Black Powder and Hand Steel: Miners and Machines on the Old Western Frontier. Cet article n’est pas disponible.Black Powder and Hand Steel: Miners and Machines on the Old Western Frontier

Black Powder and Hand Steel describes the miners and the machinery they used. Otis E. Young, Jr., gives an account of the miners, particularly the Cornish and Irish, their origins, character, social life, pleasures, and, most important, their labors. The miner's lot depended on the tools he used, and the author traces the evolution of the miner's most important tools: from hoisting bucket to mine elevator, cold mining to dynamite, ore car to skip, hemp to wire rope, and slow match to Bickford fuse.

Young reveals the difficulties of prospecting and mining two of the West's most valuable ores, gold and silver, and gives readers a firsthand look at the challenges of working even the most successful strikes. A companion volume to Young's Western Mining, Black Powder and Hand Steel is written in the same lively style--informative and entertaining for general readers and scholars. It is also well illustrated, with drawings by Buck O'Donnell.

Otis E. Young, Jr., a native of Indiana, received the Ph.D. degree from Indiana University. He is Professor Emeritus of History in Arizona State University, Tempe. In addition to BlackPowder and Hand Steel and Western Mining, he is the author of several other books and articles on western history.