Huber Coal Breaker and Blue Coal
Near Scranton, Pennsylvania
Completed in nineteen thirty-nine by the Glen Alden Coal Company, the Huber Breaker was one of the most advanced anthracite processing facilities ever built in Pennsylvania, capable of handling seven thousand tons of coal every single day. It was among the first operations in the industry to use Menzies cones to separate coal from rock more efficiently, and an innovative aerial tramway carried waste away from the site. But the detail that made Glen Alden's product instantly recognizable was stranger than any machinery: the coal was sprayed with an iridescent chemical that gave it a blue sheen, and marketed under the trademarked name Blue Coal.
Operations ran until nineteen seventy-six, when the long decline of the anthracite industry finally caught up with the breaker. The building stood for nearly four more decades before being demolished in twenty fourteen, the end of a structure that had once anchored the regional economy.
