Episode 263: Canary in the Coal Mine

This week Shauna and Dan find out why there were canaries in coal mines, giving us this common phrase. Bonus: Anthropomorphic birds, the black lung, and that time in the late 80s when we solved a climate crisis through international cooperation

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Bunny Trails: A Word History Podcast
Episode 263: Canary in the Coal Mine
Record Date: January 17, 2025
Air Date: January 22, 2025

Intro

Shauna:
Welcome to Bunny Trails, a whimsical adventure of idioms and other turns of phrase.

I’m Shauna Harrison

Dan:
And I’m Dan Pugh

Each week we take an idiom or other turn of phrase and try to tell the story from its entry into the English language, to how it’s used today.

Opening Hook
Imagine you're in a coal mine. It’s cold and damp, with just the light of your helmet shining through the darkness. Despite the chill, you are sweating from the hard work. In the background you hear a wonderful song. And there it is, a beautiful yellow bird, singing merrily through your shift. But why, oh why, is there a canary in the coal mine?

Meaning

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Canary in the Coal Mine means:

Quote
an early indicator of the safety, status, or outcome of a situation
End Quote
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/canary_n5?tab=meaning_and_use#1213940830

The Oxford English Dictionary goes on to note this is a reference to the former practice of taking live canaries into coal mines to test for the presence of toxic gases, typically carbon monoxide; the illness or death of the canaries would serve as an indication that such gases were present.

According to the BBC news out of England, the idea of using canaries to detect gases came from John Scott Haldane, a medical researcher, mining engineer, and professor at Oxford out of the United Kingdom. He believed that death in coal mines was more often from suffocation due to a lack of oxygen than blunt force trauma. And he was willing to go into mines after explosions to test his theories. In 1896 the Tylorstown No 8 pit ignited a methane pocket and the ensuing explosion killed 57 men and 80 ponies. Professor Haldane arrived at the scene and immediately began to assess the bodies. He was surprised to find four dead men around a still burning lamp. The lamp, he thought, meant a lack of oxygen did not kill them, but neither was it blunt force trauma. So like any good scientist, he revised his theory. After insisting on post mortems for the 4 miners, he devised a new theory: carbon monoxide. Here’s a bit from the article:

Quote
His next few months would be spent locked in a gas-filled laboratory, testing the effects of carbon monoxide on himself and a series of smaller animals…

He concluded that whilst both mice and canaries were 20 times more susceptible to the gas than humans, canaries would give miners the best advance warning, as they stopped singing and would fall off their perch.
End Quote
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-15965188

Interestingly, Haldane’s original theory was not exactly wrong, it just wasn’t correct the way he expected. Usually, oxygen is carried around your body by proteins in your red blood cells. Carbon monoxide travels in the same way, along the same protein. But there is only so much room for a gas to travel, and the carbon monoxide binds to that protein in a way that is 250 times stronger than what oxygen does.
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=zm2552
Meaning there is no room for the oxygen on the protein because the carbon monoxide is taking it all up. So a person with carbon monoxide poisoning does suffocate from a lack of oxygen. Not because the oxygen isn’t in the air they are breathing, but because their lungs can’t get the oxygen out of the air to get to their blood stream and other vital organs.

1906
The first time I could find canaries actually being used in this way was in 1906, a full decade later. Here’s an article in the Nottingham Evening Post dated 21 December 1906. The article is titled New Use For The Canary. Here’s a snippet:

Quote
When the rescue party descended the mine a canary in a cage was kept in front and dropped off its perch when the danger point was reached, overcome by the poisonous atmosphere. This is a new use for the canary, and it is satisfactory to know that the bird recovered from the effects of the after-damp, and was produced at the inquest. As an aid to the exploration of a coal pit after an explosion has occurred birds may be of very great value, as is shown in this case, but humane people will hope that they will be used if at all with due consideration to their well being.
End Quote
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19061221/025/0004

1914
According to an article in Coal Mining Review and Industrial Index out of Columbus, Ohio dated July 1, 1914, the practice of having canaries in mines was effective in saving human lives.

Quote
Canaries save about 800 human lives a year. They are the chief reliance of the United States Bureau of Mines in the rescue of entombed miners whenever a mine disaster occurs. During the few years they have been used in this work more than 5,000 lives have been saved through their use
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Coal_Mining_Review_and_Industrial_Index/8iolbmnCzFwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=canary,+coal+mine&pg=RA14-PA9&printsec=frontcover

But what about canary lives? Well, it seems the miners were very concerned about them, too. Here’s another bit from the same article in the Coal Mining Review.

Quote
This canary is kept in good humor during the trip to the mine and every effort is made to keep it active. The bird is taken into the mine under the ever-watchful eyes of the leader of the rescue party. As long as the bird continues to chirp and hop about in the cage the rescue party continues on its way.

Just as soon as the bird’s activity begins to waver, however, the progress of the party is halted. The leader tightens his helmet to make sure that no breath of the death-carrying “coal damp” gets into his lungs. The fact that the canary begins to feel “wobbly” is an indication that the air is impure, and that such victims as they find will have to be carried to a point beyond the one in question if they are to recover.

The party retraces its steps slowly, carefully watching the physical condition of the bird in the cage, until they reach a spot where the bird revives. Here one of the rescue party is left with the bird to refresh it with his oxygen supply and to await the return of the rest of the party with such victims as they may be able to find.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Coal_Mining_Review_and_Industrial_Index/8iolbmnCzFwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=canary,+coal+mine&pg=RA14-PA9&printsec=frontcover

In 1911, the UK introduced the Coal Mines Act, which insisted that miners use “two small, caged birds” each time they went down to a mine to warn of gases. It wasn’t until 1986 that British legislation ordered miners to replace canaries with electronic carbon monoxide sensors.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2019/12/31/the-canary-in-the-coal-mine-isnt-ancient-history/

Though the US never required the use of birds by legislation, I did find evidence the practice was “of the utmost importance”. It was recommended by the Bureau of Mines, part of the Department of the Interior, in documentation in as early as 1916. That documentation also referenced work in 1915 that may have also recommended the practice, but I couldn’t verify that.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Rescue_and_Recovery_Operations_in_Mines/YgwOAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=canary+in+a+coal+mine&printsec=frontcover

Still, it appears the practice of using canaries was phased out in the 1980s in the US just as it was in the UK. I did find several notes from miners who didn’t want to get rid of the birds all together, but not because they wanted to see harm come to them. It seemed many miners were comforted by the birds singing and saw the birds more as pets than tools. And that was a common theme I saw throughout most of the research. The miners saw them as lifesavers and took care of the birds as if they were pets.

I even found a device from 1914 that was designed to keep the canaries safe when performing their duties, a little cage that could be sealed with oxygen flowing into it. Tune into our behind the scenes video, which airs every Friday on Patreon to find out more about the Resuscitation Cage for Mine Canaries. That’s every Friday on our Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod

But the point of all this is that canaries were used as an early warning system for miners, giving us a literal starting point for our phrase.

1915
And it seems it didn’t take long for this phrase to start spreading around. The first time I could find it in print was in 1915, with the same article being posted in numerous newspapers in Georgia, the Carolinas, Mississippi, and Iowa over three years. The earliest I saw was The Winder News out Georgia dated June 10, 1915.

Quote
A chautauqua is to a town what a canary is to a coal mine. If the intellectual and moral atmosphere of this town is such that a Chautauqua can’t live in it, then we must change the atmosphere or get out.
End Quote
https://newspaperarchive.com/the-herald-and-news-jul-16-1915-p-4/

The article then goes on to call anyone who leaves a coward and says you must change the atmosphere. The Chautauqua Institution was, and still is, a non-profit education center and summer resort for adults and youth. In the early 1900s they went on tour with their talks, performances, and sometimes moving pictures.

1920
I found numerous examples of one such circuit in 1920 with one of the key lectures titled “A Canary in a Coal Mine”. I wasn’t able to find the contents of that speech, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was built off the 1915 idea. And since I found the lecture advertised in newspapers in at least 15 different States, it could very well be responsible for taking the phrase to a much wider audience.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94050514/1920-03-27/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1756&index=1&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Canary+Coal+Mine&proxdistance=5&date2=1963&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=canary+in+a+coal+mine&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

1954
Solitary Journey: Nova Espero’s Third Voyage by Charles Violet is a 1954 book that recounts the author's travels on his boat. He uses the phrase in this passage:

Quote
When night came I closed the hatch and lit the lamp and the pressure stove to warm up the cabin. After a while I felt very sleepy, and then I saw the lamp going out. My brain, working even more slowly than usual, sluggishly calculated how long ago the lamp had been filled. Oh yes, I had filled it on the previous night - it should last three days - why was it going out? Heavens! No oxygen! I staggered to the hatch, flung it open, and breathed in deeply from the cold pure air outside. On my return to the cabin the lamp was once more burning brightly! It was as good as a canary in the coal mine.
End Quote


1968
This next usage is from a conversation between Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine and Dr. James L. Whittenberger, a Professor of Public Health at Harvard. It was recorded in the Senate Record on August 2, 1968. They are discussing different components of the Air Quality Act of 1967.

Quote
Senator Muskie: I think you indicated that the effects on plants are not particularly relevant to the human being. Is the study of effects on plants of no value, at least in setting preliminary thresholds?
Dr. Whittenberger: The difference in kind of exposure is so different I would be very reluctant to try to extrapolate from the effects on plants to the effects on people.
Senator Muskie: Your reference to the canary in the coal mine does not apply here?
Dr. Whittenberger: No; that is not a good analogy.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hearings_Reports_and_Prints_of_the_Senat/uxQ2AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=canary+in+a+coal+mine&pg=PA768&printsec=frontcover


1975
Let’s look at one more example, this one from the business world. This is from the March 1975 issue of Fortune magazine in an article by Carol J. Loomis.

Quote
It is a fact of singular importance that most utilities were recently selling below book value - on the average, it would appear, at about 20 percent below book. One institutional investor, more imaginative than most, says he knows exactly what to think about such prices. “They're an early warning,” he claims, “showing, like the death of a canary in a coal mine, that if action is not taken promptly, death or disaster is not far behind.”
End Quote
https://archive.org/details/fortune91janluce/page/n451/mode/2up?q=%22canary+in+a+coal+mine%22


With that, it’s time to move to our more modern uses but first we need to say thank you to our sponsors.

A Quick Thank You
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Modern Uses

1980 Song
We are going to pick up here right where we left off before the break. Canary in a Coalmine is a 1980 song by The Police. Here are the opening lines:

Quote
First to fall over when the atmosphere is less than perfect
Your sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect
You live you life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
You say you want to spend the winter in Firenza
You're so afraid to catch a dose of influenza
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phXTSjRwdJY

2012 Speech
The Canary in the Coal Mine: Why the Stratosphere is Still Relevant is a speech given by Dr. Darin Toohey in Washington, DC on April 24, 2012. It was given at the Jefferson Science Lecture as part of a United States fellowship program that brings senior, tenured faculty from major universities to the US State Department for a year to work on projects. These fellows then serve as consultants on projects for a number of years after that.

This speech highlights the use of our phrase as an environmental early warning, something we are seeing more frequently as the climate crisis continues to evolve in front of our eyes. Here, Dr Toohey is discussing the ozone hole as a canary in a coal mine because it served as an early warning that something was going horribly wrong. We don’t hear much about the ozone hole anymore because of a massive international agreement called the Montreal Protocol that was finalized in 1987 that allowed international support to come together to address one phase of the climate crisis. The protocol was ratified in the United States under Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1988.
https://www.state.gov/key-topics-office-of-environmental-quality-and-transboundary-issues/the-montreal-protocol-on-substances-that-deplete-the-ozone-layer/

Here’s an example from Dr. Toohey’s speech in 2012 about the stratosphere and the ozone hole:

Quote
I think it's a safe bet, and I would take the bet to say that the stratosphere is the region of the atmosphere that scientists, atmospheric scientists, know the most about. We can probably predict its behavior. There might be some surprises, the ozone hole was a surprise, but we know how it behaves and we know an awful lot because of all this intense study and this amazing "canary", if you will, the ozone hole. It was essentially a warning that something was happening that we didn't quite understand. And it was studying that problem that eventually led to this incredible understanding.
End Quote
https://2009-2017.state.gov/e/stas/series/193969.htm

2012 Song
Canary in a Coal Mine is a 2012 song by The Crane Wives. The lyrics don’t use the phrase. Instead, they provide an allusion to coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, more commonly known as ‘the black lung’.
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/black-lung#:~:text=Coal%20workers%27%20pneumoconiosis%20(CWP),most%20common%20among%20coal%20miners

Here are the opening lyrics.

Quote
You and I are friends of empty graves, black air and black, black lungs
Am I the only thing that keeps you safe when the light is gone?

But I still hold out hope that maybe someday
I'll be worth more than all the silence left in my way
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmckSpvxnBQ

2013 Book
Canary in the Coal Mine is a 2013 book by Madelyn Rosenberg about a canary who breaks free from his proverbial chains to make the work a better place. Here’s the synopsis from the publisher.

Quote
Bitty is a canary whose courage more than makes up for his diminutive size. Of course, as a miner bird who detects deadly gas leaks in a West Virginia coal mine during the Depression, he is used to facing danger. Tired of perilous working conditions, he escapes and hops a coal train to the state capital to seek help in improving the plights of miners and their canaries. In the tradition of E.B. White, George Selden, and Beverly Cleary's Ralph S. Mouse, Madelyn Rosenberg has written a singular novel full of unforgettable characters.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Canary_in_the_Coal_Mine/UXzRDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0


2021 Article
Canaries Don’t Belong in Coal Mines is an article in Health Progress, the Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, written by Dr. Heather Schmidt, Nicole Dewitt, and Tom Bushlack. This article used the backdrop of canaries in a coal mine to discuss burnout among health professionals during the COVID pandemic.

Quote
Our first intuition as we set out to build a best-in-class wellness program was informed by a belief that our employees will thrive when we can support canaries while they are in the coal mine. This basic intuition about focusing on both individuals and the work environment remains true,
but we have also seen the limits of the canary-in-the-coal-mine metaphor. In the classic scenario, there is only one canary, working in an inherently toxic coal mine.
End Quote
https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/archive/article/spring-2021/canaries-dont-belong-in-coal-mines

2023 Book
Canary in the Coal Mine by William Cooke, MD with Laura Ungar is a 2023 medical chronicle about Dr. Cookes fight to save a small town from a silent epidemic - and exposing a national health crisis while doing it. Here’s the synopsis from the publisher:

Quote
When Dr. Will Cooke, an idealistic young physician just out of medical training, set up practice in the small rural community of Austin, Indiana, he had no idea that much of the town was being torn apart by poverty, addiction, and life-threatening illnesses. But he soon found himself at the crossroads of two unprecedented health-care disasters: a national opioid epidemic and the worst drug-fueled HIV outbreak ever seen in rural America.

Confronted with Austin's hidden secrets, Dr. Cooke decided he had to do something about them. In taking up the fight for Austin's people, however, he would have to battle some unanticipated foes: prejudice, political resistance, an entrenched bureaucracy--and the dark despair that threatened to overwhelm his own soul. Canary in the Coal Mine is a gripping account of the transformation of a man and his adopted community, a compelling and ultimately hopeful read…
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Canary_in_the_Coal_Mine/cCGbEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=canary,+coal+mine&printsec=frontcover


Wrap Up
I can’t help but be relieved that we are no longer using canaries to test for toxic fumes in the coal mines. I know miners often treated them well, but it’s still a cruel fate for the canary to breathe in all that carbon monoxide - especially when they were so susceptible to it in the first place. So I’m grateful to science for ending the need for that practice. But I am glad we have the phrase as an indicator for an early warning system. It’s clearly an apt description, once you know the history.

Dan:
That’s about all we have for today. If you have any thoughts on the show, or pop culture references we should have included,
reach out to us on Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod or comment on our website bunnytrailspod.com

Shauna:
It’s poll time!

Recently we asked our Patrons, do you ever go to costume parties?

The vast majority of our Patrons said they will go if the costume theme appeals to them. In a distant second was ‘no, it’s not really my thing’, and in third was ‘yes, as often as I can’.

I love costumes, or maybe closer to cosplay. I have gear to dress as my DnD character - a tiefling ranger, as well as full-length Victorian style cloaks and dresses… I could go as a witch, elf, vampire… and then I have a few things I picked up for murder mystery events, most themed to a decade. The group of people I’m with really makes a difference in whether the costume-wearing is fun or not.

Mary said:

Quote
I always have a pirate costume ready because if you don’t know what to wear, dress like a pirate!!
End Quote

Dan:
I have a few costumes that I wear, including monks robes, lederhosen, vampire, a 1920s detective get up, and wizard robes. Plus a litany of actual clothes that I have worn before that I could get away with as a costume, like my kilt or college graduation robes. My wish-list costume, echoing Mary’s sentiments, would be a full Captain Morgan outfit!

Shauna:
As a reminder, our silly polls mean absolutely nothing and are not scientifically valid. And patrons of all levels, including our free tiers, can take part. Head over to patreon.com/bunnytrailspod to take this week’s poll!

Outro

Shauna:
Thanks for joining us. We’ll talk to you again next week. Until then remember,

Together:
Words belong to their users.