Solid fuel purposes, such as refining metals. Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, as well as one of the largest worldwide anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide releases. The extraction of coal, its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change. Variations such as smokeless coal can be formed naturally in the form of anthracite, a metamorphosed type of coal with a very high carbon content that gives off a smokeless flame when set alight. Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon
Coal breaker more marketable product. Here, a series of interlocking, toothed crushers or rollers would break lump coal into progressively smaller sizes. On the fourth level down, the coal was further cleaned of impurities. This was originally done primarily by hand, but hand picking was gradually supplanted after 1910 by improved screens and jigs. Although breaker boys worked at all levels of the coal breaker, most of the removal of impurities by hand occurred on this level. (Some picking did occur on the ground level of the coal breaker, where boys would locate good pieces of coal in the culm and return