History of Longwall Coal Mining Mechanization: And My 50 + Years - of Personal Experience.

Coal! Black Gold. A natural resource that contributed to the Industrial Revolution in the U.K., and throughout the World. The Mining of Coal was important. Efficiency in meeting the demand for increased tonnage, brought technology in mechanization, and methods to mine. This book outlines and plots the development from the Mid 1700s to the 21st Century in the methods, and equipment to produce more. Individual Mining Engineers in the creation of a new industry, brought designs and the manufacture of machinery to produce more Coal, as cost efficient as possible. Innovation was the key.

Having a family of Coal Miners introduced me to the career of mining coal starting as a boy of 15 ½ in a deep mine in the Valleys of South Wales. After completing training in mechanics, I was placed on a producing Longwall Face as the mechanic, this face used a SERDS made by Anderson Boyes that has a major part in the beginning of Longwall Mechanization starting in 1952. un -mechanized Longwall Mining started in the 1780s called the Long Way of Mining Coal.