Second Day in Wales

March 12, 2012

Stanley here, at Big Pit in Wales. It is a gigantic coal mine. This behind me is just the top, the majority of the mine is underground. Today I traveled 300 feet underground and learned about coal mining. Coal mines are a series of tunnels dug underground so people could harvest the Earth's natural resouces-coal is a mineral. The miners would wake up early in the morning, walk miles below underground, and use hammers(or picks) to send coal to the surface.

What do you think coal is used for?
Did you know kids your age worked in the mines too?

Your job was to hold the doors open or closed to keep clean air underground for the miners. The miners turned off all the lights for me today so I could feel what it would have been like for a boy like me, it was VERY DARK! That must have been a hard job. All in all I'd say today was great! The states of Virginia and West Virginia have a lot in common with Wales. We also have coal mines just like these-some of them are still in use! There are global connections everywhere.

Later on in the day I went here...This here is a school!
Does it look like yours?
What is different? The same?
What do you think it would look like on the inside?
This is an old school in Blaenavon, Wales. It has since been turned into a museum, but can you imagine all the neat things you would learn here?

This here is Blaenavon Iron Works.  Here workers burn the coal to heat iron.  The iron is then poured into different shapes to make tools, wheels, even things as large as a bridge!  You guessed it, kids work here too.  They were in charge of breaking up the coke(this is a piece of coal that has had all the water taken out of it).  The smaller the pieces were, the easier they were to burn in the fire.  I don't think they got recess at their jobs either-they must have been tired!  Below are some pictures from around the Iron Works site...it was a beautiful day.

This was the big fire pit they threw coal in to heat.  These bricks have been around for over 2,000 years!