Canary/Coal Mine (1913, 1976)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003, Baker, John wrote:

>         According to this web page,
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/30/newsid_2547000/2547587.stm,
> canaries have been taken into coal mines since 1911.  The figurative use
> apparently dates back at least to Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons,
> 1965, by Kurt Vonnegut, who turns 81 today.  Vonnegut wrote of the

Felix S. Cohen compared the political role of Native Americans to the
miner's canary in Yale Law Journal 62: 390 (1953), according to my copy of
the Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations.

Fred Shapiro


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