Saint Nicholas Coal Breaker
by David Dehner
Title
Saint Nicholas Coal Breaker
Artist
David Dehner
Medium
Photograph
Description
The St. Nicholas Coal Breaker, formerly located in Mahanoy City, PA, was once the largest coal breaker in the world, and was the last of its kind in the state. Invented in the 1840s, breakers transformed large, hard to ignite chunks of raw anthracite into a variety of smaller sizes suitable for smelting iron, propelling a locomotive, running a machine or heating a building.
A coal breaker is a coal processing plant which breaks coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also remove impurities from the coal, typically slate and deposit them into a culm dump. The coal breaker is a forerunner of the modern coal preparation plant
While tipples were used around the world, coal breakers were used primarily in the United States in the state of Pennsylvania where, between 1800 and the mid-20th century, many of the world's known anthracite reserves were located.
The St. Nicholas Breaker first became operational on March 11, 1931. It was the second breaker in the area to be named after St. Nicholas; the first was built in 1861 and torn down in 1928. When the new breaker opened, it was the crown jewel of a relatively safer, more modern anthracite industry. However, the breaker was last operated in 1972.
Uploaded
September 6th, 2021
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Comments (6)
David Dehner
Thank you Robert for featuring this image in your great group YOUR VERY BEST PHOTOGRAPHY -Dave