town gas
- noun
- Archaic
:
gas de ciudad
- Before natural gas became available in the UK, 'town gas' was produced and distributed as a domestic gas supply.
- town gas plant
Examples
-
Before natural gas became widely used, households relied on town gas for heating and cooking.
-
To get coal gas (also known at the time as "town gas," and today as "syngas"), coal or another hydrocarbon was pulverized and placed in a sealed container.
Academic text (2003) -
Britain used town gas to operate vehicles during WWII, when petroleum was in short supply.
Blog text (32) -
Town gas plants like the one in Paterson were used in the first half of the century to produce a fuel gas for utility customers.
Academic text (1995) -
The EPA estimates that there are at least 1,800 abandoned town gas plant sites in the United States that are considered hazardous and require excavation and remediation.
Academic text (1995) -
During the early 20th century, many urban areas were lit by town gas produced from coal.
-
The transition from town gas to natural gas greatly improved energy efficiency in homes.
Synonyms
1
6.5
A gas made from coal and used in the past for lighting and heating
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally interpretable as 'gas for a town' or municipal gas supply, so a B1 learner who knows 'town' and 'gas' would grasp the general sense (gas used in urban households). However, the specific historical/technical nuance that it is coal-derived manufactured gas used before natural gas is not predictable from the constituents, so full meaning requires extra knowledge.
Etymology
The noun town gas comes from the time when towns had small factories that turned coal into gas. Pipes carried that gas into houses and streets for 'lighting', 'heating', and 'cooking', so the name came to mean the gas used in the town.