The St. Nicholas Coal Breakers were at one time the largest coal breaker

Coal breaker

A coal breaker was a coal processing plant which broke coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also removed impurities from the coal and deposited them into a culm dump...

 in the world, producing 12,500 tons of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 per day.

History

The Old St. Nicholas Breaker, located just outside of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania

Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania

Mahanoy City is a borough located north by west of Reading and 13 miles southwest of Hazleton, in northern Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania or the southern Coal Region. The name "Mahanoy" is believed to be a variation of the Native American word 'Maghonioy', or "the salt deposits"...

, was constructed in 1930 and began operating in 1932. Half of the village of Suffolk was relocated in order to create room for Reading Anthracite's Old St. Nicholas Breaker, the largest coal breaker

Coal breaker

A coal breaker was a coal processing plant which broke coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also removed impurities from the coal and deposited them into a culm dump...

in the world. 20 miles (32.2 km) of railroad track were laid, 3,800 tons of steel and more than 10000 cubic yards (7,645.5 m³) of concrete were used. A mile and a half of conveyor lines, 25 miles (40.2 km) of conduit, 26241 square feet (2,437.9 m²) of rubber belting, 118 miles (189.9 km) of wire and cable and 20 miles (32.2 km) of pipe were installed. When the breaker was constructed it was divided into two sides. Each side could be operated independently, producing 12,500 tons of coal a day. Once the raw coal enters the production process within the breaker it took just 12 minutes to pass through the entire breaker. For 31 years, the Old St. Nicholas Breaker prepared all sizes of famous Reading Anthracite for the markets of the world.