1. A gas made by forcing steam over incandescent carbon; used as fuel, and when carburetted as an illuminator.
1851. Mechanic’s Mag., LIV. 129 (Heading of article.) Water gas. Ibid., LV. 24. The generation of water gas free from carbonic acid is a problem of great importance.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 960. So serious have been the consequences of the inhalation of ‘water gas’ that some English public bodies have been obliged to do away with it.
2. Water in the form of vapor.
1881. Judd, Volcanoes, 22. The whole mass passes at once into the condition of steam or water-gas.
1882. C. P. Smith, in Nature, 5 Oct., 551/2. If a meteorological spectroscope can … show the … fact of watery vapour being in the atmosphere, it may also … be able to quantify … the proportions of such aërial supply of water-gas at different times.
