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1860-1869
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| 1860s |
Manufactured gas selling at about $3.50/mcf. Gas being used for water heating in the larger cities. Introduction of gas purification by wood shavings and chips. Emergence of coal-tar, organic chemical industry, in Germany. Daniel A. Sanborn, surveyor begins compiling fire insurance maps of Boston; Becomes major firm. |
| 1860 |
Full arrival of corrosion-resistant ceramic (clay) retorts. 266 MGPs in Germany, of which 66 were municipal; 25 percent public. Beginning of a period of time during which American city government allowed urban deterioration, which likely lasted until the centennial. First practical manufactured gas engine invented by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir, a Belgian, working in France. First gas producer plant perfected (UK) for use with low-grade coal. American kerosene excess exported to Britain; "era of cheap and prolific supplies." |
| 1861 |
Sir Wm. Siemens (UK) pushes Bischoff's 1839 concept of producer gas and producer gas engines into full reality. Approximate date of general adoption of wrought iron in favor of cast iron for use in the framing of gasholders, particularly for columns, guides and girders, including connections by rivets. Coppee builds first Belgian coke oven; uses crushed coal. |
| 1862 |
Murray reports that 420 manufactured gas firms had been chartered in U.S.; 386 coal gas;30 rosin gas; 3 water gas; One wood gas (probably SC); As noted in AG-L Journal. Nicholas Otto, of Germany, invents a four-stroke producer-gas engine. Prof. T.S.C. Lowe provides field-generated hydrogen to fill and maintain Union Army artillery observation balloons for 18 months, as Captain, Signal Corps; Forerunner of U.S Air Force. |
| 1863 |
Siemens concept of regenerative retort furnaces placed at Glasgow, then Paris. Appearance of bog-ore iron oxide as a purifying medium in Europe. John B. Murray's list of American gas plant; The American Gas-Light Journal, 15 June 1863. Formation of Institution of Gas Engineers, London. British Provinces in North America have only 23 manufactured gas plants. Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis suspends gas manufacture. First use of manufactured gas as an industrial fuel; East Liverpool, OH. Manufactured gas introduced to South Australia. |
| 1864 |
Waterwell drillers discover first California natural gas deposit at West, Stockton. |
| 1865 |
August Kekule¢ discovers benzene in Germany; Deduces chemical structure of the benzene ring. First high-pressure natural gas deposit encountered at West Bloomfield, NY. |
| 1866 |
Founding of Cooper Bessemer Corporation as manufacturers of gas producers and producer gas engines, Mt. Vernon, OH. |
| 1867 |
American eastern crude oil plunges from $6.50 per barrel (1865) to $2.41 and inaugurates a brief era of gas production by distilled light oils, mainly naphtha, by 70 patented oil-gas processes, prominenly including "gasoline" (naphtha). Coal-tar surfacing mixture laid on "highway" at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY; mixture of coal-tar, sand, gravel, broken stone and ash. Paris Universal Exposition; U.S. sends Commissioner J. Lawrence Smith to produce report (1869) on manufactured gas. |
| 1868 |
Introduction, by Best, Holden, and Man (UK) of mechanical stoking machines, including scoop-charging of coal and rake drawing of coke. |
| 1869 |
Robert Morton (UK) introduces self-sealing retort door, without clay luting. |
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