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
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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