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Comment by idiotsecant | Hacker News Reader

There are coal mines in the UK?

Not any more, no, the last open-pit mine at Ffos-y-fran closed in 2023.

There was permission granted a few years ago to build a new metallurgical deep shaft mine in the lake district, but I guess this quashes that.

During WWII when the UK needed to build a lot of ships, they chose to build coal-burning ships because the UK knew that it could always get enough coal to fuel ships whereas they weren't certain about getting enough oil.

Warships need to be able to go fast, so all of the Royal Navy's ships had been switched to oil long ago (because oil-fueled ships go about twice as fast) and that never changed during the war, but the thousands of "merchant" ships they built (and asked the US to build for them) ran on coal.

They literally drove the Industrial Revolution my dude.

Britain's coal being closer to the surface compared to other reserves was a reason the Industrial Revolution started in the United Kingdom and not elsewhere.

I know they had coal mines once, it's just surprising to me that they have coal mines. It's a small densely populated country with relatively small natural resources extraction industry, I thought.

My theory is that it rained so much in the North West (e.g. the Manchester area) that there was nothing better to do than tinker with machines.

I had the chance to visit the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester a few years ago (on a rainy day!), definitely with the visit if you're in the area:

https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk

And the first intercity passenger train station in the world is part of the museum!

Thank fuck they invented steam engines and the spinning jenny before they invented football.

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