Dirty Jobs (2005) s01e30 Episode Script
Coal Miner
My name is Mike rowe, and this is my job.
I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty.
Hardworking men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
Hey, hey, Mike, come on back up here and get to work.
Quit playin' around down there.
Now, get ready to get dirty.
Coming up on "dirty jobs" Matt: You guys came just at the right time.
Yeah, I always do.
At this abandoned college, they're teaching one last class creative destruction.
I help a family-run business Flat out, they're the most dangerous tool you'll use.
Turn these dilapidated buildings into dollars.
Smells like there might be a toilet nearby.
And later This a dirty job? It's a nice job.
I enter the dangerous, underground world of a coal miner.
That was really close, man.
How'd I do? We're gonna blow up a mine.
I was dynamite.
[ Explosion .]
Damn, Sam, that was loud! Captions by vitac captions paid for by discovery communications [ sighs .]
No, it's not Vietnam.
It's upsala college, or "oop-sala.
" Whatever you call it, today we're majoring in salvage.
This is Matt.
How are you, Matt? Doing good.
Yourself? Good.
"Up-sala" or "oop-sala"? "Up-salla," but there's really nobody here to correct us.
Good enough.
Well, there are these guys.
That's your dad, right? My dad, Steve.
My brother Josh.
And you're in the salvage business.
We call it "specialized extraction.
" [ Laughs .]
Specialized extraction.
Yeah, we work hard on these words.
We think about them at night.
It's like a dentist.
Pretty much.
Well, basically, like, this lumber right here, you cannot get this good of craftsmanship out of products today for the same price that we would be able to sell it to you for.
So, are we talking about 100-year-old siding? 100-year-old siding.
We're talking about 100-year-old doors, 100-year-old windows.
But to get it, your family has to come in here and sweat your ass off.
Pretty much.
Cool.
What are you working on here? Salvaging some old bricks to basically use on either a patio This was a patio underneath all this foliage.
Yeah.
Anything special about these bricks I should know? These are bricks from right around the turn of the century.
The sayre & Fisher company, over a 100-year period, produced 6 billion, 250 million bricks Holy [bleep.]
Enough for 40,000 homes or something along that nature.
That's a lot of bricks.
The biggest factor here is that it really would be a shame to just waste all this stuff.
We got a tub that's nice, and raccoons have been using it as a bathroom.
We got tubs.
We got toilets.
A raccoon using a toilet as a tub is up our alley.
Take me to the tub.
Tallyho.
Upsala college in east orange, New Jersey, was founded in 1893 and operated for 102 years.
The campus sits on 20 acres and consists of 24 buildings.
The first cornerstone was laid in 1900.
Many of the buildings will be demolished, and the property will be developed into middle-income housing.
So, what was the purpose of this building originally? From what we've found out, it was the community house, where they did a lot of arts and crafts and Clay work.
We found cool pottery and different things downstairs.
But we're here for the bathtub.
We are here for rocky raccoon's bathroom.
After you.
[ Grunts .]
All right.
Oh, yeah.
Welcome to my humble abode.
I like what you've done with it.
It's homey.
Oh, yeah.
All right, we got to get the flashlight out, here.
When the college was abandoned, transients moved in, so raccoon poo wasn't the only poo to deal with.
The whole place smelled like one big outhouse.
Let me show you the way upstairs.
Good god, man.
How long's it been deserted? The school's been closed since '95, I believe, and time does its toll on If houses aren't lived in, they just die, literally, so Well, this one's dead, then.
It's dead.
It's a doner.
That would be the tub.
And that would be the raccoon crap.
This the original art? Well, we use that as a, um Never mind.
Doesn't matter.
Okay, so this is a good example, then, of, really, how you get your money back.
Well, we try to get our money back.
This is an item that is almost a loss-leader item.
The tiles We try to pull the tiles.
They're a vintage subway tile, which is popular right now.
What's the tile worth? Couple bucks.
Really good tile catchers are hard to come by.
So, at this point, we have salvaged all the tile we need to in order to work in the dmz, basically.
To get the tub out, that's all we really need to do right now.
The rest of it, we'll do at another time.
So no more finesse.
No more finesse.
Now it's time to get down and dirty.
You know what we got to do? No.
We got to get the drain out.
The drain? From downstairs, through the ceiling.
The bad news is, we can't get to what we need to get to, so that brings us back to the upstairs.
All we want to do is get a bathtub out of a house.
[ Chain saw revs .]
You guys ever work with anything like a shovel or a It's a rage sweeping the construction industry.
We need to start that stuff.
That tub's not moving.
Matt: Not a darn thing.
So, as you can see, got a lot of the tile out of the way, but it's not quite freed, is it? No, not yet.
Let it come down.
See what happens.
Do we need to cut more? Got it? Josh: I think so.
Ah, look at that.
Now, this thing You don't want to be moving it up and down, left to right, 'cause these blades are like a fiber blade.
And when they fly, they take chunks of anything near it.
Flat out, they're the most dangerous tool you'll use.
Got to love it.
Scared the hell out of me.
Now, what the hell's that? What the heck is that? What you want to do is you want to start it on the piece.
1, 2, 3.
Rowe: What are we gonna do now? Josh: That's a good question.
[ Grunting .]
Good.
Whoa.
If it starts going, just let it go.
Let it come right down.
Yeah? I'm letting go.
1, 2, 3.
Well, it's a handsome tub by any standards.
We sure earned it.
What do we do now? I think we go get a toilet.
A matching toilet? A matching toilet.
Good god, man.
Here we are.
Five-floor walk-up.
All right? Out of breath.
Yeah, and it smells like there might be a toilet nearby.
Yeah, that's the matching beauty in there.
Smells like there might be some recent deposits.
Josh: It's not so pretty, is it? That's not pretty at all.
Just give us a little room to work.
God.
[ Grunts .]
Rowe: How does one get an antique toilet out of a, uh Dump like this? Josh: I think we're just gonna need a wrench.
Looks like there's two bolts in the back and, um God bless you.
Be careful.
Apparently someone forgot to flush.
That is about the oldest crap I've ever seen.
Look at that.
It turned into a rag.
[ Coughs .]
[ Spits .]
Holy [bleep.]
Josh.
You can see down to the fourth floor.
Josh: You don't want to go falling through there, Mike.
Oh, man, I mean, seriously, this whole thing could rot straight out at any second.
Yeah, be careful in there.
All right, so, basically, we take the wrench, we get these two things, and then just hump it out of here.
I'm hoping that those two bolts is gonna do it.
Yeah, me too.
Be a hell of a thing to fall through a floor with a toilet.
Yeah, we don't need that.
[ Laughs .]
Coming free? Oh, there we go.
Okay.
It's not what I would call clean, but I think it's moveable at this point.
You ready to come back and work with us next summer? Dude, just get me out of here.
It's 98 degrees outside.
Humidity's 100%.
We're on the fifth floor in an attic, in the bathroom from Say it for I can't talk anymore.
Bathroom from hell That's what I meant to say.
That smells bad.
Geez.
Josh: Lighten your load a little bit, although I did win fair and square.
"Lighten your load.
" That's funny.
No "load" jokes.
Matt: What we got here is a portico from one of these old dormitories, and what we're thinking about doing is turning it into either a garden shed or a potting shed or even a little pool cabana.
Man, you got quite an imagination.
I mean, obviously, this thing is bolted to the brick.
First, we had to cut a bunch of the lag bolts that were sent right into the brick, and next what we're gonna do is reinforce on the inside.
And you guys came just at the right time.
Yeah, I always do.
Man, I can't see a thing in these goggles.
Now, do I want vision or do I want safety? Why are we always forced to make these choices? This is a ridiculous job.
I mean, really.
Matt: You really got to love what you're doing.
You can see that I can't see anything.
When I breathe [ Breathes deeply .]
See what happens? I'm blind as a mole.
Can't see a thing.
Rowe: How about a pair of gloves, Matt? Ever occur to you to wear a pair of gloves? Never quite get the good feel on what I'm trying to do.
The mesh that Matt's cutting right now is what we like to call razor-sharp.
It's hanging everywhere.
They're like little, miniature punji sticks, and if you look at them too closely, they'll just cut you wide open.
See, that's just a little scratch.
I got some others I can't show you, this being a family show and all.
Then we proceeded to pound about 1,000 nails into braces where there was barely enough room to swing a hammer.
[ Muttering .]
It's called a nail gun, man.
They sell them everywhere.
What do you think? Hopefully I'll make some money off of this thing and be able to afford one.
Who needs a nail gun? You got a moron to come by.
More nailing, and this moron was getting tired.
I'll give you $100 for a nail gun.
$200.
$300.
$5,000, Matt.
Give me a nail gun.
$10,000.
$15,000, Matt.
How many do you want? Finally, the portico was reinforced, and it was time for Matt's dad, Steve, to bring in the heavy artillery.
And it was time for me to get out of the way and let the professionals do their job.
All right, go ahead in.
Actually, tilt your forks up.
Back up a little bit.
Keep going.
Steve: Want it over here? Sit it right over there to your left.
Well, the salvage work is far from complete here at upsala college, but my work is done.
I got a classic portico, an antique bathtub, and one of the nastiest commodes on the planet.
I have no idea where it's all headed, but I'll always remember them as the "dirty jobs" executive washroom.
Rowe: Well, that's a great, big, black hole in the side of sharpe mountain, which is here in the appalachian mountains, which, in this case, is in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Randy rothomo is a coal miner.
How are you, Randy? Good.
Lovely day to be mining for coal, right? Little cool today.
What is it here? About 100 below zero? It's cold.
You're an anthracite coal miner.
Right.
This is anthracite coal.
What makes it different than regular old coal? It's harder.
More carbon in it.
So, does it burn? It burns hotter.
These are coal cars, obviously.
Coal cars.
Or rock cars, depending what we're hauling.
Could be rock, could be coal.
In this case, it's just human.
Yeah, right.
It's a human car.
That's Ryan.
He's the conductor.
This a dirty job? It's a nice job.
Yeah, nice job.
Beautiful day.
Anthracite coal.
Good grief.
That's not a ton of clearance.
These icicles are interesting.
Remind me not to stand up.
2,000 feet in, we still have ice.
How far back are we gonna go? 2,500 feet.
About half a mile.
Half a mile.
Watch out, Doug.
Oof.
Oh, geez.
That was really close, man.
And how long did it take to dig this far back? This mine was started around 1890.
You've been pulling coal out of here for over a century? Yep.
What runs through these pipes up here? That's air.
That runs all our machinery.
So all your machinery is What is that? Compressed air.
Compressed air.
Right.
So no sparks No fire in a mine.
Fire's very bad in a mine.
The average pay for a coal miner in America is about $800 a week.
That doesn't make sense to me.
Okay, watch the chutes on that side.
Right, right, right.
[ Chuckles .]
Now, was this entire tunnel blasted out back in the day? Yes.
Okay.
What are we looking at here? There's a chute.
We'll crawl over out of the buggy now and walk in from here.
This is as far as we go? Yeah, with the buggies.
All right.
You need some help? Oh, no.
No, no.
Doing fine.
So, that's a coal chute? Yeah, that would be bad to smack your head on this cruising down here on your little train, for sure.
How many of these chutes come down through the gangway? Every 25 foot of gangway, we put a chute up.
So, this is obviously a loaded coal car.
It's a loaded coal car.
That's your crew down there.
You can't see faces, but wherever you see a light, there's a guy attached to it.
And they're shoveling coal out of that chute? They're tapping coal out of that chute.
So, to load this, you basically take the empty car, pull it under the chute, and then let gravity work for you.
Lift the board, and the coal will run out into the buggy.
If it all goes as planned.
That's the way it's supposed to work.
Well, from what I can tell, there's nothing simple about getting the coal out of the mountain.
It's obviously very process-oriented.
This is John.
John is up here on the coal chute.
John, you're Randy's son, right? That's correct.
All right.
Everybody around here seems to be related somehow or another.
This coal chute is full, obviously.
And the job here is to do what? Well, we want to try to make it empty and put it outside.
[ Chuckles .]
Okay.
Unless I'm mistaken, we're gonna need a train? Yep, the trip with the buggies on it.
The trip with the buggies.
And is that Ryan still back there driving that thing? Yep, he is.
Ryan, you want to bring that on up here? I hope that's the right thing to do.
I'm barking out orders like I know what I'm doing, but I don't.
So we got 1, 2 how many cars we got on this one? Four.
You start with the closest one to the conductor? Yep.
And that would be that one.
Just trying to get a look up there.
Who's up there? That's boo, and mar's up there, too, and they're gonna make sure that they don't send stuff down that's a little too big to come out of the chute.
Yeah, boo, don't send anything out too big, for crying out loud.
Anybody named boo I don't know.
Yeah, that is So they're screening, we're tapping, Ryan's driving And we're all praying.
All right, step one.
This coal was formed from the remains of plants and animals which had been under extreme pressure for millions of years.
Is it all happening the way it's supposed to? Nope.
Nope? We got a problem? Them nice guys up there.
Oh, they didn't smash it right, did they? Nope, they didn't.
So they just screwed you over right here on the TV.
Is that your brother? Is boo your brother? Yes, boo is up there.
It's hard to see the resemblance 'cause you're all covered with coal dust.
But what he did was, he sent down a big rock.
Bad, boo.
That's actually a coal lump.
That'll be real easy to smash.
All right, go ahead and smash it.
All right.
So, what he's doing is smashing up the lump of coal that was too big to fit down the chute, and we got this stop here, or this check, and that basically is how the job goes all day.
If they send down a big piece, you smash it up, and you got to stop everything while you correct it.
Yep.
All right, so i'm in the tapping position, and I am ready to regulate the flow.
And, Ryan, next car.
Ryan: Yep! You always start from the front? Pull this one first? Might take two hands till you get it.
Good grief.
Put that thing back down there.
Hold on a second.
That goes fast.
Now, this is another big rock, isn't it? No, that's a coal lump.
You want to Smash it up? No, you can take your hand and just push back on the board, and use this board.
Lift at the same time.
[ Grunting .]
Oh, geez.
Normally, they take about 18,000 tons of coal out of this mine every year.
But with my help, well, it's gonna be a little less.
All right, slow down.
Slow down.
Hold everything.
What's going on up there, screeners? Takes a lot of coordination.
Yeah, you know what? I don't have so much of that.
Should I smash some of this up? I think you can handle it.
I'm gonna get this one out.
Just make sure you lift the board when it comes.
All right, here comes a big one.
Heads up.
Geez! Heads up! You have a lump coming again.
All right, heads up.
Perfect.
Shazam.
Look at that.
Listen to that, man.
It could really get out of hand.
Has it ever happened where coal's just running like crazy and flying past you? Nope.
Nope.
Really? Nope.
Honest? That's what the screen's job's for, to stop all that.
Yeah, I know, but so far, what I'm seeing up there I don't know.
So, the coal is on its way out to the hopper, and I'm on my way up this chute to where the screeners are.
Hopefully, by the time I get there, the trip will be back, and we'll do the whole thing again.
I'm coming up! Just so they know.
That doesn't look safe at all.
I'm gonna go around this way.
John: That'd be a good idea.
[ Grunting .]
You know what? There are lots of nails up here that just Look at that.
You were aware of those, John? Yep.
Yep, thanks for that tip.
Ow.
Crawlin' up a coal chute lookin' for a guy named boo.
Boo? Yep.
Good.
And you must be mar.
Mar doesn't talk.
Is that right, boo? That's right.
All right, great.
Where the hell am I? Right now, you're at the monkey.
The main return for the air? Yep.
Why is it called a monkey? Don't know.
And where does the work up here actually happen? Right there.
So this is the top of the chute I'm looking up here.
So, how high into the mountain does this vein go? That vein goes all the way out to the surface.
What do I do? Holler down to them and tell them to start tapping.
Oh, John.
John: Yep? You can go ahead and start tapping.
Will do.
So far, this job is a dream.
Oh, geez.
Now I see.
It's all Oh, all right.
What should I be doing? Smashing stuff like that? Boo: You can if you want.
Good night.
That's a big oh, geez.
All right.
Will it stop on its own? It should.
All right.
The hole that this coal is coming from was started with a dynamite blast which broke up the coal so that it would run into the chute, and that process continues for two to four weeks, until the coal vein is completely worked out.
Whoa! Yeah, be sure-footed up here.
You're not kidding.
You've got to be like a Billy goat.
I'm gonna send the trip out.
Go ahead.
Send the trip out.
Send out for some lunch while you're at it, would you? Maybe some girls.
So, the trip is gone, and basically, what do we do? We just take a break now while we wait for the empty cars to come back.
No.
In between trips, we have to crawl up there and make sure there's enough room for the coal to come down if there's a big rock hanging there.
Crawl up there? Yep.
You have to crawl up there on your hands and knees, under that water, in the coal.
Well, it was flowing fine before, it seemed.
It might flow fine next time, but you want to make sure, or else you're gonna hold them guys up and John is gonna get mad at you.
I hate it when John gets mad at me.
Okay, so you want me to crawl up and look at the rock and make sure it's not blocking any likely flows.
Right.
Okay.
Let's do that.
That'll be fun.
[ Grunts .]
If you hear something fall, you come back here in a hurry.
Say that again.
If you hear something fall, you come back here in a hurry.
Okay.
[ Laughing .]
Nothing's gonna fall.
Great.
Another miner with a sense of humor.
Holy smokes.
Hey, you know what? There's some big rocks up here that I think are gonna block all kinds of stuff, to be perfectly honest.
Okay, well, I've been sent to the top of this chute to make a decision that I'm neither comfortable nor qualified to make.
Boo has asked me to see if there's anything blocking the flow of coal, and to my untrained and decidedly novice eye, there is Namely, these big rocks.
Boo, what do we do? Do we smash these rocks up? We'll wait till they tap and they block the hole so that nothing runs.
Then we'll work at them.
You think these rocks are gonna come down as a result of their tapping? Yes, I do.
But you can't see them.
I'm up here bringing literally minutes of experience to the equation.
We're gonna defer to boo and let John do his tapping thing.
My money is, these things are just not gonna come down by accident.
I think some poor bastard's gonna have to come up here with dynamite or a sledgehammer or something like that.
Could be wrong.
I often am.
I was wrong.
The coal did flow, and that's too bad, 'cause I really wanted to blow something up.
My next guide to the coal mine was boo's cousin Steve.
It's a family affair down here.
What exactly is the job, Steve? [ Foreign accent .]
Driving that.
Driving this.
Yeah, and lifting up the rocks.
What did you call it, a mucker? Yeah.
The mucker is, without a doubt, a very dirty machine, Steve.
Yeah, it's kind of crummy.
How does it work? Control panel.
On/off valve.
Bucket up, bucket down.
Forward, reverse.
Swing to your left.
Swing to your right.
Turn it on.
I want to hear what this thing sounds like.
[ Hissing .]
I'm gonna wait over here.
Go ahead.
Good luck.
This is the face of the mine.
It has to blasted with dynamite and dug out with the mucker so that more tracks can be laid to extend the gangway.
That's not coal he's digging out.
That's solid rock.
Good god, man! That is like a beast! It's loud and noisy.
Who makes these things Lucifer? Beelzebub? Old scratch? My god.
It makes a hell of a racket, it looks like it chewed its way clean out of hell.
But I guess it's better than a scoop shovel.
And a lot quicker.
How badly can I hurt things if I give this thing a try? Not bad.
I learned how to run one.
Yeah, but, you know, you got this stuff in your blood.
Plus, you got the cool accent.
How can you not be Irish? You sound like you came right out of Dublin.
No, I'm not Irish.
Well, I mean no offense.
German.
[ Imitating Steve .]
You're Pennsylvania Dutch, but you got a scottish/irish something.
[ Normal voice .]
Anyway, I digress.
So, any final words of advice before we attempt this? Don't lean front.
Don't what? Don't lean front.
Like this? Yeah, don't do that.
Why? 'Cause we'll be taking you to the emergency room to get your jaw stitched back on.
All right.
That bucket will lift a half a ton, and trust me, it won't mind if your head's in the way.
It'll keep going.
All right, well, good.
That's excellent advice.
Keep the head back.
Okay.
Fire it up.
Okay.
[ Hissing .]
[ Engine revs .]
The world's coal consumption is 5 billion, 800 million tons annually.
75% of it is used to generate electricity.
I'm doing my part to keep the lights on.
Hang on a second, Mike! What did I do? I don't know.
You got something probably [ Clunking .]
Oh, I hope I didn't break the mucker! We all right? Yep.
How was that, though? Not bad.
Come on, give it up! That was pretty good! For a first time.
All right.
Hey, you didn't get it off the road.
No, we're still on the road.
I got a big load in there.
I didn't knock my jaw off, and you seem to be alive.
Where I come from, that's high praise.
Good job.
These Pennsylvania Dutch guys are tough.
Don't let your bucket down so fast.
Got to be quick, but not too quick.
Quick, but not too quick.
Slow, but not too slow.
Quick, but not too quick.
Lift your handle up a little bit yet.
Little bit.
Hold it.
That's all.
It's not exactly a definitive off-and-on mechanism, is it? No.
Oh, man.
Well, one more thing I can cross off the list of things to do Run a mucker.
[ Clanking, rumbling .]
While Ryan took the next trip up, Steve and I were going to make a new chute.
25 feet.
Now, guess how far that is.
25 feet.
I figure it's I don't know Maybe here somewhere.
Pretty close.
It's usually 5 more feet than I want to carry a hammer, but since you're here Exactly.
Ohh.
A sig 28 pneumatic jackhammer.
How's it work? You have your control here.
On, off.
Uh-huh.
There's a large piston inside of it.
It drives front, hits the steel, bounces back, and does that 3,000 times a minute.
Good lord.
What did they do before something like this was invented? They had what was called a jumper steel.
One guy held the steel and turned it a little bit while another guy hit it.
[ Chuckles .]
Through this rock? I mean, this is serious rock, right? It's pottsville conglomerate, some of the hardest rock in the world.
Pottsville conglomerate.
Okay.
So the job is to drill some holes into the pottsville conglomerate, fill it with dynamite Fire it loose.
And start making a coal chute.
Right there where my light spot is, Mike.
Put it right there.
[ Hammering .]
Water is fed into the hole to keep the dust down and cool the drill bit.
I hadn't planned on it cooling me down, too.
[ Spits .]
[ Hammering stops .]
Good lord, man.
That's a 4-foot hole.
That is insane.
I have a mouthful of pottsville conglomerate.
Pretty much so.
And I blame you.
Thank you.
Okay, now set it right there.
It'll stay right on its own.
Just sit on it.
Basically just sit on it.
I won't lie to you.
I'm scared to death here.
Okay, take that hand.
Put it up there.
Roger.
We ready? Yep.
Nice and easy, Mike.
[ Hammering .]
In the good old days, it took two men four hours to make this hole with a hammer and jumper steel.
Today, with this pneumatic jackhammer, it takes one guy about four minutes.
Ain't technology grand? Good.
Shut it off.
Blow her out.
Shut the water off.
[ Spits .]
Wow! That's insane.
Fun.
Insane.
Fun.
[ Chuckles .]
I've seen a lot of hammering.
I've seen a lot of jackhammers.
This is the perfect blend of technology and expertise.
You know what you're doing.
And you know what? There's people out in this world that are better than me.
Nobody in here at the moment.
Hey, everybody got to be good at something.
Heh.
I wish that were true.
Okay.
Now that part's done.
All right.
So now we're gonna put in dynamite and blow the hell out of the wall? Yep.
Fun as always.
Now the work's over and the fun begins.
Here's a sentence I've never uttered before, but You go fetch the dynamite, and I'll keep an eye on the freshly drilled holes.
Yeah, make sure they don't go anywhere.
No, believe me.
Under my watchful eye I didn't think they would.
Unh-unh.
They don't budge.
You'd have made a good security guard.
You bet I will.
These holes aren't going anywhere.
Okay, Mike, I'm back.
He's back with the dynamite, and I kept an eye on our holes.
They're exactly where we left them.
Well, that's good, Mike.
Don't want them to go anywhere.
Well, how much dynamite you got there? Enough.
There's no rocket science to it or nothing like that.
Well, tell me what you're doing here.
Okay, stick it in the hole, hit it once.
That's called tamping it.
I'll throw another piece on top just for good measure.
[ Chuckles .]
Because we can? When in doubt, overload.
So you've already hooked up the Yep, made them up.
Just push.
I'm kind of scared to really Just tamp it.
You know, mining has been going on for God, I guess, what? How long? Like, longer than just about anything.
How did they used to do this? Steve: They'd go to a rock face, and they'd build a fire.
They'd keep this fire going for a couple days till the rock face got hot, then they'd throw cold water on it.
It would explode.
No, the cold water falling on the rock would make it break.
Okay.
And that's that.
Pull that shunt off.
They're kind of hard to pull off.
Yeah, they are.
And normally, I hook the yellow to yellow, but it doesn't matter.
I've seen a lot of movies, and getting the right wire always seems critical.
Don't matter one way or the other.
Now you just twist them together, and that's it.
All right.
So, if I were to sum up, I would say that Steve is gonna get some extra wire and he's gonna attach some of it to the number 10 and some of it to the number 8, and then we're gonna run that newly attached wire over there to that live wire.
And then at some point, I'm almost certain we're gonna be running for our lives.
Is that a fair estimation, Steve? Oh, no, we won't run, because that wire's not live.
It's not live till we make it live.
You take these wires and touch them to your tongue.
If there's current in there, you'll feel it right away.
Isn't there a simpler way? Not really.
The only foolproof way to see if the wire's live is to lick it.
Just touch it to your tongue.
Zap.
Okay, it's live.
No, it's not.
Just kidding.
See, I'm an actor.
Uh-huh.
I had you for a second, though.
Okay, the wire's dead, so it's safe to hook up.
All right.
The next prudent step to take would be away from the blast site.
How far would you reckon we are from the face we just wired? 600 feet.
How loud is this gonna be? Eh, loud enough.
Is it gonna be a concussion? Do you have to do that thing with your ears or your mouth? No, you don't need it.
Okay.
All right, so talk to me about this.
Okay, you got to push this button right there, and a green light will come on.
And you keep that button there held and push that one, and the cord will go off.
We're gonna blow up a mine.
You ready? Yeah.
Got a green light here.
Here we go.
[ Explosion .]
Geez! Damn, Sam! That was loud! Feels like everything moves.
Everything did move! It tickled damn! Holy smokes! That's your own personal problem, Mike.
Wow! Okay, next thing you do You sat there like a statue.
You're bored out of your mind.
I'm just used to it.
Man, I might have pooed a little.
Now let's see what happened at the other end of the explosion.
You ready? Yeah.
Got a green light here.
Here we go.
[ Explosion .]
Geez! So, when the smoke clears and the dust settles, we'll have ourselves another brand-new coal chute, and tomorrow, the boys will be hard at it once again.
Steve will be in here with his mucker, cleaning up the mess.
Boo and John will be topside doing whatever they do.
Dave will be separating the coal from the rock, and Randy will be supervising.
It's gonna be great.
As for me I'm going home.
I've made no secret about the fact that, without you, "dirty jobs" would be nothing more than a blank screen.
We need your help.
We need your ideas.
If you have any, go to discovery.
Com/dirtyjobs.
Make them dirty.
Make them good.
Do it now.
Rowe: Ready, Doug? Doug: Just about, just about.
Man: Mike, you got to back up.
I will, for god sakes! Are you ready? Yes.
Back up.
[Bleep.]
Here it comes in 3, 2, 1.
My name's Mike rowe, and this is my job.
Stay there, Mike.
Let me get a wide.
I'm standing in poo.
My name's Mike rowe, and I've put a pig on a pedestal.
Why? Because even though he works in the dirt, this noble creature is the embodiment of hard work, self-sacrifice, and a good-natured willingness to get the job done, no matter how dirty.
Day after day, he goes about his business without complaint.
And night after night, he brings home the bacon.
[ Pig snorts .]
I am sorry I said that.
What's on your pedestal?
I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty.
Hardworking men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
Hey, hey, Mike, come on back up here and get to work.
Quit playin' around down there.
Now, get ready to get dirty.
Coming up on "dirty jobs" Matt: You guys came just at the right time.
Yeah, I always do.
At this abandoned college, they're teaching one last class creative destruction.
I help a family-run business Flat out, they're the most dangerous tool you'll use.
Turn these dilapidated buildings into dollars.
Smells like there might be a toilet nearby.
And later This a dirty job? It's a nice job.
I enter the dangerous, underground world of a coal miner.
That was really close, man.
How'd I do? We're gonna blow up a mine.
I was dynamite.
[ Explosion .]
Damn, Sam, that was loud! Captions by vitac captions paid for by discovery communications [ sighs .]
No, it's not Vietnam.
It's upsala college, or "oop-sala.
" Whatever you call it, today we're majoring in salvage.
This is Matt.
How are you, Matt? Doing good.
Yourself? Good.
"Up-sala" or "oop-sala"? "Up-salla," but there's really nobody here to correct us.
Good enough.
Well, there are these guys.
That's your dad, right? My dad, Steve.
My brother Josh.
And you're in the salvage business.
We call it "specialized extraction.
" [ Laughs .]
Specialized extraction.
Yeah, we work hard on these words.
We think about them at night.
It's like a dentist.
Pretty much.
Well, basically, like, this lumber right here, you cannot get this good of craftsmanship out of products today for the same price that we would be able to sell it to you for.
So, are we talking about 100-year-old siding? 100-year-old siding.
We're talking about 100-year-old doors, 100-year-old windows.
But to get it, your family has to come in here and sweat your ass off.
Pretty much.
Cool.
What are you working on here? Salvaging some old bricks to basically use on either a patio This was a patio underneath all this foliage.
Yeah.
Anything special about these bricks I should know? These are bricks from right around the turn of the century.
The sayre & Fisher company, over a 100-year period, produced 6 billion, 250 million bricks Holy [bleep.]
Enough for 40,000 homes or something along that nature.
That's a lot of bricks.
The biggest factor here is that it really would be a shame to just waste all this stuff.
We got a tub that's nice, and raccoons have been using it as a bathroom.
We got tubs.
We got toilets.
A raccoon using a toilet as a tub is up our alley.
Take me to the tub.
Tallyho.
Upsala college in east orange, New Jersey, was founded in 1893 and operated for 102 years.
The campus sits on 20 acres and consists of 24 buildings.
The first cornerstone was laid in 1900.
Many of the buildings will be demolished, and the property will be developed into middle-income housing.
So, what was the purpose of this building originally? From what we've found out, it was the community house, where they did a lot of arts and crafts and Clay work.
We found cool pottery and different things downstairs.
But we're here for the bathtub.
We are here for rocky raccoon's bathroom.
After you.
[ Grunts .]
All right.
Oh, yeah.
Welcome to my humble abode.
I like what you've done with it.
It's homey.
Oh, yeah.
All right, we got to get the flashlight out, here.
When the college was abandoned, transients moved in, so raccoon poo wasn't the only poo to deal with.
The whole place smelled like one big outhouse.
Let me show you the way upstairs.
Good god, man.
How long's it been deserted? The school's been closed since '95, I believe, and time does its toll on If houses aren't lived in, they just die, literally, so Well, this one's dead, then.
It's dead.
It's a doner.
That would be the tub.
And that would be the raccoon crap.
This the original art? Well, we use that as a, um Never mind.
Doesn't matter.
Okay, so this is a good example, then, of, really, how you get your money back.
Well, we try to get our money back.
This is an item that is almost a loss-leader item.
The tiles We try to pull the tiles.
They're a vintage subway tile, which is popular right now.
What's the tile worth? Couple bucks.
Really good tile catchers are hard to come by.
So, at this point, we have salvaged all the tile we need to in order to work in the dmz, basically.
To get the tub out, that's all we really need to do right now.
The rest of it, we'll do at another time.
So no more finesse.
No more finesse.
Now it's time to get down and dirty.
You know what we got to do? No.
We got to get the drain out.
The drain? From downstairs, through the ceiling.
The bad news is, we can't get to what we need to get to, so that brings us back to the upstairs.
All we want to do is get a bathtub out of a house.
[ Chain saw revs .]
You guys ever work with anything like a shovel or a It's a rage sweeping the construction industry.
We need to start that stuff.
That tub's not moving.
Matt: Not a darn thing.
So, as you can see, got a lot of the tile out of the way, but it's not quite freed, is it? No, not yet.
Let it come down.
See what happens.
Do we need to cut more? Got it? Josh: I think so.
Ah, look at that.
Now, this thing You don't want to be moving it up and down, left to right, 'cause these blades are like a fiber blade.
And when they fly, they take chunks of anything near it.
Flat out, they're the most dangerous tool you'll use.
Got to love it.
Scared the hell out of me.
Now, what the hell's that? What the heck is that? What you want to do is you want to start it on the piece.
1, 2, 3.
Rowe: What are we gonna do now? Josh: That's a good question.
[ Grunting .]
Good.
Whoa.
If it starts going, just let it go.
Let it come right down.
Yeah? I'm letting go.
1, 2, 3.
Well, it's a handsome tub by any standards.
We sure earned it.
What do we do now? I think we go get a toilet.
A matching toilet? A matching toilet.
Good god, man.
Here we are.
Five-floor walk-up.
All right? Out of breath.
Yeah, and it smells like there might be a toilet nearby.
Yeah, that's the matching beauty in there.
Smells like there might be some recent deposits.
Josh: It's not so pretty, is it? That's not pretty at all.
Just give us a little room to work.
God.
[ Grunts .]
Rowe: How does one get an antique toilet out of a, uh Dump like this? Josh: I think we're just gonna need a wrench.
Looks like there's two bolts in the back and, um God bless you.
Be careful.
Apparently someone forgot to flush.
That is about the oldest crap I've ever seen.
Look at that.
It turned into a rag.
[ Coughs .]
[ Spits .]
Holy [bleep.]
Josh.
You can see down to the fourth floor.
Josh: You don't want to go falling through there, Mike.
Oh, man, I mean, seriously, this whole thing could rot straight out at any second.
Yeah, be careful in there.
All right, so, basically, we take the wrench, we get these two things, and then just hump it out of here.
I'm hoping that those two bolts is gonna do it.
Yeah, me too.
Be a hell of a thing to fall through a floor with a toilet.
Yeah, we don't need that.
[ Laughs .]
Coming free? Oh, there we go.
Okay.
It's not what I would call clean, but I think it's moveable at this point.
You ready to come back and work with us next summer? Dude, just get me out of here.
It's 98 degrees outside.
Humidity's 100%.
We're on the fifth floor in an attic, in the bathroom from Say it for I can't talk anymore.
Bathroom from hell That's what I meant to say.
That smells bad.
Geez.
Josh: Lighten your load a little bit, although I did win fair and square.
"Lighten your load.
" That's funny.
No "load" jokes.
Matt: What we got here is a portico from one of these old dormitories, and what we're thinking about doing is turning it into either a garden shed or a potting shed or even a little pool cabana.
Man, you got quite an imagination.
I mean, obviously, this thing is bolted to the brick.
First, we had to cut a bunch of the lag bolts that were sent right into the brick, and next what we're gonna do is reinforce on the inside.
And you guys came just at the right time.
Yeah, I always do.
Man, I can't see a thing in these goggles.
Now, do I want vision or do I want safety? Why are we always forced to make these choices? This is a ridiculous job.
I mean, really.
Matt: You really got to love what you're doing.
You can see that I can't see anything.
When I breathe [ Breathes deeply .]
See what happens? I'm blind as a mole.
Can't see a thing.
Rowe: How about a pair of gloves, Matt? Ever occur to you to wear a pair of gloves? Never quite get the good feel on what I'm trying to do.
The mesh that Matt's cutting right now is what we like to call razor-sharp.
It's hanging everywhere.
They're like little, miniature punji sticks, and if you look at them too closely, they'll just cut you wide open.
See, that's just a little scratch.
I got some others I can't show you, this being a family show and all.
Then we proceeded to pound about 1,000 nails into braces where there was barely enough room to swing a hammer.
[ Muttering .]
It's called a nail gun, man.
They sell them everywhere.
What do you think? Hopefully I'll make some money off of this thing and be able to afford one.
Who needs a nail gun? You got a moron to come by.
More nailing, and this moron was getting tired.
I'll give you $100 for a nail gun.
$200.
$300.
$5,000, Matt.
Give me a nail gun.
$10,000.
$15,000, Matt.
How many do you want? Finally, the portico was reinforced, and it was time for Matt's dad, Steve, to bring in the heavy artillery.
And it was time for me to get out of the way and let the professionals do their job.
All right, go ahead in.
Actually, tilt your forks up.
Back up a little bit.
Keep going.
Steve: Want it over here? Sit it right over there to your left.
Well, the salvage work is far from complete here at upsala college, but my work is done.
I got a classic portico, an antique bathtub, and one of the nastiest commodes on the planet.
I have no idea where it's all headed, but I'll always remember them as the "dirty jobs" executive washroom.
Rowe: Well, that's a great, big, black hole in the side of sharpe mountain, which is here in the appalachian mountains, which, in this case, is in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Randy rothomo is a coal miner.
How are you, Randy? Good.
Lovely day to be mining for coal, right? Little cool today.
What is it here? About 100 below zero? It's cold.
You're an anthracite coal miner.
Right.
This is anthracite coal.
What makes it different than regular old coal? It's harder.
More carbon in it.
So, does it burn? It burns hotter.
These are coal cars, obviously.
Coal cars.
Or rock cars, depending what we're hauling.
Could be rock, could be coal.
In this case, it's just human.
Yeah, right.
It's a human car.
That's Ryan.
He's the conductor.
This a dirty job? It's a nice job.
Yeah, nice job.
Beautiful day.
Anthracite coal.
Good grief.
That's not a ton of clearance.
These icicles are interesting.
Remind me not to stand up.
2,000 feet in, we still have ice.
How far back are we gonna go? 2,500 feet.
About half a mile.
Half a mile.
Watch out, Doug.
Oof.
Oh, geez.
That was really close, man.
And how long did it take to dig this far back? This mine was started around 1890.
You've been pulling coal out of here for over a century? Yep.
What runs through these pipes up here? That's air.
That runs all our machinery.
So all your machinery is What is that? Compressed air.
Compressed air.
Right.
So no sparks No fire in a mine.
Fire's very bad in a mine.
The average pay for a coal miner in America is about $800 a week.
That doesn't make sense to me.
Okay, watch the chutes on that side.
Right, right, right.
[ Chuckles .]
Now, was this entire tunnel blasted out back in the day? Yes.
Okay.
What are we looking at here? There's a chute.
We'll crawl over out of the buggy now and walk in from here.
This is as far as we go? Yeah, with the buggies.
All right.
You need some help? Oh, no.
No, no.
Doing fine.
So, that's a coal chute? Yeah, that would be bad to smack your head on this cruising down here on your little train, for sure.
How many of these chutes come down through the gangway? Every 25 foot of gangway, we put a chute up.
So, this is obviously a loaded coal car.
It's a loaded coal car.
That's your crew down there.
You can't see faces, but wherever you see a light, there's a guy attached to it.
And they're shoveling coal out of that chute? They're tapping coal out of that chute.
So, to load this, you basically take the empty car, pull it under the chute, and then let gravity work for you.
Lift the board, and the coal will run out into the buggy.
If it all goes as planned.
That's the way it's supposed to work.
Well, from what I can tell, there's nothing simple about getting the coal out of the mountain.
It's obviously very process-oriented.
This is John.
John is up here on the coal chute.
John, you're Randy's son, right? That's correct.
All right.
Everybody around here seems to be related somehow or another.
This coal chute is full, obviously.
And the job here is to do what? Well, we want to try to make it empty and put it outside.
[ Chuckles .]
Okay.
Unless I'm mistaken, we're gonna need a train? Yep, the trip with the buggies on it.
The trip with the buggies.
And is that Ryan still back there driving that thing? Yep, he is.
Ryan, you want to bring that on up here? I hope that's the right thing to do.
I'm barking out orders like I know what I'm doing, but I don't.
So we got 1, 2 how many cars we got on this one? Four.
You start with the closest one to the conductor? Yep.
And that would be that one.
Just trying to get a look up there.
Who's up there? That's boo, and mar's up there, too, and they're gonna make sure that they don't send stuff down that's a little too big to come out of the chute.
Yeah, boo, don't send anything out too big, for crying out loud.
Anybody named boo I don't know.
Yeah, that is So they're screening, we're tapping, Ryan's driving And we're all praying.
All right, step one.
This coal was formed from the remains of plants and animals which had been under extreme pressure for millions of years.
Is it all happening the way it's supposed to? Nope.
Nope? We got a problem? Them nice guys up there.
Oh, they didn't smash it right, did they? Nope, they didn't.
So they just screwed you over right here on the TV.
Is that your brother? Is boo your brother? Yes, boo is up there.
It's hard to see the resemblance 'cause you're all covered with coal dust.
But what he did was, he sent down a big rock.
Bad, boo.
That's actually a coal lump.
That'll be real easy to smash.
All right, go ahead and smash it.
All right.
So, what he's doing is smashing up the lump of coal that was too big to fit down the chute, and we got this stop here, or this check, and that basically is how the job goes all day.
If they send down a big piece, you smash it up, and you got to stop everything while you correct it.
Yep.
All right, so i'm in the tapping position, and I am ready to regulate the flow.
And, Ryan, next car.
Ryan: Yep! You always start from the front? Pull this one first? Might take two hands till you get it.
Good grief.
Put that thing back down there.
Hold on a second.
That goes fast.
Now, this is another big rock, isn't it? No, that's a coal lump.
You want to Smash it up? No, you can take your hand and just push back on the board, and use this board.
Lift at the same time.
[ Grunting .]
Oh, geez.
Normally, they take about 18,000 tons of coal out of this mine every year.
But with my help, well, it's gonna be a little less.
All right, slow down.
Slow down.
Hold everything.
What's going on up there, screeners? Takes a lot of coordination.
Yeah, you know what? I don't have so much of that.
Should I smash some of this up? I think you can handle it.
I'm gonna get this one out.
Just make sure you lift the board when it comes.
All right, here comes a big one.
Heads up.
Geez! Heads up! You have a lump coming again.
All right, heads up.
Perfect.
Shazam.
Look at that.
Listen to that, man.
It could really get out of hand.
Has it ever happened where coal's just running like crazy and flying past you? Nope.
Nope.
Really? Nope.
Honest? That's what the screen's job's for, to stop all that.
Yeah, I know, but so far, what I'm seeing up there I don't know.
So, the coal is on its way out to the hopper, and I'm on my way up this chute to where the screeners are.
Hopefully, by the time I get there, the trip will be back, and we'll do the whole thing again.
I'm coming up! Just so they know.
That doesn't look safe at all.
I'm gonna go around this way.
John: That'd be a good idea.
[ Grunting .]
You know what? There are lots of nails up here that just Look at that.
You were aware of those, John? Yep.
Yep, thanks for that tip.
Ow.
Crawlin' up a coal chute lookin' for a guy named boo.
Boo? Yep.
Good.
And you must be mar.
Mar doesn't talk.
Is that right, boo? That's right.
All right, great.
Where the hell am I? Right now, you're at the monkey.
The main return for the air? Yep.
Why is it called a monkey? Don't know.
And where does the work up here actually happen? Right there.
So this is the top of the chute I'm looking up here.
So, how high into the mountain does this vein go? That vein goes all the way out to the surface.
What do I do? Holler down to them and tell them to start tapping.
Oh, John.
John: Yep? You can go ahead and start tapping.
Will do.
So far, this job is a dream.
Oh, geez.
Now I see.
It's all Oh, all right.
What should I be doing? Smashing stuff like that? Boo: You can if you want.
Good night.
That's a big oh, geez.
All right.
Will it stop on its own? It should.
All right.
The hole that this coal is coming from was started with a dynamite blast which broke up the coal so that it would run into the chute, and that process continues for two to four weeks, until the coal vein is completely worked out.
Whoa! Yeah, be sure-footed up here.
You're not kidding.
You've got to be like a Billy goat.
I'm gonna send the trip out.
Go ahead.
Send the trip out.
Send out for some lunch while you're at it, would you? Maybe some girls.
So, the trip is gone, and basically, what do we do? We just take a break now while we wait for the empty cars to come back.
No.
In between trips, we have to crawl up there and make sure there's enough room for the coal to come down if there's a big rock hanging there.
Crawl up there? Yep.
You have to crawl up there on your hands and knees, under that water, in the coal.
Well, it was flowing fine before, it seemed.
It might flow fine next time, but you want to make sure, or else you're gonna hold them guys up and John is gonna get mad at you.
I hate it when John gets mad at me.
Okay, so you want me to crawl up and look at the rock and make sure it's not blocking any likely flows.
Right.
Okay.
Let's do that.
That'll be fun.
[ Grunts .]
If you hear something fall, you come back here in a hurry.
Say that again.
If you hear something fall, you come back here in a hurry.
Okay.
[ Laughing .]
Nothing's gonna fall.
Great.
Another miner with a sense of humor.
Holy smokes.
Hey, you know what? There's some big rocks up here that I think are gonna block all kinds of stuff, to be perfectly honest.
Okay, well, I've been sent to the top of this chute to make a decision that I'm neither comfortable nor qualified to make.
Boo has asked me to see if there's anything blocking the flow of coal, and to my untrained and decidedly novice eye, there is Namely, these big rocks.
Boo, what do we do? Do we smash these rocks up? We'll wait till they tap and they block the hole so that nothing runs.
Then we'll work at them.
You think these rocks are gonna come down as a result of their tapping? Yes, I do.
But you can't see them.
I'm up here bringing literally minutes of experience to the equation.
We're gonna defer to boo and let John do his tapping thing.
My money is, these things are just not gonna come down by accident.
I think some poor bastard's gonna have to come up here with dynamite or a sledgehammer or something like that.
Could be wrong.
I often am.
I was wrong.
The coal did flow, and that's too bad, 'cause I really wanted to blow something up.
My next guide to the coal mine was boo's cousin Steve.
It's a family affair down here.
What exactly is the job, Steve? [ Foreign accent .]
Driving that.
Driving this.
Yeah, and lifting up the rocks.
What did you call it, a mucker? Yeah.
The mucker is, without a doubt, a very dirty machine, Steve.
Yeah, it's kind of crummy.
How does it work? Control panel.
On/off valve.
Bucket up, bucket down.
Forward, reverse.
Swing to your left.
Swing to your right.
Turn it on.
I want to hear what this thing sounds like.
[ Hissing .]
I'm gonna wait over here.
Go ahead.
Good luck.
This is the face of the mine.
It has to blasted with dynamite and dug out with the mucker so that more tracks can be laid to extend the gangway.
That's not coal he's digging out.
That's solid rock.
Good god, man! That is like a beast! It's loud and noisy.
Who makes these things Lucifer? Beelzebub? Old scratch? My god.
It makes a hell of a racket, it looks like it chewed its way clean out of hell.
But I guess it's better than a scoop shovel.
And a lot quicker.
How badly can I hurt things if I give this thing a try? Not bad.
I learned how to run one.
Yeah, but, you know, you got this stuff in your blood.
Plus, you got the cool accent.
How can you not be Irish? You sound like you came right out of Dublin.
No, I'm not Irish.
Well, I mean no offense.
German.
[ Imitating Steve .]
You're Pennsylvania Dutch, but you got a scottish/irish something.
[ Normal voice .]
Anyway, I digress.
So, any final words of advice before we attempt this? Don't lean front.
Don't what? Don't lean front.
Like this? Yeah, don't do that.
Why? 'Cause we'll be taking you to the emergency room to get your jaw stitched back on.
All right.
That bucket will lift a half a ton, and trust me, it won't mind if your head's in the way.
It'll keep going.
All right, well, good.
That's excellent advice.
Keep the head back.
Okay.
Fire it up.
Okay.
[ Hissing .]
[ Engine revs .]
The world's coal consumption is 5 billion, 800 million tons annually.
75% of it is used to generate electricity.
I'm doing my part to keep the lights on.
Hang on a second, Mike! What did I do? I don't know.
You got something probably [ Clunking .]
Oh, I hope I didn't break the mucker! We all right? Yep.
How was that, though? Not bad.
Come on, give it up! That was pretty good! For a first time.
All right.
Hey, you didn't get it off the road.
No, we're still on the road.
I got a big load in there.
I didn't knock my jaw off, and you seem to be alive.
Where I come from, that's high praise.
Good job.
These Pennsylvania Dutch guys are tough.
Don't let your bucket down so fast.
Got to be quick, but not too quick.
Quick, but not too quick.
Slow, but not too slow.
Quick, but not too quick.
Lift your handle up a little bit yet.
Little bit.
Hold it.
That's all.
It's not exactly a definitive off-and-on mechanism, is it? No.
Oh, man.
Well, one more thing I can cross off the list of things to do Run a mucker.
[ Clanking, rumbling .]
While Ryan took the next trip up, Steve and I were going to make a new chute.
25 feet.
Now, guess how far that is.
25 feet.
I figure it's I don't know Maybe here somewhere.
Pretty close.
It's usually 5 more feet than I want to carry a hammer, but since you're here Exactly.
Ohh.
A sig 28 pneumatic jackhammer.
How's it work? You have your control here.
On, off.
Uh-huh.
There's a large piston inside of it.
It drives front, hits the steel, bounces back, and does that 3,000 times a minute.
Good lord.
What did they do before something like this was invented? They had what was called a jumper steel.
One guy held the steel and turned it a little bit while another guy hit it.
[ Chuckles .]
Through this rock? I mean, this is serious rock, right? It's pottsville conglomerate, some of the hardest rock in the world.
Pottsville conglomerate.
Okay.
So the job is to drill some holes into the pottsville conglomerate, fill it with dynamite Fire it loose.
And start making a coal chute.
Right there where my light spot is, Mike.
Put it right there.
[ Hammering .]
Water is fed into the hole to keep the dust down and cool the drill bit.
I hadn't planned on it cooling me down, too.
[ Spits .]
[ Hammering stops .]
Good lord, man.
That's a 4-foot hole.
That is insane.
I have a mouthful of pottsville conglomerate.
Pretty much so.
And I blame you.
Thank you.
Okay, now set it right there.
It'll stay right on its own.
Just sit on it.
Basically just sit on it.
I won't lie to you.
I'm scared to death here.
Okay, take that hand.
Put it up there.
Roger.
We ready? Yep.
Nice and easy, Mike.
[ Hammering .]
In the good old days, it took two men four hours to make this hole with a hammer and jumper steel.
Today, with this pneumatic jackhammer, it takes one guy about four minutes.
Ain't technology grand? Good.
Shut it off.
Blow her out.
Shut the water off.
[ Spits .]
Wow! That's insane.
Fun.
Insane.
Fun.
[ Chuckles .]
I've seen a lot of hammering.
I've seen a lot of jackhammers.
This is the perfect blend of technology and expertise.
You know what you're doing.
And you know what? There's people out in this world that are better than me.
Nobody in here at the moment.
Hey, everybody got to be good at something.
Heh.
I wish that were true.
Okay.
Now that part's done.
All right.
So now we're gonna put in dynamite and blow the hell out of the wall? Yep.
Fun as always.
Now the work's over and the fun begins.
Here's a sentence I've never uttered before, but You go fetch the dynamite, and I'll keep an eye on the freshly drilled holes.
Yeah, make sure they don't go anywhere.
No, believe me.
Under my watchful eye I didn't think they would.
Unh-unh.
They don't budge.
You'd have made a good security guard.
You bet I will.
These holes aren't going anywhere.
Okay, Mike, I'm back.
He's back with the dynamite, and I kept an eye on our holes.
They're exactly where we left them.
Well, that's good, Mike.
Don't want them to go anywhere.
Well, how much dynamite you got there? Enough.
There's no rocket science to it or nothing like that.
Well, tell me what you're doing here.
Okay, stick it in the hole, hit it once.
That's called tamping it.
I'll throw another piece on top just for good measure.
[ Chuckles .]
Because we can? When in doubt, overload.
So you've already hooked up the Yep, made them up.
Just push.
I'm kind of scared to really Just tamp it.
You know, mining has been going on for God, I guess, what? How long? Like, longer than just about anything.
How did they used to do this? Steve: They'd go to a rock face, and they'd build a fire.
They'd keep this fire going for a couple days till the rock face got hot, then they'd throw cold water on it.
It would explode.
No, the cold water falling on the rock would make it break.
Okay.
And that's that.
Pull that shunt off.
They're kind of hard to pull off.
Yeah, they are.
And normally, I hook the yellow to yellow, but it doesn't matter.
I've seen a lot of movies, and getting the right wire always seems critical.
Don't matter one way or the other.
Now you just twist them together, and that's it.
All right.
So, if I were to sum up, I would say that Steve is gonna get some extra wire and he's gonna attach some of it to the number 10 and some of it to the number 8, and then we're gonna run that newly attached wire over there to that live wire.
And then at some point, I'm almost certain we're gonna be running for our lives.
Is that a fair estimation, Steve? Oh, no, we won't run, because that wire's not live.
It's not live till we make it live.
You take these wires and touch them to your tongue.
If there's current in there, you'll feel it right away.
Isn't there a simpler way? Not really.
The only foolproof way to see if the wire's live is to lick it.
Just touch it to your tongue.
Zap.
Okay, it's live.
No, it's not.
Just kidding.
See, I'm an actor.
Uh-huh.
I had you for a second, though.
Okay, the wire's dead, so it's safe to hook up.
All right.
The next prudent step to take would be away from the blast site.
How far would you reckon we are from the face we just wired? 600 feet.
How loud is this gonna be? Eh, loud enough.
Is it gonna be a concussion? Do you have to do that thing with your ears or your mouth? No, you don't need it.
Okay.
All right, so talk to me about this.
Okay, you got to push this button right there, and a green light will come on.
And you keep that button there held and push that one, and the cord will go off.
We're gonna blow up a mine.
You ready? Yeah.
Got a green light here.
Here we go.
[ Explosion .]
Geez! Damn, Sam! That was loud! Feels like everything moves.
Everything did move! It tickled damn! Holy smokes! That's your own personal problem, Mike.
Wow! Okay, next thing you do You sat there like a statue.
You're bored out of your mind.
I'm just used to it.
Man, I might have pooed a little.
Now let's see what happened at the other end of the explosion.
You ready? Yeah.
Got a green light here.
Here we go.
[ Explosion .]
Geez! So, when the smoke clears and the dust settles, we'll have ourselves another brand-new coal chute, and tomorrow, the boys will be hard at it once again.
Steve will be in here with his mucker, cleaning up the mess.
Boo and John will be topside doing whatever they do.
Dave will be separating the coal from the rock, and Randy will be supervising.
It's gonna be great.
As for me I'm going home.
I've made no secret about the fact that, without you, "dirty jobs" would be nothing more than a blank screen.
We need your help.
We need your ideas.
If you have any, go to discovery.
Com/dirtyjobs.
Make them dirty.
Make them good.
Do it now.
Rowe: Ready, Doug? Doug: Just about, just about.
Man: Mike, you got to back up.
I will, for god sakes! Are you ready? Yes.
Back up.
[Bleep.]
Here it comes in 3, 2, 1.
My name's Mike rowe, and this is my job.
Stay there, Mike.
Let me get a wide.
I'm standing in poo.
My name's Mike rowe, and I've put a pig on a pedestal.
Why? Because even though he works in the dirt, this noble creature is the embodiment of hard work, self-sacrifice, and a good-natured willingness to get the job done, no matter how dirty.
Day after day, he goes about his business without complaint.
And night after night, he brings home the bacon.
[ Pig snorts .]
I am sorry I said that.
What's on your pedestal?