This is the Levant Mine, also nicknamed the Mine under the Sea. It was first opened in

1820 and would eventually reach 2,000 feet deep into the earth, but also a full mile underneath

the Atlantic Ocean. I'm sure you can imagine what might happen if one of those tunnels

were to fail. Incredibly, that isn't even the worst of the conditions within.

This is the story of the Levant Mine Disaster.

As always, fewer discretion is advised. There are a lot of jobs today that are stressful for one reason or another.

Some are just exhausting or emotionally draining, but the number of jobs that are truly

life-threatening pales in comparison to a couple hundred years ago.

While some of the improvements can be credited to new safety

technology and better training, the real reason things have gotten much better is

legislation. Because no matter how many injuries something might prevent, there's

nothing quite like the threat of legal action to get a business to actually pay for

safety equipment and mandate its use. Mining in particular has never been an easy job

and still isn't. however, it's a lot

better with things like electricity, forced airflow, hydraulic motors, and geological tools that

can actually test how safe it is to dig somewhere. People working just a couple hundred years ago,

though, didn't have access to most or all of those things. One of these mines was known as the

Levant Mine and was located on the very far southwestern

tip of England.

It opened in 1820 and was primarily a copper mine, but also extracted tin and smaller amounts

of arsenic.

At the time, copper and tin were about to become very important and very lucrative since

...