METALS, COAL 



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CHAPTER XIX 

 COAL 



OUR word COAL is derived from the Anglo-Saxon col, which 

 at first meant a piece of glowing fuel, and, later on, fuel of 

 any kind, whether alive or dead. The different kinds of fuel, 

 or coal, were distinguished by different prefixes, and the coal, 

 which was dug out of the earth, was called pit-coal. 



But in England, owing to the supreme importance of pit- 

 coal, we gradually omitted the prefix, and called it simply 

 coal. 



Origin of Coal. Once upon a time, a very, very long time 

 ago, dense, silent, gloomy forests covered enormous areas of 

 what is now Britain. Year after year, century after century, 



