Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A dense, shiny coal that has a high carbon content and little volatile matter and burns with a clean flame. Also called hard coal.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A variety of mineral coal (see coal) containing but little hydrogen, and therefore burning almost without flame. It is nearly pure carbon, containing usually over 90 and sometimes as much as 95 per cent. of that substance. It is hard (hence often called
hard coal in distinction fromsoft or bituminous coal), breaks with a conchoidal fracture, and has a deep-black color and brilliant luster. It occurs in large quantity in eastern Pennsylvania, where it is extensively mined, and is almost the exclusive fuel used in the large cities and manufactories of New York and New England. It also occurs in the South Wales coal-fields in large quantities, and in many other localities, but is nowhere of so much practical importance as in the eastern United States. - Coal-black: as, the anthracite hawk, Urubitinga anthracina.
Wiktionary
- n. A form of carbonized ancient plants; the hardest and cleanest-burning of all the coals;
hard coal.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A hard, compact variety of mineral coal, of high luster, differing from bituminous coal in containing little or no bitumen, in consequence of which it burns with a nearly non luminous flame. The purer specimens consist almost wholly of carbon. Also called
glance coal andblind coal . - n. See Anthracite.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a hard natural coal that burns slowly and gives intense heat
Etymologies
- Probably ultimately from Greek anthrakitis, a kind of coal, from anthrax, anthrak-, charcoal.
Examples
“In the mountains of Pennsylvania the same coal beds, somewhat affected by the metamorphism which all the rocks of the Alleghanies have shared, have reached the stage of _semi-bituminous_ coals, where half the volatile constituents have been driven off; again, in the anthracite basins of eastern Pennsylvania, the distillation further effected has formed from these coals _anthracite_, containing only from three to ten per cent. of volatile matter; while in the focus of metamorphic action, at Newport,”
“Anthracite -- The name anthracite, or hard coal, is applied to those dry coals containing from 3 to 7 per cent volatile matter and which do not swell when burned.”
“Since, however, Canada receives practically all her anthracite from the Wyoming Basin which now supplies about half the anthracite produced on the Continent, at the present rate of production this basin will be exhausted in about thirty-five years, and we cannot expect large supplies from Pennsylvania for many more years.”
“We have been quite fairly treated in Toronto in so far as anthracite is concerned this winter.”
“For ordinary household purposes the best substitute for anthracite is coke.”
“But from the best anthracite, which is nearly pure carbon concentrated, if oxygen be entirely excluded, not much can distil away with any degree of heat.”
“The steam engine uses coal, the producer requires English anthracite, which is dearer; the gas motor uses a great deal of water and a great deal of oil, which cost money; and gas motors are dear, while gas producers and their adjuncts cost a tidy bit of money, and wear out pretty fast.”
“This coal, known as anthracite, is not found extensively in the United States outside of Pennsylvania.”
“In America, the kind called anthracite occurs among the slate beds, and this species also abounds more in the mountain limestone than with us.”
“There are very many different kinds of coal; some are rich in hydrogen, and are therefore well adapted for making illuminating gas, while others, such as anthracite, are very rich in carbon, and contain but little hydrogen; the last named variety of coal is smokeless, and is therefore largely used for drying malt.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘anthracite’.
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Coal Mining Terms
Coal mining has engendered fascinating subcultures in industry, labor, music, folklore, environment and energy. It has a rich vocabulary as well, and I've encountered some gorgeous mining words. I...
firedamp, scrip, bituminous, anthracite, company store, blackdamp, brattice, bug dust, tipple, whitedamp, float dust, fly ash and 133 more...
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Pet Rocks and Carbon Footprints
Soil samples for stone soup.
palynology, stratigraphy, tse'bit'ai, tse bitai, tse bit ai, bitai, minette, maar, lithosphere, peridotite, gneiss, gabbro and 115 more...
yarb Anthracite seams prise open, gush.
You re-kindle your flat fire.
- Peter Reading, The Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery, from The Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery, 1976 Jun 23, 2008