Coal scuttle


A coal scuttle, sometimes spelled coalscuttle and also called a hod, "coal bucket", or "coal pail", is a bucket-like container for holding a small, intermediate supply of coal convenient to an indoor coal-fired stove or heater.

Description

Coal scuttles are usually made of metal and shaped as a vertical cylinder or truncated cone, with the open top slanted for pouring coal on a fire. It may have one or two handles. Homes that do not use coal sometimes use a coal scuttle decoratively.

Origin

The word scuttle comes, via Middle English and Old English, from the Latin word Scutula, meaning a shallow pan. An alternative name, hod, derives from the Old French hotte, meaning "basket," and is also used in reference to boxes used to carry bricks or other construction materials.

Infamous use

In 1917, the Swedish serial killer Hilda Nilsson used a coal scuttle, a large bucket, and a washboard to drown children that she had been hired to care for.