Miners, Engineers, and the Transformation of Work in the Western Mining Industry, 1880–1930

Abstract

Miners, Engineers, and the Transformation of Work in the Western Mining Industry, 1880-1930 LOGAN HOVIS AND JEREMY MOUAT In September 1913 a mine manager wrote to the Engineering and MiningJournal, explaining that “we want to begin a small library for our underground foremen and shift bosses. What books would the Journal recommend?” The editor responded with a list of eight books, beginning with Herbert Hoover’s Principles ofMining. Both letter and books illustrate the changing basis of legitimacy in North America’s mining industry. Technical treatises by engineers were be­ coming a privileged source of knowledge, eclipsing the authority of the “practical man.” The new emphasis on the expertise of univer­ sity-trained engineers reflected the transformation of the mining in­ dustry, a process that devalued the traditional work practices of the skilled miner.1 When the mine manager wrote to the Engineering and MiningJour­ nalin 1913, the western mining industry was in the midst of a period of dramatic growth and change. Mining in western North America had begun in spectacular fashion with the gold rush to the Pacific Coast. At first, individuals and small groups employed rudimentary tools and simple technology to recover placer gold from water Mr. Hovis is employed by the U.S. National Park Service in Alaska, where he concentrates on the history, technology, and archaeology oflode and placer mining. His other areas of interest and research include trapping and trappers, transporta­ tion, and construction techniquesgermane to subarctic climates. Dr. Mouat teaches history at Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada. His research interests chiefly concern natural resource development in western Canada. The authors thank the editor and referees of Technology and Culture for comments and suggestions that helped them clarify their argument, and Bob McDonald of the University of British Columbia, a fine historian who taught them much. 'The letter appears in “Questions and Answers: A Small Mine-Library,” Engi­ neeringandMiningjournal,i)§ (September 20,1913): 558. Hoover’s bookwas a compi­ lation of his lectures at Stanford and the Columbia School of Mines (see Herbert C. Hoover, Principles ofMining [NewYork, 1909], p. iii, and the comments in George H. Nash, The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Engineer, 1874-1914 [New York, 1983], pp. 478-79).© 1996 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/96/3703-0002$01.00 429 430 Logan Hovis andJeremy Mouat courses. The richest sections were soon depleted, however, and min­ ers had to devise means of turning a profit from more extensive but much lower-grade mineral deposits. Techniques such as hydraulicking and dredging applied economies ofscale and mechanization to placer mining. Important as these changes were, by 1880 the pro­ duction of gold and other metals from underground mines far ex­ ceeded that from placer mining. The extraction of underground ore deposits—hard-rock min­ ing—was a far more complex affair than the placer operations typi­ cal of the rush era. The capital needed to develop the underground workplace, as well as the ancillary treatment plants above ground, meant that companies replaced the informal business arrangements of the industry’s first years. The actual work of mining also became much more complex. Naturally, mining still relied on the recovery of a mineral or minerals, but successful operations also depended upon the skill and knowledge of the underground workforce. And western mining remained an uncertain enterprise. In many cases it was a speculative gamble that on occasion returned windfall profits; most in the industry could recite tales of boom towns and bonanza wealth, bankruptcies and mine closures. In the following pages we argue that a crucial transition occurred in the half century from 1880 to 1930, a transformation intended to end the volatility that had characterized western mining and to render it a rational business like any other. By 1930 the technical training of the professional engineer—rather than the talents of the ingenious mechanic and the skilled miner—had become the essen­ tial element in successful mining operations. This shift was not straightforward, and our description touches on the consequences of the depletion of high-grade ore deposits, increasingly competitive market conditions, and the progressive and widespread adoption of new processes for ore...