What does coal smell like?

Question

Thirty years ago we had a coal furnace. The coal was delivered by truck and dumped down the coal shoot into a huge pile in the cellar. I'm trying to remember exactly what it smelled like in that cellar. Did it smell like oil? Or a bit like sulfur? What does coal smell like?

Answer 1

Smells like sulphur... burn't matchsticks

Answer 2

Like coal or the inside of a wood stove.

Answer 3

smokey

Answer 4

find some coal and smell it

Answer 5

I seem to remember it having an oily fuel smell, kinda dirty as well but not dirt as in earth, just dirty.  Definitely not like sulphur.  It didn't have that rotten egg smell but rather more of an 'industrial' kind of odour (for want of a better word)

Answer 6

COAL

Answer 7

nobody actully knows cuz the first person that smelled coal is dead cuz coal can give you black heart disaes.

Answer 8

depends when you smell it, if its fresh, then...burnt wood

if its old, it actually has almost no odor at all

Answer 9

smokey dirty(like literally dirt...) smell

Answer 10

go buy some at the store...or ask your neighbors if they grill with coal and ask if you can smell a piece

Answer 11

to me, it smells like a burnt rock.