The canary in the coal mine meaning

Throughout much of the 20th century, chirping canaries were staples of the coal mining industry.

Most of us see bright-feathered, warbling canaries as pets, yet these tiny birds were not always just household companions. In the nineteenth century they were used as exceptional risk predictors in mines. This was because they were particularly sensitive to carbon monoxide, a substance which led to numerous mining accidents in the aftermath of industrialisation. Thus, oddly, an increasing reliance on fossil fuels induced a new rapport with nature and animals. Risk management in mines became a major source of concern during the nineteenth century. The Term Frequency tool in Gale Primary Sources shows a great rise in discussion in the press about mines and risk between and While this upsurge of articles is also a direct consequence of the rising production of newspapers, it is also representative of increasing awareness of the risks tied to mining and attempts to reduce them through the use of supposedly safer equipment and risk-prediction technologies.

The canary in the coal mine meaning

We just need a few supplies before setting out. Does that sound strange? A canary in a coal mine? It may not be the first thing you think of when you imagine entering a mine today. How did canaries help coal miners? They protected them from a danger that lurks in the mines— carbon monoxide CO. This is an odorless , toxic gas. CO can cause dizziness, loss of consciousness , and even death in humans and animals. What made canaries so well-suited to protect miners from carbon monoxide? Their breath is more rapid than that of most humans, causing them to take in more air. If poisonous gas was in the air, canaries would breathe in twice as much of it, causing them to become sick before the miners did. If a miner saw that a canary was acting strangely or lost consciousness , they knew to leave the mine at once. The practice of bringing canaries into coal mines began in and took off quickly.

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Like this video? Subscribe to our free daily email and get a new idiom video every day! Something or someone who, due to sensitivity to his, her, or its surroundings, acts as an indicator and early warning of possible adverse conditions or danger. Refers to the former practice of taking caged canaries into coal mines. The birds would die if methane gas became present and thereby alert miners to the danger.

The canary in the coal mine meaning

On this day in , a mining tradition dating back to ended: the use of canaries in coal mines to detect carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they hurt humans. At the time, it was the latest of many changes in the British mining industry, which was a source of great strife in the country through the s. Pit ponies, the other animal that went underground with human miners to haul coal, were also phased out by automation. The last of them retired in , wrote Clare Garner for The Independent. He suggested using a sentinel species: an animal more sensitive to the colorless, odorless carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases than humans. If the animal became ill or died, that would give miners a warning to evacuate. Because they need such immense quantities of oxygen to enable them to fly and fly to heights that would make people altitude sick, their anatomy allows them to get a dose of oxygen when they inhale and another when they exhale, by holding air in extra sacs, he writes. Relative to mice or other easily transportable animals that could have been carried in by the miners, they get a double dose of air and any poisons the air might contain, so miners would get an earlier warning. Miners are pictured holding the birds in small everyday cages and returning from the scene of an explosion with a canary in a special cage intended to resuscitate the bird after exposure.

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What did you learn? How do you take advantage of them? Simplified to English. Read about the team of authors behind Collins Dictionaries. English images. Our new online dictionaries for schools provide a safe and appropriate environment for children. He likens butterflies to the canary in the coalmine, being the first to suffer when the environment is under stress. Spanish to English. French images. Share Results. With the introduction of the electric nose, those miners lost their yellow, chirping friends.

Log In. My Account. When exposed to toxic gases, canaries suffer ill effects and die sooner than humans do.

Steelmaking Coal. Premium letter and word squares are the key to getting large Scrabble scores. Read about the team of authors behind Collins Dictionaries. Dictionary Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. Video Learn English. English to Traditional. The practice began in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Video Guides. The Arctic has been called the canary in a coalmine when it comes to global warming. English images. Chinese English to Simplified. English—Japanese Japanese—English. With the introduction of the electric nose, those miners lost their yellow, chirping friends. Play Again Quit. The circular door would be kept open and had a grill to prevent the canary escaping.