How did the methods of the early miners and the present day miners differ??

Question:By early miners I mean in the Civil War era.

Thanks

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: By early miners I mean in the Civil War era.

Thanks

Mechanisation basically.

Early miners would have relied on their own strength for mining and coal (or other mined material) would have been pushed or pulled out by them or by pit-ponies.

These days the work at the "coal-face" is mechanised and the material is brought out often by locomotives.

I'd revise your term of "early", as the Romans used hydraulic mining.

By the time of the Civil War, miners were already using a number of the products of the industrial revolution. Steam engine driven pumps had become common, as well as a variety of engine driven ways to move both men and ore. Once out of the ground, networks of canals and rail lines moved the product to market.

I'd say the biggest difference would have been the development of dynamite in place of black powder for mining. A second major difference would be the increase in strip mining made possible by the invention of the gasoline engine, which has made it cheaper to remove a mountain top than to dig a mine into the mountain.