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coal gas

noun

  1. a gas used for illuminating and heating, produced by distilling bituminous coal and consisting chiefly of hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide.
  2. the gas formed by burning coal.


coal gas

noun

  1. a mixture of gases produced by the distillation of bituminous coal and used for heating and lighting: consists mainly of hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of coal gas1

First recorded in 1800–10
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Example Sentences

In the beginning, “natural” distinguished it from other gases, like coal gas, and signaled something that came straight out of the ground.

A similar decline in the suicide rate occurred decades earlier when natural gas replaced coal gas in kitchen ovens.

The round building with a cupola atop its conical roof was built in 1888 when coal gas was a major source of light and heat.

In Britain, indoor gas poisoning was the most common method of suicide until the country changed the gas supply from high-carbon-monoxide coal gas to more harmless natural gas in the 1960s.

From Salon

Up until the 1960s, the ovens and stoves in many British homes used coal gas, which was rich in dangerous carbon monoxide and was implicated in many deaths, accidental or intentional.

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