Producer Gas

Producer Gas is a generic term referring to:

• Wood gas: produced in a gasifier to power cars with ordinary internal combustion engines.
• Town gas: manufactured gas, originally produced from coal, for sale to consumers and municipalities.
• Syngas: used as a fuel source or as an intermediate for the production of other chemicals.

In old movies and stories, when describing suicide by "turning on the gas" and leaving an oven door open without lighting the flame, they were talking about coal gas or town gas. As this gas contained a significant amount of carbon monoxide, the gas was quite toxic. Most town gas was also odorized, if it did not have its own odor. Modern 'natural gas' used in homes is far less toxic, and has a gassy odor added to it for identifying leaks.