(Locally used in the following senses.) 1. A very thin seam or ‘scare’ of coal.
1851. Coal-trade Terms Northumbld. & Durham, 15.
1885. Borings & Sinkings (North. Eng. Instit. Min. Eng.), 308. Blue seamy parting, with some scares of coal or coal pipes.
2. See quots. (Not used in Newcastle district.)
1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 30. Sigillaria stems … based close upon the seam of coal … are apt to drop out without warning, in a mass weighing from a few cwts. to a ton. They are thus commonly known as bell-moulds, coal-pipes, or cauldron-bottoms.
1873. Dawson, Earth & Man, vi. 141. They usually consist of an outer cylinder of coal representing the outer bark, while the space within, once occupied by the inner bark and wood is filled with sandstone…. These fossil stumps are not uncommon in the roofs of the coal-seams. In some places they are known to the miners as ‘coal-pipes,’ and are dreaded by them in consequence of the accidents which occur from their suddenly falling.
