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Breaking up Rocks Underground
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The rocks underground were not found in small chunks that
could be moved readily. Instead, miners had to drill holes into
the rock by hand using a drill bit and a hammer, load the holes
with explosive, then shoot off the explosive to crack the rock.
The miners then dug (mucked) the broken rock into the ore carts.
Later improvements made it so the miners could use drills driven
by compressed air to make the holes to be loaded with explosives.
The inserted photograph of a painting by T.L. Dawes shows a miner
using an early pneumatic drill, the Burleigh drill. (Tingley,
Horton, and Lincoln, p. 13; used by permission of the NBMG)
Miners first used black powder as the explosive, but switched
to Alfred Nobel's dynamite after its invention in 1866.
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Breaking up Rocks Underground
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