Coal: Nature and Culture

206 Pages·2021·24.674 MB·English

by  Ralph Crane

coal
The Earth series traces the historical significance and cultural history of natural
phenomena. Written by experts who are passionate about their subject, titles in the
series bring together science, art, literature, mythology, religion and popular culture,
exploring and explaining the planet we inhabit in new and exciting ways.
Series editor: Daniel Allen
In the same series
Air Peter Adey Lightning Derek M. Elsom
Cave Ralph Crane and Lisa Fletcher Meteorite Maria Golia
Clouds Richard Hamblyn Moon Edgar Williams
Coal Ralph Crane Mountain Veronica della Dora
Comets P. Andrew Karam North Pole Michael Bravo
Desert Roslynn D. Haynes Rainbows Daniel MacCannell
Earthquake Andrew Robinson Silver Lindsay Shen
Fire Stephen J. Pyne South Pole Elizabeth Leane
Flood John Withington Storm John Withington
Glacier Peter G. Knight Swamp Anthony Wilson
Gold Rebecca Zorach Tsunami Richard Hamblyn
and Michael W. Phillips Jr Volcano James Hamilton
Ice Klaus Dodds Water Veronica Strang
Islands Stephen A. Royle Waterfall Brian J. Hudson
Coal
Ralph Crane
reaktion books
For Joy, Callum and Rhiannon
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
Unit 32, Waterside
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London n1 7ux, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2021
Copyright © Ralph Crane 2021
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of
the publishers
Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978 1 78914 366 9
Contents
Preface 7
1 What Is Coal? 11
2 Using Coal 23
3 Working the Black Seam 45
4 The Politics of Coal 69
5 Coal Heritage and Tourism 89
6 Coal in Literature 107
7 Coal in Song and Film 127
8 Coal in Art 143
9 Coal and Folklore 163
Afterword 171

references 175
select Bibliography 189
Associations and websites 191
Acknowledgements 193
Photo Acknowledgements 195
Index 197

Preface
In the opening chapter of his curious little book The History of a
Lump of Coal: From the Pit’s Mouth to a Bonnet Ribbon, published
in 1882, Alexander Watt observes that ‘of all the substances which
are dug out of the earth, coal is one of the most remarkable in the
vast extent of its usefulness to man’.1 The subtitle, which signals
the breadth of Watt’s topic, also anticipates the cultural history
of the present volume.
As we shall see in the following pages, coal and humankind
share a history that stretches back millennia. It is likely that
the Awabakal, the Aboriginal people from the Lake Macquarie
region of New South Wales, burnt coal many centuries ago.
The Reverend L. E. Threlkeld records that the name for Lake
Macquarie in the local language is ‘Nik-kin-ba, from Nikkin,
Coal, and ba place of, meaning a place of coal’.2 The Awabakal
are also believed to be the only Aboriginal people to refer to
coal in their Dreamings. And whether we are cognizant of it
or not, coal continues to play a big role in our lives today, both
literally and metaphorically. Coal was used as a source of heat
by ancient cave dwellers, it fuelled the Industrial Revolution,
and today it is the number-one energy resource used to gener-
ate electricity globally, as well as a major contributor to climate
Chinese poster, 1973. change. Indeed, it is hard to overestimate the impact of coal on
The text (in both
our modern world.
calligraphy and
modern style) reads While the physical presence of coal in our lives is not as
‘I have at my disposal apparent as it was even half a century ago, when much of the
precious mineral
Western world still relied on coal fires for home heating, the
deposits hidden in the
far mountains.’ metaphorical presence still lingers from the age of coal and
7
coal
before. The word ‘coal’ is used in a figurative sense in the Bible
on several occasions (though the references are, of course, likely
to have referred to the embers of wood, rather than mineral
coal). The quenching of the coal of a man in 2 Samuel 14:7
refers to the annihilation of his children, while the meaning of
heaping coals of fire on the head of an enemy in Proverbs 25:22
and Romans 12:20 is (somewhat counterintuitively) a kindness
bestowed on an enemy. In the Middle Ages coal was associ-
ated with disease, death and the Devil: the buboes of the Black
Death were described as resembling ‘broken fragments of brittle
sea-coal’; the word ‘carbuncle’ is derived from the Latin term
for a live coal; and ‘anthrax’ is taken from the Greek name for
charcoal.3 As Barbara Freese notes ironically, ‘in the Middle
Ages coal had quite an image problem’ – as it does today, albeit
for very different reasons.4 We continue to use the metaphorical
vocabulary of coal in everyday idioms such as ‘at the coalface’
(to be directly engaged in something), ‘a canary in a coal mine’
(to provide advance warning of danger), ‘haul over the coals’ (to
scold or reprimand severely) and ‘carrying coal to Newcastle’
(performing a useless activity). And the capitals of England
and Scotland owe their nicknames – the ‘Big Smoke’ and ‘Auld
Reekie’ (Scots for Old Smokey) – to the air pollution caused by
the burning of coal that frequently left a choking smog hanging
overhead. Indeed, the narrator of Jules Verne’s The Child of the
Cavern (1877) maintains that the Scottish capital’s ‘nickname of
“Auld Reeky” is justified by its smoke-laden atmosphere’.5
Given its importance in the Industrial Revolution, it is
of little surprise that coal featured prominently at the Great
Exhibition of 1851. The Britain and the Empire exhibit, for
example, included a block of parrot (or cannel) coal from the
West Wemyss Colliery in Fifeshire and a garden seat made out
of the same material (both exhibited by hrh Prince Albert in
Class 27, Manufactures from Mineral Substances),6 while the
Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and New Zealand areas also
included coal specimens. Similarly, the Belgian exhibit included
examples of several varieties of coal from the Belgian coalfield.
And so on.
8
Preface
Auguste Charles Pugin, Today, coal continues to attract attention, though largely of
‘Coal Exchange’, from a more negative ilk. The Adani Group’s proposed Carmichael
Thomas Rowlandson
Coal Mine in central Queensland, Australia, for instance, has
and A. C. Pugin, The
Microcosm of London; generated significant controversy surrounding its financial via-
or, London in Miniature
bility, its claimed economic benefits and, most importantly,
(1808–10, plate 17).
the impact it would have on the environment, including on the
iconic Great Barrier Reef.
This book discusses the nature and culture of coal. It
addresses the meaning of coal over time, explores some of the
myriad ways coal has shaped and continues to shape the history
of humankind, and discusses the significant influence it has had
on literature and the arts. It tells a story of coal, rather than the
story of coal: as John Berger so eloquently puts it in his novel G.
(1972), ‘Never again will a single story be told as though it were
the only one.’
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