In 5–6 culme, 7 colme. [The same word as COOM sb.1, pointing to a ME. culm, colm. Connection with col, COAL, suggests itself, and is strengthened by the synonymy of ME. bicolmen, bicollen, the former a deriv. of colm, culm, the latter of colwen, from col, COAL: cf. BECOOM (BE- 6 a) COLLOW, COLLY. But the actual analysis of the word is obscure.]
1. Soot, smut. Obs. exc. Sc.; = COOM sb.1 1.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 108. Culme of smeke, fuligo.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., II. (1593), 34. Againe the culme and smouldring smoke did wrap him round about.
1658. Phillips, Culm, smoak or soot. Hence in Kersey, Bailey, etc. [in both noted as Obs.].
1847–8. H. Miller, First Impr., iv. (1857), 48. A mud-coloured atmosphere of smoke and culm.
1861. Clington, Frank O’Donnell, 171. My face and body all covered with culm … made him take me for the devil.
2. Coal-dust, small or refuse coal, slack.
[1348. in Nottingham Rec., I. 144. Praedictam dimidiam partem minerae carbonum marinorum et culmorum.]
1603. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1891), 70. In this kill first is made a fier of Coales or rather colme which is but the duste of the coales. Ibid., 91. A smaler Ridle with which they drawe smale coales for the smythes from the colme which is in deede but verie dust, which serveth for lyme burninge.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3892/1. An Act for continuing the Duties upon Coles, Culm, and Cynders [= Coke].
1770–4. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1803), III. 149. Culm, or small refuse coal.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 298. At Whitehaven, under a bed of common clay … a bed of natural clayey carbon or culm of 3 fathom is found.
1882. Brit. Q. Rev., Jan., 87. 4s. per ton for culm, or coal-dust.
b. Hence, spec. applied to the slack of anthracite or stone-coal, from the Welsh collieries, which was in common use for burning lime and drying malt.
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., 397.
1756. Bp. Pococke, Trav. (1889), II. 188. The coals here [Tenby] … run into culm, which they work up with clay, and make it into balls; it is very good fuel.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., II. 366. The County of Pembroke abounds particularly in that Sort of Coal called Stone Coal, the small Pieces of which are stiled Culm.
1806. Martin, in Phil. Trans., XCVI. 344.
1849. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., X. I. 149. Culm is the dust of the stone-coal, and is prepared for burning by being mixed with clay or mud from the shore.
1883. A. Williams, Min. Resources U.S., 31. A mixture of anthracite slack, or ‘culm,’ with bituminous coal.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Culm, the slack of non-bituminous or anthracite coal is known by no other name.
c. By extension, sometimes employed as a synonym of anthracite, or of one of its varieties, the slaty glance coal. Also in pl. culms, like coals.
1742. Lond. & Country Brewer, I. (ed. 4), 8. There is another Sort, by some wrongly called Coak, and rightly named Culm or Welch-coal, from Swanzey in Pembrokeshire, being of a hard stony Substance, in small Bits … and will burn without Smoak.
1841. Fossil Fuel, etc. (ed. 2), 336. Varieties of Anthracite (2) The slaty glance-coal…. This is the anthracite so abundant in the United States; the culm* of our Welsh collieries. *(Note. This is a brittle crumbling anthracite.)
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 77. The coal … on the western side being chiefly stone coal or culm, and on the eastern side, bituminous coking coal.
3. Geol. (More fully Culm measures or series.) A name given by some geologists to a series of shales, sandstones, etc., containing, in places, thin beds of impure anthracite, which represent the Carboniferous series in North Devon; also to strata supposed to be the analogues of these elsewhere.
The Culm series is generally considered to be contemporary with the Carboniferous limestone, but is much less rich in marine remains. It is extensively developed along the borders of Austria, Poland and Russia; and includes the calp of Ireland.
[1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 54. Some years since a vein of culm appearing near the surface on the parish of Chittlehampton.]
1836. Sedgwick & Murchison, in Brit. Assoc. Rep. (1837), V. (title), A classification of … Rocks … of Devonshire … On the true position of the Culm Deposits. Ibid. (1837), Trans. Geol. Soc., V. 670. The base of the culm series. Ibid., Note, The undoubted culm-measures.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. 124. Anthracite, or culm, occurs in a few beds, of very variable thickness, between Greenacliff … and … Chittlehampton…. The culm itself seems the result of irregular accumulations of vegetable matter intermingled with mud and sand.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., VI. IV. § 2. 748.
† 4. Applied (? in error) to coke; cf. quot. 1742 in 2 c. Obs.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Brewing, Dry it leisurely with Pit-coal, char’d, called in some places coak and in others Culm. [Anthracite is a natural coke.]
† 5. attrib. and Comb., as culm-dealer, -pit, etc.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 447. There is also a culm pit, which was worked for fuel a few years ago.
1854. Illustr. Lond. News, 5 Aug., 118/3. Occupations of the People…. Culm-dealer.
