In this 1910 photo by child labor reformer Lewis Hine, a young boy carries an armful of steel rods known as "spragging irons" along the elevated track at the Bessie Mine of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company, Jefferson County. The iron bars were used to "sprag," or brace, the rear axles of wagons to prevent them from rolling backwards.
Child Mine Workers
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Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Appears In
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