I thought canaries got carried into the mine as a punishment for the great canary uprising of 1742.
If you can’t hold your breath longer than a canary, that’s a you problem.
Americans will really use literally any units except for the metric system. How long is a canary?!
Three hummingbirds, half a hamster, 1/5 a goldendoodle puppy… I don’t know how we can make this any simpler for you.
So to expand on these, because a lot of people seem to think “it’s because they cared”, that’s only partially it.
Back before faster travel methods, if you wanted a small bird for any reason and it had to travel any significant distance, you would assume at least a 75% fatality rate from stress, with that increasing to roughly 90% over greater distances.
So canaries and finches were expensive, and unless your mine was close to a port city, you’d be traveling 3-4 days at least. Need 4 canaries? Better buy 40.
No. No! I wanted to die! I was on the edge of bird Valhalla!
WHY HAVE YOU DENIED BUTTERCUP HER ETERNAL REWARD?!!
They had a box full of oxygen for the bird, but not the people? 😔
The bird should pass out long before the people. Just like if a person drowns today, if they can be resuscitated quick enough, they’ll continue to live. So bird passes out. They evacuate and revive the bird. They clear the mine or exchange air or whatever to remedy the situation. Rinse and repeat.
