In the article “Time machine (1902): Children working in the Pennsylvania coal mines” published by Newsela follows the investigation of the Pennsylvania coal breakers. The boy’s nurseries are “grim black buildings” that are named breakers which is where coal are broken down to marketable proportions. When coal first enter the breakers, it begins through a series of chutes to the ground floor where it proceeds to be placed in freight cars. Between the zigzagging chutes are a series of planks that serve as seats for “Slate Pickers”. The Slate pickers job is to detect the stray slate mixed with the coal and toss that slate into the refuse heap. Slate pickers spend all day long with their fingers dipped into the “grimy stream”. The reporter also noted that an overwhelming majority of these “slate pickers” were children. …show more content…
Although there is a illegal loophole, that a parent, in this case the father, can take to place their son in a breaker. Children age certificates are “a criminal institution”, where a father can obtain a “age blank” from a mine inspector. After which, the father proceeds to write some legal age in place of their son’s actual age. Afterword he brings the certificate to a public official and for a fee of twenty-five cents, the official will administer an oath and place a seal on the false certificate. However while the son is away sorting through coal, the daughter on the other hand is employed in a mill or factory. The certificate method works the same for girls, as is does for boys. Girls would typically working in knitting mills and silk factories that were established in the coal region of Pennsylvania. However despite being listed as seventeen or older, many of them were actually thirteen to sixteen with a large number of girls ages being less then