Diggers in the Earth

The four books of this series have been written not merely to provide agreeable reading matter for children, but to give them information. When a child can look at a steel pen not simply as an article furnished by the city for his use, but rather as the result of many interesting processes, he has made a distinct growth in intelligence. When he has begun to apprehend the fruitfulness of the earth, both above ground and below, and the best way in which its products may be utilized and carried to the places where they are needed, he has not only acquired a knowledge of many kinds of industrial life which may help him to choose his life-work wisely from among them; but he has learned the dependence of one person upon other persons, of one part of the world upon other parts, and the necessity of peaceful intercourse. Best of all, he has learned to see. Wordsworth's familiar lines say of a man whose eyes had not been opened,--

"A primrose by a river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more."

These books are planned to show the children that there is "something more"; to broaden their horizon; to reveal to them what invention has accomplished and what wide room for invention still remains; to teach them that reward comes to the man who improves his output beyond the task of the moment; and that success is waiting not for him who works because he must, but him who works because he may.

Acknowledgment is due to the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Jones Brothers Company, Alpha Portland Cement Company, Dwight W. Woodbridge, the Utah Copper Company, the Aluminum Company of America, the Diamond Crystal Salt Company, T. W. Rickard, and others, whose advice and criticism have been of most valuable aid in the preparation of this volume.

EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

CONTENTS

I. IN A COAL MINE 1

II. DOWN IN THE QUARRIES 11

III. HOUSES OF SAND 21

IV. BRICKS, THEIR FAULTS AND THEIR VIRTUES 31

V. AT THE GOLD DIGGINGS 39

VI. THE STORY OF A SILVER MINE 48

VII. IRON, THE EVERYDAY METAL 57

VIII. OUR GOOD FRIEND COPPER 65

IX. THE NEW METAL, ALUMINUM 76

X. THE OIL IN OUR LAMPS 84

XI. LITTLE GRAINS OF SALT 95

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A STRUCTURAL STEEL APARTMENT BUILDING vi

HOW A COAL MINE LOOKS ABOVEGROUND 5

MINERS AND THEIR MINE 10

OPENING A GRANITE QUARRY 13

BUILDING A CONCRETE ROAD 27

IN A NEW JERSEY BRICK MILL 33

HYDRAULIC GOLD MINING 41

THE STORY OF A SPOON 51

IN THE STEEL FOUNDRY 61

IN A COPPER SMELTER 67

A "MOVIE" OF AN ALUMINUM FUNNEL 79

A CALIFORNIA OIL FIELD 87

[Illustration: A STRUCTURAL STEEL APARTMENT BUILDING

Courtesy American Bridge Co.

First the steel frame, then the floors, then the stone or brick shell, then the interior finishing--this is how the building is made.]

THE INDUSTRIAL READERS

BOOK II

DIGGERS IN THE EARTH

I

IN A COAL MINE

Did you ever wonder how beds of coal happened to be in the earth? This is their story.