Word Finder - coals

definition

A black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.

example

Put some coal on the fire.

definition

A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)

example

Put some coals on the fire.

definition

A type of coal, such as bituminous, anthracite, or lignite, and grades and varieties thereof.

definition

A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.

example

Just as the camp-fire died down to just coals, with no flames to burn the marshmallows, someone dumped a whole load of wood on, so I gave up and went to bed.

definition

Charcoal.

definition

To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships).

definition

To supply with coal.

example

to coal a steamer

definition

To be converted to charcoal.

definition

To burn to charcoal; to char.

definition

To mark or delineate with charcoal.

The price of coals at Darlington fell from 18s.

He turned his attention to the fire and tucked another piece of bark into the bright coals.

The fire ebbed to glowing coals in the silent old building and she snuggled against him.

Schraufite is a reddish resin from the Carpathian sandstone, and it occurs with jet in the cretaceous rocks of the Lebanon; ambrite is a resin found in many of the coals of New Zealand; retinite occurs in the lignite of Bovey Tracey in Devonshire and elsewhere; whilst copaline has been found in the London clay of Highgate in North London.

The earliest arrangement of this kind was patented by John Blenkinsop, of the Middleton Colliery, near Leeds, in 1811, and an engine built on his plan by Mathew Murray, also of Leeds, began in 1812 to haul coals from Middleton to Leeds over a line 32 m.

Coals vary much in calorific value, some producing only 12,000 B.Th.U.

Later followed the appearance of lights; quasi-human voices; musical sounds, produced, it is said, without instruments; the "materialization" or presence in material form of what seemed to be human hands and faces, and ultimately of complete figures, alleged to be not those of any person present, and sometimes claimed by witnesses as deceased relatives; "psychography," or "direct writing and drawing," asserted to be done without human intervention; "spirit-photography," or the appearance on photographic plates of human and other forms when no counterpart was visible before the camera to any but specially endowed seers; 3 unfastening of cords and bonds; elongation of the medium's body; handling of red-hot coals; and the apparent passage of solids through solids without disintegration.

They yield valuable coals, clays, marls and ganister.

Coals are extracted at Neudorf, Lesitz, Ratiskowitz and Ceic; lignite at Rossitz, Oslavan and Mahrisch-Ostrau.

But the value of the protectorate depends upon the carrying trade with Harrar and the supplying of victuals and coals to French warships.

The stories of a scorpion stinging itself to death when placed in a circle of burning coals are due to erroneous observation.

Around Dundee and Newcastle the coals are bituminous.

In the 15th and 16th centuries the town was a leading seat of the salt industry ("salt to Dysart" was the equivalent of "coals to Newcastle"), but the salt-pans have been abandoned for a considerable period.

The plural, coals, seems to have been used from a very early period to signify the broken fragments of the mineral as prepared for use.

The maximum hardness is from 2.5 to 3 in anthracite and hard bituminous coals, but considerably less in lignites, which are nearly as soft as rotten wood.

Coal is never definitely crystalline, the nearest approach to such a structure being a compound fibrous grouping resembling that of gypsum or arragonite, which occurs in some of the steam coals of South Wales, and is locally known as " cone in cone," but no definite form or arrangement can be made out of the fibres.

There is generally a tendency in coals towards cleaving into cubical or prismatic blocks, but sometimes the cohesion between the particles is so feeble that the mass breaks up into dust when struck.

As the amount of ash varies very considerably in different coals, and stands in no relation to the proportion of the other constituents, it is necessary in forming a chemical classification to compute the results of analysis after deduction of the ash and hygroscopic water.

The most important class of coals is that generally known as bituminous, from their property of softening or undergoing an apparent fusion when heated to a temperature far below that at which actual combustion takes place.

That nothing analogous to bitumen exists in coals is proved by the fact that the ordinary solvents for bituminous substances, such as bisulphide of carbon and benzol, have no effect upon them, as would be the case if they contained bitumen soluble in these re-agents.

The proportion of carbon in bituminous coals may vary from 80 to 90% the amount being highest as they approach the character of anthracite, and least in those which are nearest to lignites.

Thus the semi 'anthracitic coals of South Wales are known as " dry " or " steam coals," being especially valuable for use in marine steam-boilers, as they burn more readily than anthracite and with a larger amount of flame, while giving out a great amount of heat, and practically without producing smoke.

Coals richer in hydrogen, on the other hand, are more useful for burning in open fires - smiths' forges and furnaces - where a long flame is required.

The proportion of this residue is greatest in the more anthracitic or drier coals, but a more valuable product is yielded by those richer in hydrogen.

Very important distinctions-those of caking or non-caking-are founded on the behaviour of coals when subjected to the process of coking.

The caking property is best developed in coals low in oxygen with 25 to 30% of volatile matters.

Lignite or brown coal includes all varieties which are intermediate in properties between wood and coals of the older.

The best varieties are black and pitchy in lustre, or even bright and scarcely to be distinguished from true coals.

Lignites, as a rule, are generally found in strata of a newer geological age, but there are many instances of perfect coals being found in such strata.

The composition of the ashes of different coals is subject to considerable variation, as will be seen by Table II.

An indication of the character of the ash of a coal is afforded by its colour, white ash coals being generally freer from sulphur than those containing iron pyrites, which yield a red ash.

An anthracite occurring in connexion with the old volcanic rocks of Arthur's Seat,Edinburgh, which contains a large amount of sulphur in proportion to the Caking coals.

The amount of water present in freshly raised coals varies very considerably.

It is generally largest in lignites, which may sometimes contain 30% or even more, while in the coals of the coal measures it does not usually exceed from 5 to io%.

In cannel coals the prevailing constituents are the spores of cryptogamic plants, algae being rare or in many cases absent.

This is actually the case; the Carboniferous, Cretaceous and Jurassic systems (qq.v.) contain coal-bearing strata though in unequal degrees,- the first being known as the Coal Measures proper, while the others are of small economic value in Great Britain, though more productive in workable coals on the continent of Europe.

Mesozoic coals are more abundant in the southern hemisphere, while Tertiary coals seem to be tolerably uniformly distributed irrespective of latitude.

The next member of the series is a mass of coarse sandstones, with some slates and a few thin coals, known as the Millstone Grit, which is about equally developed in England and in Scotland.

Cannel coals are generally variable in quality, being liable to change into shales or black-band ironstones within very short horizontal limits.

In some instances the coal seams may be changed as a whole, as for instance in South Wales, where the coking coals of the eastern side of the basin pass through the state of dry steam coal in the centre, and become anthracite in the western side.

In the South Staffordshire and other Midland coalfields, where only shallow pits are required, and the coals are thick, a pair of pits may be sunk for a very few acres, while in the North of England, on the other hand, where sinking is expensive, an area of some thousands of acres may be commanded from the same number of pits.

Long-wall work is best suited for thin coals, and those having a good roof, i.e.

The ventilation of pillar working is often attended with difficulty, and the coal is longer exposed to the influence of the air, a point of importance in some coals, which deteriorate in quality when exposed to a hot damp atmosphere.

Thomas, of the gases dissolved or occluded in coals from South Wales basin shows them to vary considerably with the class of coal.

The gases from the bituminous house coals of South Wales are comparatively free from marsh gas, as compared with those from the steam coal and anthracite pits.

The latter class of coal contains the largest proportion of this dangerous gas, but holds it more tenaciously than do the steam coals, thus rendering the workings comparatively safer.

The inflammability of coal dust varies with different coals, but none can be said to be entirely free from risk.

Much important information on American coals will be found in the three volumes of Reports on the Coal Testing Plant at the St Louis Exhibition, published by the United States Geological Survey in 1906.

According to one of these stories Thetis used to lay the infant Achilles every night under live coals, anointing him by day with ambrosia, in order to make him immortal.

Cretaceous coals have long been worked in the North Island, north of Auckland, on the shores of the Bay of Islands, where the age of the coal is shown by its occurrence under the Whangarei or Waimio limestone.