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1840 - 1849
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| 1840s |
Manufactured gas selling at about $6.00/Mcf. Town gas plants flourishing in major cities of U.S. Expansion of U.S. manufactured gas to the Mississippi River. Oil gas production had struggled to uneconomic competition with coal gas in New York city and various cities in England and was now defeated. Start of the great and undisputed era of gas lighting (1840-1890). State of the art for coal gas at about 9-12 candle-power. |
| 1840 |
Croll obtains patent on iron oxide as a gas purification medium. |
| 1841 |
Samuel Clegg publishes the first of five editions of his Treatise (through 1868), in which he shows concern for the nature and fate of gas-making residuals.John Crafton invents the exhauster for use at gas plants. Manufactured gas arrives in Australia, at Sydney, with production on Queen Victoria's birthday. First of famous high-grade bituminous Connelsville coke ovens established at Connelsville, PA.
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| 1842 |
Marsais, of France, invents coal-fuel briquettes, employing coal-tar pitch as binder. |
| 1843 |
Wylam, of Britain, invents coal-fuel briquettes, employing coal-tar pitch as binder. |
| 1844 |
First important use of clay-mineral retorts in England, at Brick Lane Works of Chartered Gas Company, London. Introduction (UK) of dry-type consumer gas meters. Charles Goodyear, U.S., invents stabilized natural rubber: provides for flexible gas lamp pipes. |
| 1845 |
German chemist Hofmann, working in England, identifies benzene in coal-tar. Gas tar with heated gravel is "The best road that I know is that out Nottingham to Lincoln for about two miles, and is of this description." (The Builder, 1848). |
| 1846 |
Geologist and physician Abraham Gesner builds oil-shale kerosene plant at Prince Edward Island, NB, for lamp oil; many refineries spring up from Portland, Maine to St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis Gas Light Company reorganized to produce gas for the first time.Wylam, of Britain, invents coal-fuel briquettes, employing coal-tar pitch as binder.
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| 1847 |
Oil gas reintroduced as a reliable and economic means of lighting rail-carriages and lighthouses,and so persisted until about 1935. Gas Gazette and Monthly Advertiser (UK) become the first gas journal, worldwide.
James Crutchett lights U.S. Capitol building with oil gas; tenure of President James K. Polk. Series of Gas Works Clauses Acts stimulate growth of manufactured gas companies in UK (1847-1871).
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| 1848 |
Rotary gas exhauster perfected by Beale (UK). Charles Bickford Mansfield (UK; 1819-1855) develops process for extraction of benzene from coal-tar; Founds an industry on benzene and toluene from fractional distillation. Guillard (France) invents incandescent gas mantles of platinum gauze. |
| 1849 |
Inauguration of the Journal of Gas Lighting, London, as first permanent gas industry journal. Laming obtains French patent on oxide purification mix of sawdust; Specifies that it can be revived in contact with air and reused. First use of iron purification, at London. |
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