patent fuel

English

Noun

patent fuel (countable and uncountable, plural patent fuels)

1. Fuel, usually in the form of briquettes, made from fine, crushed coal with the addition of a binding agent.
   • 1959 May, R. A. Savill, “The coal traffic of the North Eastern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 272:

     The originating tonnage of coal class traffic (that is to say coal, coke and patent fuel) for the whole of British Railways in 1957 was 166,153,300 tons, representing half-a-million tons a day and roughly 60 per cent of the total freight traffic.

References

• “patent fuel”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.