Talk:Huber Breaker

Sources

This Huber breaker is documented by local medias, [1], [2], [3]. So I think that it's definitely notable and expandable. Cenarium (talk) 12:43, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

General notes on content and format

Hi! I'm somewhat new to editing on Wikipedia, and this is my first talk page post (hence any associated issues of inexperience).

I noticed this article while reading Rust Belt, which links to an image of the Huber Breaker. After a few cursory edits for the sake of formatting, and then a more substantive change, I would think this article should be expanded (as is noted in the only other extant section on this talk page from twelve some odd years ago).

Issues

However, I also noticed a few potential issues in the construction of this article prior to now, which I've listed below.

- In 2014, several edits were made by an individual who was, at the time, working on a brief documentary on the subject of the Huber Breaker and general Pennsylvania industrial and social history. The potential issue arises in that the individual also seems to have linked their documentary in External links, an act I think presumes its importance/notability. The documentary, further, is not freely accessible (is pay to access), so I question its inclusion in External links in the first place. I'll consider acquiring the documentary if it appears to provide relevant insight, but its inclusion in this article has the dubious appearance of WP:SELFPUB. I might be wrong, though; the trailer looks interesting.

- This article hasn't appreciated much attention since its subject's demolition in 2014. This is only natural, as interests rise and fall with their relevance, but this prolonged absence has left in its wake a general need to clean up the extant sources and make way for new ones. The formatting of this article is somewhat confusing, as it contains in its introductory section a description of how coal washing works (not particularly unique to this coal breaker, I think) and an abridged history of the Huber Breaker that in its haste misrepresents the structure. One might first note how "Maxwell Breaker" is inexplicably introduced and wonder what this preceding breaker was, why it needed to be replaced. Then, the flurry of corporate names, and the austere juxtaposition of a sentence praising the modern machinery of the breaker with another rapidly describing its decline. Compare this to any other competent article describing an industrial building on this site, and one might understand how sorely insufficient this is. I propose a culling of the intro section and the migration of current materials to sections on History, Decline, Production, etc.

Sources to start

Primary or authoritative secondary sources related to this subject have been difficult to track, so I've compiled below some interesting and potentially useful links in expanding this article further.

- http://www.northernfield.info/; this site claims to have aggregated data from Colorado School of Mines, Lehigh University, and a few other colleges and public libraries on anthracite mining operations in North PA; freely accessible

- Spreadsheet w/ operation data, such as name, shipments, production, and employees (on Huber Breaker operations, of course)

- Documents related to Huber Breaker, e.g. photos, maps, inspections (note some overlap with Library of Congress resources)

- https://www.loc.gov/item/pa2251/; the Library of Congress has excellent documentation on the subject, including access to corporate documents related to the Huber Breaker

- Drawings from a survey of Huber Breaker (the first page has already been cited, though particular information related to anthracite in the region and machinery/devices mentioned in-text, like the Menzies cones; very nice diagrams)

- A severe, thorough examination of the corporate history of Huber Breaker (this will yield considerable insight to the corporate aspect of the breaker, if one can get through its 53 pages)

- http://huberbreaker.org/home/home/; the site of the Huber Breaker Preservation Society. I have yet to source some of their claims in the timeline I cited in-text, but this is, so far, the most furtive source of social history related to the breaker I have found. Despite the appearance of the website, I do not doubt the veracity of this organization, as they appear to credit authoritative and accredited sources like the LoC and a few academics.

- Timeline history of the Huber Breaker

- Essay on history of anthracite region (NE PA) by historian Bill Hastie

- Photographs, dated contemporary (2000- ), past (during operations and immediately after closure); labeled advertisements, society (the former is sparse, with some images unfortunately missing references and thus unavailable to view; the latter is more relevant to the preservation society, but there are images of what might have been equipment used by workers at Huber Breaker and a very uncanny model coal family); the LoC has higher res scans of B/W film photos of the breaker after its deprecation

- "Death of the Huber Breaker: Loss of an iconic Anthracite feature" by Dr. Bode J. Morin (aside from being a mostly comprehensive but non-exhaustive documentation of the Huber Breaker, this article features a wonderfully expansive list of references that potential contributors might wish to refer to)

I would be happy to hear from other editors as to the utility of this information, as well as simple displays of interest in editing and expanding the article. I'll probably do some editing after this is posted, but I'd like to share my thoughts and resources thus far with others interested in the Huber Breaker article, if there are any. ReptileDuck (talk) 05:41, 15 December 2021 (UTC)