splint coal
[Cf. splint n. 8.]
Coal with a more or less splintery fracture; orig. a less bituminous variety of Scotch cannel coal; now chiefly, a hard and highly bituminous coal burning with great heat.
| α 1789 T. Williams Min. Kingd. I. 109 In this line the splent coal, etc. has been worked. 1801 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) Suppl. II. 231/2 A specimen of the slaty kind [of cannel coal] from Airshire, called splent coal. 1815 Aikin Min. (ed. 2) 61 Candle Coal. Cannel Coal. Splent Coal. |
| β 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 963, I found good splint coal of the Glasgow field to have a specific gravity of 1·266. 1861 Sir W. Fairbairn Iron 75 It is well known that the anthracite and splint coal can be used most effectively and economically with the hot-blast. |
| attrib. 1887 P. M'Neill Blawearie 92 We remember..traversing one [mine] in the splint coal seam barely two and a half feet wide. |