Sketches

Wednesday 27 July 2016

Staatsmijn Emma

When I was young there used to be a huge coalmine just a few 100 meters from my house. The "staatsmijn Emma" (the national coal mine Emma). It was named after one of our Queens.
The coalmine was one of the largest in the Netherlands, and it was closed around the mid-70s.
The drawing is based on old photographs and old memories.
Unfortunately there is nothing left, they tore down literally everything, and replaced the area with houses. Only us, the ones who grew up back then, can still see the scars. The bicyclepaths (once railroads), the wooded hills (once coalhills), the black earth (once cokesovens). They even tore down the original hyperbolic cooling towers - which were invented here. Well, you can see those all around the world, that would be the Emma offspring.

2 comments:

Michael Lukyniuk said...

Good illustration of your industrial past. I guess that in one lifetime, there have been great changes in Western Europe and N America -well for that matter, most of the world. I don't think that my parents saw such big changes in their lifetime, but I may be wrong. Anyway, good illustration and accompanying text that makes me reflect.

Rene Fijten said...

I am not sure about not so many big changes in your parents time.
My grandfather, born in 1899, saw the first automobile arrive, in fact he drove the second car in the south of the Netherlands (he was chauffeur for the general manager of the coalmine Emma). They saw 2 worldwars, the invention of planes, the first man on the moon, radio, television, the emergence of the welfare state, holidays, supermarkets, foreign travel, take away food, motorways, paprika, you name it.
All the major changes we have today are Iphones and Pokemon Go. :)