Coal Dust Explosions

Famous quotes containing the words coal, dust and/or explosions:

    Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the Flood, until a laborer with pick and windlass brings it to the surface. We may will call it black diamonds. Every basket is power and civilization. For coal is a portable climate.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    ‘All that was, seemed as if it had been not;
    And all the gazer’s mind was strewn beneath
    Her feet like embers; and she, thought by thought,
    ‘Trampled its sparks into the dust of death;
    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

    Our Lamaze instructor . . . assured our class . . . that our cervix muscles would become “naturally numb” as they swelled and stretched, and deep breathing would turn the final explosions of pain into “manageable discomfort.” This descriptions turned out to be as accurate as, say a steward advising passengers aboard the Titanic to prepare for a brisk but bracing swim.
    Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)