White gas is a common name for two flammable substances. In its most common modern usage, it is used as a generic name for camp stove and lantern fuel, usually naphtha.
White gasoline, also called white gas, can also be a name for pure gasoline, without additives. This was commonly used when leaded gasoline was the norm, to prevent fouling in situations where the properties of the tetraethyl lead additive were not required.
Fuel dyes, "White" gas is colorless, as opposed to "regular" octane fuel, which has orange dye added for identification, or high-octane "ethyl", which has purple dye added.
White gas should not be confused with white spirit, which is more akin to kerosene.
Famous quotes containing the words white and/or gas:
“Midway the lake we took on board two manly-looking middle-aged men.... I talked with one of them, telling him that I had come all this distance partly to see where the white pine, the Eastern stuff of which our houses are built, grew, but that on this and a previous excursion into another part of Maine I had found it a scarce tree; and I asked him where I must look for it. With a smile, he answered that he could hardly tell me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Shielded, what sorts of life are stirring yet:
Legs lagged like drains, slippers soft as fungus,
The gas and grate, the old cold sour grey bed.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)