1

                                                                Exhibit 24(viii)



                                POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that the undersigned Director of NACCO
Industries, Inc. hereby constitutes and appoints Charles A. Bittenbender,
Kenneth C. Schilling and Constantine E. Tsipis, and each of them, as the true
and lawful attorney or attorneys-in-fact, with full power of substitution and
revocation, for the undersigned and in the name, place and stead of the
undersigned, to sign on behalf of the undersigned as Director of NACCO
Industries, Inc., a Delaware corporation, an Annual Report pursuant to
Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on Form 10-K for the fiscal
year ended December 31, 1998, and to sign any and all amendments to such Annual
Report, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in
connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting to
said attorney or attorneys-in-fact, and each of them, full power and authority
to do so and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be
done in and about the premises, as fully to all intents and purposes as the
undersigned might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all
that said attorney or attorneys-in-fact or any of them or their substitute or
substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.



                                                 /s/ Britton T. Taplin
                                       -----------------------------------------
                                                     Britton T. Taplin



Date: February 9, 1999
      ----------