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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.
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.[1] Homes that do not use coal sometimes use a coal scuttle decoratively.[2]
The word scuttle comes, via Middle English and Old English, from the Latin word scutulla, meaning "serving platter".[3] An alternative name, hod, derives from the Old French hotte, meaning "'basket to carry on the back', apparently from Frankish *hotta or some other Germanic source (compare Middle High German hotze 'cradle')", and is also used in reference to boxes used to carry bricks or other construction materials.[4]
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.[5]
The infamous German Stahlhelm, or Steel Helmet, is sometimes referred to in English-language publications as the "Coal Scuttle" helmet, due to its shape resembling that of a coal scuttle.