The Alternative Illuminating Gas

Coal gas making in America started late than in England, and coal gas making technologies deployed in America prior to the 1870s had been in general of the British origin. With coal gas market picked up speed from the 1850s America eventually overtook Britain as the largest coal gas market. Felt the pressure from the emerging electric lighting the drawbacks of the traditional coal gas making process by retort had become more obvious than ever before. Industrial owners began to seek alternatives, a technologiesy more competitive, clean, and convenient. Although the Siemens Brothers’ Gas Producer was capable of converting completely the coal into gas which had been used to heat up many industrial processes including coal gas making its low heating value, unfortunately, prevented it from being used for lighting purposes. There came a timely invention brought up by Thaddeus Lowe, the water gas process in the early 1870s, which soon picked up the market of gas lighting. Noticeably, such an invention took place on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the United States of America. The new and unique technology also made America a prominent player in the coal gas making business from the 1870s in a much broader way, which also laid a solid foundation not only for the coming synthetic chemical industry but also led to the development of the modern gasification technology as of this day.