coal gas

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

• n. A gaseous mixture produced by the destructive distillation of bituminous coal and used as a commercial fuel.
• n. The gaseous mixture released by burning coal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

• n. The poisonous gas, used domestically for cooking etc and formerly for lighting, prepared by heating coal with steam; it is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide; synthesis gas or town gas.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• n. a variety of carbureted hydrogen, procured from bituminous coal, used in lighting streets, houses, etc., and for cooking and heating.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• n. The gas which is given out by burning coal.
• n. A mixture of gases and vapors, chiefly combustible, which is employed to produce the gas-light in common use.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• n. gaseous mixture produced by distillation of bituminous coal and used for heating and lighting