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UPCOMING HISTORIC REA & CHAMBERLIN COLLECTION OFFERINGS
Please bookmark our store and follow our listings over the coming days, weeks, and months. We are honored to be offering an elite selection of other exceptionally RARE items, corporate documents, manuscripts, maps, and unique antiquarian volumes tracing directly to the legendary Alexander W. Rea and William B. Chamberlin family estates. Future offerings will also include pieces related to Franklin B. Gowen, the visionary founder and President of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company. Check back frequently as these foundational pieces of American mining and railroad heritage are systematically brought to market.
*** ITEM DESCRIPTION ***
Up for sale is a scarce, historically significant World War II-era coal mining engineering manual: "Coal Age's Tested Methods and Shortcuts," compiled and published by the Editors of COAL AGE (330 West 42nd Street, New York, N.Y.).
PROVENANCE:
Sourced directly from the historic private corporate archives of the William B. Chamberlin family estate.
WORLD WAR II HOME-FRONT CONTEXT & SECRETARY ICKES:
Published during the height of the Second World War (circa 1943, featuring data sets up to late 1942), this technical compilation was specifically designed to safely maximize tonnage and streamline logistics for the global war effort. The book opens with a fascinating, front-line industry essay titled "Coal's New Horizons" authored by Harold L. Ickes, who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior and the vital Solid Fuels Coordinator for War.
EXHAUSTIVE TECHNICAL CONTENT & WESTERN PA HISTORY:
The volume is densely packed with period mechanical schematics, underground mining layouts, haulage tracking, and specialized data charts. Major sectional highlights verified in this copy include:
* "War-Time Safety: Highlights Supervisory Role in Mining" (Page 112) by William Murphy, Superintendent of the Euclid Mine, Pittsburgh Coal Co. (Smithton, Pennsylvania). This paper directly addresses the psychological impacts of the "war boom" on miners and the battle against rising accident rates during high-speed production.
* Section II (Pages 48-49): Detailed efficiency breakdowns with mechanical schematics titled "Deeper Cuts Raise Tonnage and Productivity" and "Big Cars and Good Service Boost Efficiency."
* Section IV (Pages 94-95): Rare monochrome photographic plates documenting WWII production lines, including conveyors loading railroad cars and a vintage 1940s industrial truck being loaded with "Egg Coal" over a scraper boom.
* Section XI: Features the exact, authentic 1942 State Mine Examination Quizzes utilized to certify Mine Foremen and Anthracite Inspectors across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, and Colorado.
STRUCTURE & BINDING:
Bound in its original, rugged black textured cloth boards with bold yellow-stamped title lettering on the front cover and spine panel. 250+ pages heavily illustrated with diagrams and photographic graphs.
CONDITION NOTE (PLEASE READ):
This book is being sold with an internal **split binding hinge defect**, as shown in the detailed close-up photos. The inner paper seam between the text blocks has cleanly split open down the gutter, exposing the underlying mesh and glue. The binding cords are still holding the overall volume securely together, but there is loose play along this split signature.
Beyond the internal split gutter, the black cloth boards show light expected storage wear, rubbing along the edges, and minor age-flecking to the front cloth face. The internal pages, photo prints, and mechanical schematics are beautifully preserved—exceptionally crisp, bright, clean, and completely free of any modern writing, highlighting, or library marks. Please review all high-resolution photos carefully to assess condition details.
A rare, highly detailed piece of WWII industrial history that serves as a vital cross-collectible for military historians, western PA coal collectors, or mining heritage enthusiasts.
