
Coal Camp
Submitted by H.M.E. on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 11:39am.
Yeah, I'm sure many of the jobs back then were horrible, but I can't imagine any kid not wanting to work with horses (or mules)--- and ditch school at that. That's not far off from what many of the well-to-do pay good money for their kids to do at expensive summer camps, after all!
Shocked. Shocked!
Submitted by Apium on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 7:56am.
I'm shocked! One of them is smiling -- I'm surprised Hine didn't destroy the negative and demand another be taken with all-scowling faces.
How could it be?
Submitted by allie on Thu, 09/25/2008 - 4:45pm.
How could school be any worse than this? I suspect that they didn't have a choice to go to school as their families probably needed the money.
["Worse than this" -- it says something about life today when we can't wrap our minds around the possibility that these boys might actually have liked working. - Dave]
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Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
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