Jet

a peculiar form of pitch coal. It is a solid, black, dry, inflammable substance. It occurs as a mineral in veins of lignite coal. When first mined jet may be carved and turned readily into toys, buttons, and articles of ornament. It takes a high polish. The finest jet in the world is found in a vein twenty feet thick at Whitby, Yorkshire. The monastery of Whitby did a thriving business in jet rosaries and crosses when that shrine was a resort of pilgrims. Other fine veins are found in the provinces of Aude, France, and Asturias, Spain. The original jet quarry was in Asia Minor. The Greek name, of which jet is a corruption, was gagates. Jet was prized highly by the ancients and is still the appropriate jewelry of mourning, though cheap imitations in glass render genuine jet ornaments less desirable. Its deep lustrous black has made jet a familiar standard of comparison. Milton speaks of the "pansy, freaked with jet," and Scott, of the black-cock's "jetty wing." See Asphalt