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1890 - 1899
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| 1890s |
Significant losses of street lighting from gas to electricity becoming apparent. Appearance (post-1893) of acetylene gas machines for lighting in small towns and remote places Widespread application of gas producers, in industry, for making plant fuels. Widespread use of lignite in Europe to manufacture industrial gas; Lignite often dried by off-set Passage of smokestack gasses for passage under the lignite drying floors. Introduction of by-product coke plants in U.S., from Belgium. Natural gas appears in irregular and unpredictable supplies in America. Labor agitation in U.S. for the eight-hour work day. UK takes pains to develop labor-saving devices for employment at gas plants, particularly as retort charger and rammers, gravity-feed inclined and vertical retorts, sunken rail tracks in coke-storage areas, portable rail tracks and miniature locomotives. |
| 1890 |
Manufactured gas now sells for about $1.00 per thousand cf. W. Gadd (UK) invents self-guiding, spiral gas holder. Emergence of first practical large-scale oil-gas process (L.P. Lowe); Installed and proven at his new manufactured gas plant, built at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Cannel coal becomes too expensive for use in manufacturing average coal gas. Increased needs for auxiliary enrichment being taken over by naphtha and petroleum-refinery benzol as the means of enrichment. 16 candlepower manufactured gas, typical of coal-gas now surpassed for illumination by 20-30 cp carburetted water gas. Carburetted water-gas set fits within the footprint of a coal-gas set; Greater with fewer workers. Ammonium sulfate from manufactured gas residuals is important large-plant U.S. by-product. Formation of North American Company, by Samuel Insull, Chicago; Late Edison secretary; organized with broad charter and with main purpose of railroad financing and to promote electric light and power enterprises; significant long-term dealings in manufactured gas. UK Institute of Mines & Metallurgy sponsors U.S. tour of British and German iron & steel experts. UGI introduces Lowe carburetted water-gas process to Britain. The popular gas street lamp is now a molded glass cylinder rather than traditional four-sided type. Germany introduces benzole recovery by gas washing of coke-oven gases; reduces its UK imports. |
| 1891 |
Arrol-Foulis hydraulic coal charger duplicates human shovel pitch (shot); Sets correct density. First gas pipeline > 100 mi; 8-in diameter; Supplies parts of Chicago under central Indiana wellhead pressure; 120 miles long. |
| 1892 |
Introduction of European vertical coal-gas retort to the United States. First by-product coke oven plant in U.S. (Syracuse, NY); Made coke and ammonia for use in soda ash production by Solvay process. French chemist Moissan discovers calcium carbide and generates acetylene as illuminating gas. Boston & Maine Copper Company Smelter, Great Falls, MT, begins operations and "was fired with artificial gas for smelting - the only installation of its kind at the time." Producer plant held 26 gas producers. |
| 1893 |
Pacific Coast Gas Association formed at San Francisco; Exerts strong influence on gas industry. Fifth U.S. economic depression. AKA financial panic. First U.S. coke plant designed to supply town gas as by-product; Everett, MA; Eight batteries of 50 Otto-Hoffman (Hofmann) ovens each. William Young patents the Peebles (UK) gas-oil enrichment plant for use with water gas. |
| 1894 |
Introduction of pre-payment gas meter as an experiment, to U.S., from Britain; Mammoth American Railway Union strike; Impacts gas industry via coal and coke transport. Construction begins on world's largest manufactured gas plant, Greenwich marshes, London. Coal-tar street surfacing by spray common to larger cities in American east. |
| 1895 |
Completion of largest gas holder without support columns; Middlesborough, England. 1895-1910: Period of intense sales of acetylene gas generation units for individual residences, business or small towns not otherwise served by manufactured gas or electric generation plants, and beyon the reach of D.C. electrical transmission lines. |
| 1896 |
Start of era of American gas industry consolidation; "If you can't beat the enemy, embrace him." Beginning of West-Coast U.S. conversion from light-oil-gas to light crude as Pacific Gas Improvement Co., as result in oil-refinery price-war cheapening of light crude. Economic recession in U.S., caused failures of some gas works. English gas engineers master in-place vertical expansions of existing gas holders. First tramway with gas-fired locomotives, at Dessau, Germany. |
| 1897 |
Gas-company consolidation rampant at Chicago and New York City. Gas literature attention is on inclined coal-gas retorts; Mainly as labor-saving device Gas propelled street railways introduced in Germany. German cement was regarded in U.S. as best in existence, particularly that of Lagerdorfer; Favored on the east coast for gas-holder tanks (NEAGE, 1898, p. 155). |
| 1898 |
Practical trade-off on lifts for larger U.S. gas holders; 2-lift at 300,000 cf and 3-lift at 400,000 cf. First U.S. merchant coke plant, Everett, MA; Coke to Boston & Maine RR, gas to city of Boston. Producer gas-fired American cement industry overtakes European imports. |
| 1899 |
Gas was manufactured and used for lighting at most American military posts and stations. U.S. Army activates its gas-filled observation balloons for combat at Santiago de Cuba. Aspirin introduced in Germany as a anti-rheumatic and anti-neuralgic coal-tar derivative drug. |
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