Min. [f. Torbane Hill in Linlithgowshire, where found: see -ITE1 2 b.] A deep brown shale, allied to cannel coal: also called Torbane Hill mineral or Boghead coal; valuable for the production of petroleum and gas, and famous as the subject of a great lawsuit hinging upon the dispute whether or not it was legally ‘coal.’
1858. Greg & Lettsom, Man. Mineral. 16. Torbanite…. Boghead mineral. Boghead coal.
c. 1865. Letheby, in Circ. Sc., I. 139/2. Mr. James Young … has … been engaged in producing an oil … from a shale known as the Torbanehill mineral.
1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 18. It is by no means easy … to draw a distinct line of demarcation between cannel and the black basses, bats, or crisp shales, which occur in the coal measures…. And between all these and the torbanite, or ‘Boghead mineral,’ there exists a relationship which makes the difference only one of degree.
