Editing History of coal mining (section)

==Early history==
[[File:Hypocaustum.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the [[hypocaust]] under the floor of the [[Roman villa]] [[La Olmeda]]. The part under the [[exedra]] is covered.]]

Early coal extraction was small-scale, the coal lying either on the surface, or very close to it. Typical methods for extraction included [[drift mining]] and [[bell pit]]s. As well as drift mines, small scale [[shaft mining]] was used. This took the form of a bell pit, the extraction working outward from a central shaft, or a technique called [[room and pillar]] in which 'rooms' of coal were extracted with pillars left to support the roofs. Both of these techniques however left considerable amount of usable coal behind.

The oldest intentional use of black coal was documented in Ostrava, Petřkovice, in a settlement from the older Stone Age on the top of Landek Hill. According to radiocarbon dating, the site falls within the period 25,000–23,000 years BC.<ref>{{cite web |title=Koblov a Petřkovice |url=https://www.archeologickyatlas.cz/en/lokace/koblov_ov_sidliste_landek |website=Archeological Atlas of the Czech Republic |access-date=12 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Svoboda |first1=Jiří |title=Čas lovců: Aktualizované dějiny pravěku |date=2009 |publisher=Nadace Universitas, akademické nakladatelství CERM |location=Brno |isbn=978-80-7204-628-7 |pages=258–259 |url=http://media.archeologicky-atlas.cz.s3.amazonaws.com/production/application/source/2018/6/20/svoboda_2009-pdf |access-date=12 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Klíma |first1=Bohuslav |title=Coal in the Ice Age: The Excavation of a Palaeolithic Settlement at Ostrava-Petřkovice in Silesia |journal=Antiquity |date=1956 |volume=30 |issue=118 |pages=98–101 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00028301 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/coal-in-the-ice-age-the-excavation-of-a-palaeolithic-settlement-at-ostravapetrkovice-in-silesia/D2344CCD5A1C961137436854987C0FE1 |access-date=12 May 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Archeological evidence in China indicates surface mining of coal and household usage after approximately 3490 BC. 
<ref>{{cite journal|author1=John Dodson|author2=Xiaoqiang|author3=Nan Sun|author4=Pia Atahan|author5=Xinying Zhou|author6=Hanbin Liu|author7=Keliang Zhao|author8=Songmei Hu|author9=Zemeng Yang|title=Use of coal in the Bronze Age in China|journal=The Holocene|date=March 3, 2014|volume=0959683614523155|doi=10.1177/0959683614523155|issue=5|pages=525–530|bibcode=2014Holoc..24..525D|s2cid=130577642}}</ref>

The earliest reference to the use of coal in [[metalworking]] is found in the geological treatise ''On stones'' (Lap. 16) by the Greek scientist [[Theophrastus]] (c. 371–287 BC):

{{quote|Among the materials that are dug because they are useful, those known as coals are made of earth, and, once set on fire, they burn like [[charcoal]]. They are found in [[Liguria]]... and in [[ancient Elis|Elis]] as one approaches [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]] by the mountain road; and they are used by those who work in metals.<ref>Mattusch, Carol (2008): "Metalworking and Tools", in: [[John Peter Oleson|Oleson, John Peter]] (ed.): ''The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World'', Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-518731-1}}, pp. 418–438 [432].</ref>}}

The earliest known use of coal in the [[Americas]] was by the [[Aztec]]s who used coal for fuel and [[jet (lignite)|jet]] (a type of [[lignite]]) for ornaments.<ref name="Freese. 2004"/>

In [[Roman Britain]], the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] were exploiting all major coalfields (save those of [[North Staffordshire|North]] and [[South Staffordshire]]) by the late 2nd century AD.<ref name = "Smith 1997, 322–324">Smith, A. H. V. (1997): "Provenance of Coals from Roman Sites in England and Wales", ''[[Britannia (journal)|Britannia]]'', Vol. 28, pp. 297–324 [322–324].</ref> While much of its use remained local, a lively trade developed along the [[North Sea]] coast supplying coal to [[Yorkshire]] and [[London]].<ref name="Smith 1997, 322–324"/> This also extended to the continental [[Rhineland]], where [[bituminous coal]] was already used for the smelting of [[iron ore]].<ref name="Smith 1997, 322–324"/> It was used in hypocausts to heat [[Thermae|public baths]], the baths in military forts, and the villas of wealthy individuals. Excavation has revealed coal stores at many forts along [[Hadrian's Wall]] as well as the remains of a [[smelting]] industry at forts such as [[Longovicium]] nearby.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}

After the Romans left Britain, in AD 410, there are few records of coal being used in the country until the end of the 12th century. One that does occur is in the [[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]] for the year 852 when a rent including 12 loads of coal is mentioned.<ref name=ASC852>Giles, J. A. (trans) [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Anglo-Saxon_Chronicle_(Giles) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle], London, G Bell & Sons 1914.  "At this time Ceolred, abbat of Medeshamstede and the monks let to Wulfred the land of Sempringham, ... and each year [he] should deliver into the minster sixty loads of wood, and twelve of coal and six of faggots, and two tuns full of pure ale, and two beasts fit for slaughter, and six hundred loaves, and ten measures of Welsh ale, and each year a horse, and thirty shillings, and one day's entertainment."</ref>  In 1183 a smith was given land for his work, and was required to "raise his own coal"<ref name=Yeats1871>{{ Citation | last = Yeats | first = John, LLD | title = The technical history of commerce | date = 1871 | publisher = Cassell, Petter and Galpin | place = London }}</ref>{{rp|171–172}}  Shortly after the granting of the [[Magna Carta]], in 1215, coal began to be traded in areas of Scotland and the north-east England, where the [[carboniferous]] strata were exposed on the seashore, and thus became known as "sea coal". This commodity, however, was not suitable for use in the type of domestic hearths then in use and was mainly used by artisans for [[Calcium oxide|lime burning]], metal working and smelting. As early as 1228, sea coal from the north-east was being taken to London.<ref name = "Galloway 1882">Galloway (1882).</ref>{{rp |5}}

During the 13th century, the trading of coal increased across Britain and by the end of the century most of the coalfields in England, Scotland and Wales were being worked on a small scale.<ref name="Galloway 1882" />{{rp |8}} As the use of coal amongst the artisans became more widespread, it became clear that coal smoke was detrimental to health and the increasing pollution in London led to much unrest and agitation. As a result of this, a Royal proclamation was issued in 1306 prohibiting artificers of London from using sea coal in their furnaces and commanding them to return to the traditional fuels of wood and charcoal.<ref name="Galloway 1882" />{{rp |10}} 

[[Marco Polo]] wrote about the widespread use of coal in [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan dynasty China]] in the late 13th century in [[The Travels of Marco Polo]], remarking that coal was the primary fuel of the land and that it helped support heated baths for the citizenry beyond what wood would be able to do.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Polo |first=Marco |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo/Book_2/Chapter_30 |title=The Travels of Marco Polo}}</ref>

During the first half of the 14th century coal began to be used for domestic heating in coal producing areas of Britain, as improvements were made in the design of domestic hearths.<ref name="Galloway 1882" />{{rp |13}} [[Edward III]] was the first king to take an interest in the coal trade of the north east, issuing a number of writs to regulate the trade and allowing the export of coal to [[Calais]].<ref name="Galloway 1882" />{{rp |15}} The demand for coal steadily increased in Britain during the 15th century, but it was still mainly being used in the mining districts, in coastal towns or being exported to continental Europe.<ref name="Galloway 1882" />{{rp |19}} However, by the middle of the 16th century supplies of wood were beginning to fail in Britain and the use of coal as a domestic fuel rapidly expanded.<ref name="Galloway 1882" />{{rp |22}}

In 1575, Sir [[George Bruce of Carnock]] of [[Culross]], [[Scotland]], opened the first coal mine to extract coal from a "moat pit" under the sea on the [[Firth of Forth]]. He constructed an artificial loading island into which he sank a 40&nbsp;ft shaft that connected to another two shafts for drainage and improved ventilation. The technology was far in advance of any coal mining method in the late medieval period and was considered one of the industrial wonders of the age.<ref>{{citation | series = The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature | title = From Columba to the Union (Until 10707) | first = Ian | last = Brown}}.</ref>

During the 17th century a number of advances in mining techniques were made, such as the use of [[Boring (earth)|test boring]] to find suitable deposits and [[chain pump]]s, driven by [[water wheel]]s, to drain the collieries.<ref name = "Galloway 1882" />{{rp |57–59}}

People who sold wood, or those who preferred the smell of wood smoke to coal smoke, opposed the transition in England from wood to coal.  One name these opponents gave to the new fuel was "the devil's excrement." If the coal had a high sulfur content, such a description was quite apt. <ref>Shellenberger, Michael, ''Apocalypse Never'', HarperCollins Publishers, New York,  2020, p. 123. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

North American coal deposits were first discovered by French explorers and fur traders along the shores of Grand Lake in central New Brunswick, Canada in the 1600s. Coal seams were exposed where rivers flowed into the lake and was dug by hand off the surface and from tunnels dug into the seam. About 1631 the French made their fur trading post at the mouth of the Saint John River their main post in Acadia and started construction of a new fort. The main residence at the fort was designed with two 11-foot-wide fireplaces which were stocked with wood and coal from upriver. As early as 1643, the French were sending coal and other supplies to the British colony at Boston. 
<ref>Coal Association of Canada, "Coal Kit, Coal Evolution module, Digging up the Past" http://www.coal.ca/coal-kit {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302115642/http://www.coal.ca/coal-kit/ |date=2016-03-02 }}</ref><ref>Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (monument in Minto, NB for earliest export of coal) http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=1012</ref><ref>John Winthrop, ''The Journal of John Winthrop 1630–1649'', Harvard University / Massachusetts Historical Society, 1996, p. 474 (Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor's description of their August 1643 receipt of a ship load of coal from 20 leagues up the Saint John River) {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>M.A. MacDonald, Fortune & La Tour, ''The Civil War in Acadia'', Toronto, 1983 / Halifax, 2000, Chapter 8  (description of the 1640 use of "coal from up river" in the main residence of the French fort at the mouth of the Saint John River) {{ISBN?}}</ref>