Definition of "wood-gas" [wood-gas]

• A double process of destructive distillation is necessary, the first producing a mixture of liquid, oily, or tarry substances, which in the second retort, at a higher temperature, evolves gases, chiefly marsh-gas and its homologues, ethylene and other unsaturated hydrocarbons, hydrogen and carbon monoxid, with carbon dioxid in large quantity, this last to be afterward removed by passage over slaked lime. Wood-gas is practically free from sulphur compounds. (noun)
• Carbureted hydrogen obtained from wood. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Partial combustion of wood or materials such as straw, nutshells, bark or rice hulls, produces a gaseous mixture (wood-gas, producer-gas) with a low calorific value."
• "Prof Pettenkofer, of Munich, was the first to succeed in making illuminating gas from wood; and peat, when operated according to his method, furnishes also a gas of good quality, though somewhat inferior to wood-gas in illuminating power."
• "While wood-gas is practically free from sulphur compounds and ammonia, peat-gas may contain them both, especially the latter, in quantity that depends upon the composition of the peat, which, as regards sulphur and nitrogen, is very variable."