Coal

In Britain during the Middle Ages there was a prejudice against coal as domestic fuel. However a shortage of wood in some areas meant that it came increasingly into use by the 1400s..

Anthracite is the most metamorphosed type of coal  It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest calorific content of all types of coal except for graphite.

Anthracite coal was first experimentally burned as a residential heating fuel in the US on February 11, 1808, by Judge Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on an open grate in a fireplace.

Anthracite coal

The world's first coal-fired power station, generating electricity for public use, was built at number 57, Holborn Viaduct in London, by Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Light Company. Holborn Viaduct power station began running on January 12, 1882.

Holborn Viaduct Power Station

Some of the first vacuum cleaners were coal powered.

Titanic's engines burned 600 tons of coal per day. 176 men worked around the clock to shovel it in by hand. 100 tons of ash was also ejected into the sea each day.

"Breaker boys" between age 8-12 were employed to work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week to separate impurities from coal in the US. Despite public disapproval, the practice of employing children in this line of work lasted for decades, only finally ending in the 1920s.

The Great Smog of London in 1952 was caused by using coal as the main source of heat and was responsible for the deaths of around 12,000 people.

Kellingley Colliery, known affectionately as the "Big K," was a deep coal mine in North Yorkshire, England. It was the last deep coal mine in the United Kingdom to close, shutting down on December 18, 2015. The decline of coal mining in the UK was due to a number of factors, including the increasing cost of extraction, the rise of cheaper alternatives such as natural gas, and environmental concerns about the industry's impact.

The US reached peak coal mining employment in 1923, when there were 883,000 coal miners employed in the US. Today, there are only 50,000 coal miners in the US. Nevertheless, the US produces about 50% more coal than it did 100 years ago.

Since 1983 the world top coal producer has been China. In 2011 China produced 3,520 millions of tonnes of coal – 49.5% of the world coal production.

Most coal formed before fungus could break down trees. After fungus evolved to do so, coal became far less likely to form naturally making it a true non-renewable resource.

Nylon is made from coal and petroleum.

Each train car of coal loses up to 3% of its load, a literal ton of coal, as dust when it is traveling from the mine to the power plant.

Australians use nearly twice as much coal per person than Americans and five times as much as the rest of the world.

Coal makes up about 40% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions from fuels.

Almost 70% of world steel production depends on burning coal.