A thick black viscid liquid, which is one of the products of the destructive distillation of bituminous coal. It is a compound of many different substances, chiefly hydrocarbons; and out of its constituents are obtained paraffin, naphtha, benzene, creosote, the aniline or coal-tar colors, etc.
1784. A. Cochrane (title), Account of the qualities and uses of Coal Tar and Coal Varnish.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 77. Coal-tar Gas … is the common gas, so much in use in all towns of any consequence in this empire.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxv. 134. Ringbolts … were blackened with coal-tar.
1868–77. Watts, Dict. Chem., V. 670. The more volatile portion of coal-tar, called light-oil or coal-naphtha, consists mainly of benzene and its homologues…. Coal-tar has also acquired great value as the source of aniline-colours, and of phenol, picric acid, &c.
