coal merchant

English edit

coal merchant (plural coal merchants)

(dated) A person who deals in coal, either on a large scale or in a particular locality, where coal was weighed and bagged by the merchant, delivered to households and tipped into a coal bunker.
- 1941 June, “Some Early Welsh-Built Engines”, in Railway Magazine, page 247:
  It would seem that the Speedwell was built during the first half of 1830, for the Monmouthshire Merlin of June 12, 1830, said: "Mr. Prothero, one of the most extensive coal merchants in that district, intends hauling his coal to Newport with two engines, preparing for him at the Neath Abbey Iron Works."
- 1947 January and February, “Railway Literature”, in Railway Magazine, page 62:
  Queen Mary of the Iron Road. By Fred C. Bishop. […] This is the life-story of a boy who was determined to become an engine driver, and who lost no time in realising his ambition. A bold plunge from a clerkship in a coal merchant's office carried Fred Bishop, at the age of 14, into the locomotive department of the London & North Western Railway.