Gas lighting
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Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by the flame, generally by using special mixes of illuminating gas to increase brightness, or indirectly with other components such as the gas mantle or the limelight, with the gas primarily functioning as a heat source for the incandescence of the gas mantle or lime.
An illustration of designs of lamplights, c. 1900
Passersby marvel at new gaslighting (London, 1809)
Commemoration of the first U.S. street gas light, at the intersection of North Holliday Street and East Baltimore Street in Baltimore
Coal gas
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Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers and municipalities.
Gas Works Park, Seattle, preserves most of the equipment for making coal gas. This is the only such plant surviving in the United States.
An illustration of typical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Source: NASA
Mantles in their unused flat-packed form
Coke oven at smokeless fuel plant, South Wales