0001Breakers

Mine Scenery / Breakers

sfp
2/2/2004

The Glen Alden Coal Company's breaker at Audenreid #4. The view is to the northeast. Other breakers of other coal companies occupied this location but this was the big one in the early-mid 1900s. This one was easily visible from the front windows of the Grant Street elementary school in Mcadoo, PA. These early breakers were impressive, noisy coal crushing and grading machines, sometimes ten or more storeys high.
	The Jeanesville breaker might have been the same size as the one at Audenreid #4, perhaps a little larger. The unidentified lady stands on the feeder track to the Lehigh Valley Railroad, merging with that branch line near Slackersville and Beaver Brook, PA. The noise from this breaker was clearly audible in Beaver Brook about a mile away. The picture is from the Eckhart Carbon Co. history source referenced elswhere on these pages.
The breaker at Junedale, PA, also named Colerain, Leviston, Coolstown in earlier days. Mining began near here from about 1830 on, moving westward to Jeanesville, Audenreid, Honeybrook and Green Mountain.	Jeddo breaker along Rte. 940 between Hazleton, PA and Freeand.
	Left: A dilapidated, sheet iron later style breaker (perhaps just a washery) near Harleigh, PA, right off Rte. 940. It's right down the road from the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart. A washery is a small coal preparation plant usually located at the stripping or bank. Coal is washed and rough-processed prior to being sent to a breaker for final sorting and grading.