Gas Liquor: the Ammoniacal Liquor of the Gasworks, in Three Stages (Thorpe, 1912)

The ammoniacal liquor that coal-gas works collect as they cool and wash their crude gas: weak liquor from the hydraulic main, stronger liquor from the condensers, and scrubber liquor from washing out the last ammonia. All of it is run with the tar into a storage well and the liquor settled off the tar. Settled gas liquor is pale yellow to dark brown, smells of ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen and phenols, and has a specific gravity of 1.01 to 1.03. About 20 to 25 per cent of its ammonia is 'fixed' and needs lime to set it free. Source: T. E. Thorpe, Dictionary of Applied Chemistry vol. I (1912), p. 144. Picture: the book's text.