When Scotland Made Its Own Gas
A video presentation on the history of Scottish Gas
Behind the oldest
house in Glasgow - Provand's Lordship - once sat one of the largest
gasworks in Scotland, if not the UK.
Here in Scotland, and in the rest of the UK, we used to make our own
gas. We didn't need to import gas from other countries, like Norway
and Russia. We made our own gas, from coal, called town gas. We were
self-sufficient.
These days, about 50% of the gas we use comes from abroad; from
Norway mostly, but from other countries too, like Russia.
And you have to ask yourself the question: why are we reliant on
other countries for something that is crucial to our survival?
Is Margaret Thatcher to blame? She privatised British Gas. And we
now have the so-called Big Six energy firms, which is effectively a
free-for-all; a privatised shambles with gas being bought and sold
and men getting rich on the back of ordinary men and women who
cannot afford to heat their homes.
Is this really progress?
This video looks at gas works in villages, gasworks in town and
cities, and the development of a source of lighting and heating that
has all but gone.
Certainly the infrastructure that allowed us to illuminate our
streets, our homes, and cook our food has pretty much vanished.
There are still a few gasholders around, these huge round things
that went up and down depending on how much gas they stored, but
this is a significant part of our industrial heritage that has
fallen by the wayside.
Here in Scotland, we made our own gas.
1. COAL TAR BEFORE
THE INVENTION OF TOWNS GAS
Early history
The dry distillation of organic materials was commonly practised by
alchemists and was probably applied to coal at an early date. The
earliest reference to coal gas was in about the year 1600 by the
Dutchman, van Helmont, who found that coal "did belch forth a wild
spirit or breath" which he named gas. About fifty years later
Clayton, in Yorkshire, distilled coal in a retort producing a "wild
spirit or breath" which he was able to show was a flammable gas. The
first record of coal tar seems to have been in 1665, when J J Becher,
a German professor of medicine, brought to England his process for
making tar from coal by dry distillation in closed vessels. Becher
was the first person to attempt a reasonable explanation of
combustion and it was upon his work that the phlogiston theory was
based. In 1681 Becher and H Serle were granted British Patent 214,
for making pitch and tar from coal. They claimed that the coal tar
they produced was superior to wood tar (or Stockholm tar). This had
been made, probably for thousands of years, by thermally decomposing
wood by heating it in the absence of air, a process related to
charcoal burning. Its principal use was for preserving timber, in
particular the structures of ships, and for treating ropes.
In 1741 Goethe described a visit which he made to what he called
"the burning hill", near the village of Dutweiler in the German
Palatinate. There he met a peculiar man named Stauf, whom he
christened a "coal philosopher". Stauf was carrying out the process
of destructive distillation (or carbonisation) of coal in a crude
form of coke oven, collecting the oils, resin and tar which were
given off.
In 1779 J Champion was granted British Patent 1224 for extracting
tar from coal in the course of making coke for blast furnaces. In
the same year the manufacture of tar was begun in Bristol and a Mr
Dixon made tar at Cookfield, which he despatched to Sunderland for
shipbuilding purposes until 1783.
The Earl of Dundonald
Probably the first serious attempt to manufacture coal tar was made
by Archibald Cochrane, the ninth Earl of Dundonald. The Earl was a
self-taught inventor, who sadly never made the fortune he deserved
from the process of manufacturing tar from coal at his estate at
Culross Abbey, near Edinburgh. Throughout the 18th century, the
Baltic Powers had virtually a monopoly on the supply of wood tar and
pitch, and they were thus in a position to exert diplomatic pressure
on a nation that was increasingly dependent for its prosperity on
shipping. This was clearly an undesirable situation. Furthermore,
during the Napoleonic wars, the increased demand for wood tar for
the large numbers of ships being built could not be satisfied, and
the situation was further exacerbated by the American War of
Independence which adversely affected supplies of wood tar from that
country. The need for a substitute was the principal reason for
Dundonald’s research. He used all his financial resources to
construct a plant for decomposing coal by heating it in the absence
of air in a closed vessel known as a retort (the process was later
called carbonisation). Coke, a valuable fuel, remained in the
retort. British Patent 1291 was granted him in 1781 for ‘… a method
of extracting or making tar, pitch and essential oils … from pit
coal.’
Dundonald had another tar works at Muirkirk, which was managed by
his cousin John Macadam, the inventor of macadamised roads. There
were five more works in the Midlands, including one at Dudley Wood
and one at Calcutts in Shropshire. Then Dundonald began to suffer
financial problems and, by 1785, his tar was being widely marketed
by the British Tar Company. He suffered a further commercial setback
when the Admiralty lost interest in tar, favouring the use of copper
to protect ships hulls. The builders of new ships were not
particularly interested either, declaring that, "The worm is our
best friend", meaning that they made more money from repairing ships
than they did from building them. Most of Dundonald’s tar was sold
to industry. In the 1790s, Dundonald set up a works at Bow Common in
East London. Interestingly, one of Dundonald’s descendants, Thomas
Barnes Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald, was granted a patent in 1863
referring to improvements in the production of hydrocarbons from gas
tar.
Dundonald’s experiments in the manufacture of tar from coal became
interesting when he fitted a gun barrel to the delivery pipe leading
from his condenser. On applying a source of ignition to the end of
the gun barrel, a brilliant light blazed out. He had discovered
that, in addition to tar and other chemicals, his process produced a
gas that burned with a luminous flame. But because the objective of
his research was to increase the revenue from coal by manufacturing
tar and pitch from it, he failed to recognise the commercial
potential of the gas as an illuminant; it was left to others to
develop his discovery and grow rich from it. He did, however, light
one room of his house with it – as a novelty "to amaze" his guests.
In 1782 Dundonald described his process to the well-known
partnership of Matthew Boulton and James Watt, hoping that he might
persuade them to invest in it. Boulton did in fact visit Dundonald
in Scotland in the following year to discuss the matter, but for
some reason the partners showed little interest in his discovery.
But Dundonald’s process soon attracted wider interest. For example,
in 1791 the Society of Arts awarded a prize to a William Pitt for an
account of a tar making plant at Dudley Wood Ironworks. There was a
small number of tar distillers in business throughout the country
some years before towns gas was manufactured on a commercial scale,
but the coal tar industry really began to develop when large
quantities of crude tar became available from the purification of
gas. At first, most of the crude tar produced by the new gas
companies was sold to independent tar distillers, but some of them
carried out tar distillation on a modest scale at their own works; a
practice which was to continue for many years.
2. COAL GAS AND THE GAS LIGHT & COKE COMPANY
In 1791, one of Boulton and Watt’s employees, William Murdoch,
patented a process similar to that of Dundonald’s, but his intention
was to manufacture an illuminating gas, rather than tar and other
chemicals. By 1792 he was producing coal gas on a small scale. It is
possible that Murdoch had been told about Dundonald’s work by his
employers, but this does not imply that he made use of the
information.
Murdoch’s first large-scale gas-making plant commenced production at
Boulton and Watt’s Birmingham factory in 1798. Tar was produced as a
by-product but it was regarded simply as an unpleasant and useless
waste material. As the scale of gas production increased, so did the
problem of disposing of it. A certain amount of research to discover
methods of doing this was carried out by the chemists of the time,
but their limited knowledge and crude apparatus made their task a
formidable one.
During the next few years more gas-making plants were constructed
These were, however, relatively small and were mainly used for
single factories or mansions. Murdoch preferred small local units of
this type. He showed little interest in distributing gas, for
example through a piped system throughout a town; this concept had
yet to be developed. Although Murdoch is often regarded as the
inventor of coal gas, he never regarded himself as such. In a letter
to Members of Parliament in 1808 he pointed out that he was the
first person to apply gas as an illuminant which was superior to
oils and tallow.
At about the same time as Murdoch was working in England, the
Frenchman Le Bon, in Paris, patented a process in 1799 for making
illuminating gas from wood, coal or other combustible materials by
heating them in a closed retort: his "Thermolamp".
In 1802, a flamboyant Moravian, Friedrich Albrecht Winzler (later
Frederic Albert Winsor), a peripatetic, self-styled professor of
economics; part visionary, part charlatan, became aware of Le Bon’s
work. He attempted to purchase one of his Thermolamps, but without
success, so he designed one himself. Unlike Murdoch, who favoured
"private" gasworks, Winsor recognised the enormous commercial
potential for a system that would transmit an illuminating gas via a
piped distribution system throughout a town or city from a single
gas-works. In pursuit of his ambition, he came to London in 1803 and
embarked upon a vigorous publicity campaign which included a number
of spectacular demonstrations of public lighting. He was soon on the
way to success.
In 1807, a committee was set up under J L Grant to promote Winsor’s
claims regarding gas lighting, but the pioneer operators, Murdoch
and Dundonald, opposed his proposals. But eventually, after
overcoming many obstacles, including raising the sum of £100,000
which Parliament required him to do, Winsor received the Royal
Charter from the Prince Regent to establish the first major gas
undertaking in the world: the Gas Light & Coke Co. The company was
to supply gas to the Cities of London and Westminster, the Borough
of Southwark, and the adjacent precincts and suburbs. Its first
Court of Directors met on 24 June 1812.
Notes
Because the GLCC was incorporated by Royal Charter, its Board of
Directors was known as the Court, and its Chairman, the Governor.
The history of the GLCC has been comprehensively covered by Everard
and others and will not be undertaken in this account.
3. THE FIRST BY-PRODUCTS FROM GAS MANUFACTURE
In the early days of coal gas manufacture, two crude materials were
obtained from the purification of the gas: crude tar and gas liquor.
Two others: spent oxide and benzole, were not produced until much
later – in the latter part of the 19th century. At first, the tar
and gas liquor were regarded as obnoxious waste materials: a
nuisance to be disposed of. But it was not long before their
potential as a source of valuable chemicals began to be recognised
and, throughout the country, works were opened up to exploit this
new source of revenue. Tar was the richest and most profitable
source of chemicals and its processing was the most widely carried
out of these four crude materials.
Some by-products processing was carried out by the gas companies
themselves but, more commonly, the crude tar and gas liquor were
sold to independent chemical manufacturers. They sometimes produced
other chemicals in addition to tar and ammonia products, and did not
necessarily process the latter throughout the whole period of their
existence. One such company was set up in about 1820 near Edinburgh.
One of its products was coal tar naphtha, which was first used by
Charles Macintosh to make rubberised fabric, a process that he
patented in 1823.
It is not within the scope of this work to give a comprehensive
history of the British by-products industry. Information is included
on the processing of by-products by those independent tar distillers
and chemical manufacturers whose works were situated in the
geographical area that was to become the domain of the GLCC. Also
included is an account of the early research into coal tar
chemicals, since the discoveries that were made encouraged the GLCC
to construct Beckton Products Works, recognising a potentially
profitable commercial opportunity.
Note
The activities of the GLCC in the field of by-products manufacture
are, because of their importance to this account, described
separately in Chapter 4.
Coal tar
Appendix I gives details of some of the companies who either
purchased and distilled crude tar from the gas works of the GLCC,
purchased refined tar from its Poplar works between 1817 and 1833,
or carried on the business of tar distillers. The company records
are often not clear as to whether crude or refined tar was
purchased. Some of these companies continued in business after the
opening of Beckton Products Works in 1879.
Two East London gas companies gave some thought to processing their
own by-products, but very little came of their efforts. The City of
London Gas Light & Coke Co served the City, Aldgate and part of
Whitechapel. It had a by-products works at Milwall, where pitch was
produced prior to 1820. The business was not profitable, however,
and the works closed down in 1821. The Imperial Gas Light & Coke Co
served an area from Pimlico to Whitechapel. In 1827, it considered
manufacturing chemical by-products and the Directors allocated money
for building a tar and ammonia products works at Millwall, but the
plan never came to fruition.
Before the middle of the 19th century the distillation of tar
produced only a limited range of by-products: principally solvent
naphtha, creosote, refined tar and pitch. The use of creosote or tar
for preserving wood received a considerable boost with the coming of
the railways and the use of large numbers of wooden railway
sleepers. One of the earliest patents for this (BP 7731/1838) was
granted to Bethell, who was the founder of one of Britain’s largest
tar distillers, Burt, Boulton & Haywood, which specialised in wood
preservation. Also in 1838 the first patents for the use of tar in
road construction appeared, but these were not developed
commercially for some years. Burt, Boulton & Haywood had a very long
life. The Prince Regent Tar Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of the
company, was distilling tar from a number of gas companies north of
the Thames (except the GLCC) up until the 1940s. When the gas
industry was nationalised in 1948, Printar Industries was formed,
jointly owned by Burt, Boulton & Haywood and the Eastern Gas Board,
for the purpose of distilling the latter’s crude tar.
Coal tar dyestuffs
Between 1820 and 1850 a great deal of research went on into the
chemistry of coal tar. A wide range of chemicals were obtained from
it, including benzene, naphthalene, anthracene, aniline, quinoline,
pyridine and the phenols but, at first, no commercial uses were
identified for them. There was however, a growing interest in the
possibility of synthesising substances which had hitherto only been
available from natural sources and, as a result of this, a momentous
discovery was made in 1856 which was to be responsible for the
foundation of the coal tar chemicals industry. W H Perkin invented
the first synthetic dye, at first named Tyrian purple and later
Mauveine, made from the coal tar derivative aniline, which was
manufactured from benzene.
By 1857, the demand for the new dyestuff had become so great that
the manufacture of aniline for his process created a demand for coal
tar benzene on a scale never before visualised. The tar distillers
could not at first supply it in sufficient quantity or of the
required purity. Perkin’s achievements attracted a great deal of
attention and soon led to the discovery of further synthetic
dyestuffs such as Alizarine and the azo dyes. Factories were built
for manufacturing these, in both Britain and France. The coal tar
dyestuffs industry had come into existence and was based mainly on
the coal tar derivatives: benzene, toluene, naphthalene, anthracene,
phenol, the cresols, and carbazole.
Surprisingly and sadly, after Perkin’s retirement at the early age
of 36, in 1876, followed by some other pioneers of British dyestuffs
production, our dyestuffs industry began to decline. This was due to
the lack of economic support from its principal customers, the
textile manufacturers, and to the lack of provision of suitable
education and training for industrial chemists. The manufacture of
coal tar dyestuffs was taken over by Britain’s German and Swiss
competitors and, although the UK was the foremost textile producer
in the world, the textile manufacturers were happy to import dyes
from the Continent.
Other coal tar derivatives
At the same time as these changes were taking place in the dyestuffs
industry, other coal tar chemicals were being developed and a new
major industry, manufacturing a wide range of organic chemicals,
came into existence. For about eighty years (until the coming of
petrochemicals), this was to produce the starting materials for the
manufacture of the majority of organic chemicals, including
dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and solvents.
The discovery by Lister in 1865 of disinfectants provided a market
for refined phenol, the cresols and xylenols. Naphthalene has
already been mentioned as a starting point for artificial dyestuffs
and further uses, as a moth repellent ("moth balls") and in the
manufacture of plastics, soon emerged. In 1879 Remson discovered the
artificial sweetener, Saccharine. Then followed road tar, coal tar
fuels, explosives and plastics. Salicylic acid was first made in the
1890s from carbon dioxide and phenol and its acetyl compound,
Aspirin, was arguably the first and most widely used of the
synthetic drugs. Beckton Products Works was in the forefront of
these developments, and was to become one of the principal
manufacturers of both the primary derivatives from coal tar and a
number of secondary products.
Gas liquor
A number of gas companies in the London area, particularly the
Imperial Gas Co, not only sold gas liquor to independent chemical
manufacturers, but also carried out the manufacture of ammonium
compounds. Particularly important was sulphate of ammonia, which was
to be widely used as an agricultural fertiliser for more than a
century.
Sulphuric acid
Sulphuric acid was made by the Lead Chamber Process, using gas-works
spent oxide, pyrites or elemental sulphur as raw materials. Iron
oxide was first used in London for the removal of sulphur from towns
gas by the Imperial Gas Company in 1851, followed by the GLCC in
1856. In 1861 a firm at Creekmouth, Barking (probably Lawes Chemical
Co) used 2180 tons of spent oxide to make sulphuric acid. The GLCC
made sulphuric acid by this process at Beckton Products Works from
1880 until its closure in 1970. However, apart from those plants
which used gasworks spent oxide, the Lead Chamber Process was
generally superseded, in about 1900, by the Contact Process using
elemental sulphur. Sulphuric acid manufacture was one of the
principal chemical processes carried out in the West Ham area.
Appendix 3 lists some sulphuric acid manufacturers in the GLCC’s
area. It is probable that at least some of them would have used
spent oxide from the GLCC as their raw material before 1879, when
Beckton Products Works came into existence.
4. THE GAS LIGHT & COKE COMPANY AND ITS CHEMICAL BY-PRODUCTS
This chapter is concerned with the involvement of the GLCC in
chemical by-products manufacture prior to the opening of Beckton
Products Works in 1879.
Chemical by-products before the formation of the GLCC
Winsor’s principal interest was always the manufacture of
illuminating gas, but he did draw attention to the potential value
of chemical by-products on a number of occasions. As early as 1803
he stated publicly that his patent stoves (retorts) would extract
inflammable air, oil, pitch, tar and acids from all kinds of fuel.
In 1804 he was granted a patent for "an improved oven, stove, or
apparatus for the purpose of extracting inflammable air, oil, pitch,
tar and acids from, and reducing into, coke and charcoal, all kinds
of fuel." Also in 1804 Winsor formed a "Society" to further his
experiments. Somewhat surprisingly, pamphlets issued by the Society
emphasised the value of coke, tar and gas liquor as the most
important products of the gas manufacturing process, rather than
gas. A publication by Winsor recommended gas liquor as being
superior to bark for tanning leather. Whether, like Dundonald, he
believed that this was where the financial profits lay, or whether
his intention was to encourage investors and to assess the extent of
the opposition and rivalry (which was not inconsiderable) is not
known. His emphasis on by-products soon changed, however, and he
concentrated on publicising illuminating gas.
In 1807 Winsor sought to establish, but without success, the
National Heat & Light Co. Despite this, its prospectus is of
interest, since it contained the following reference to the value of
by-products:
The [refined] coal tar is so-called from its resembling common [or
crude] tar in its appearance and many of its qualities. It differs
from it, however, in being less combustible and, of course, is
better adapted for many of the purposes to which tar is applied. It
may be used with advantage for painting and securing wood when
exposed to the action of air or water.
The properties of ammoniacal liquor have not yet been fully
investigated. It would appear that it is applicable, not only to the
manufacture of muriate of ammonia (sal ammoniac) but … to the
tanning of leather and as a mordant in dyeing.
When advertising the proposed GLCC in 1809, the manufacture of
muriate of ammonia (ammonium chloride or sal ammoniac) was
mentioned.
In 1809 Frederick Accum, the widely respected and multi-talented
industrial chemist, who would in 1812 become an erstwhile member of
Board of Directors of the GLCC, and later its Chief Chemist,
supported Winsor, emphasising the "national advantages to be gained
from the use … of tar, and ammoniacal fertilisers." In the same
year, lobbyists working on behalf of the future GLCC pointed out
that 15,000 tons of tar per annum were purchased from abroad for the
use of the Navy.
The GLCC is formed
The first Court of Directors of the newly-formed GLCC met on 24 June
1812. Even at that early date, they were in agreement with Winsor
about the potential value of by-products. The prospectus of the
Company acknowledged this, claiming, inter alia, that:
… the application of tar and pitch is universally known, and the
asphaltam proved to be equal to the finest foreign Japan. The
ammoniacal liquor has many properties, and among others, that of
being eminently useful to the dyer … .
However, in the early days of the company’s existence, the
quantities of tar and gas liquor that were produced sometimes
exceeded demand, and their disposal posed a problem.
Despite the major part Winsor played in the formation of the GLCC,
he was not, at first, made a Director or even an officer of the new
company, greatly to his disappointment. He was finally voted on to
the Court of Directors in 1813, but was only given unimportant tasks
to carry out. One of these was to scour London "between the three
bridges and beyond them on both sides of the river" in search of
suitable barrels for the storage and despatch of by-products. His
discoveries included old "oil pipes" which had a capacity of 100
gallons, 90 gallon treacle barrels, and porter puncheons. He finally
reported in favour of oil barrels for tar, and beer, wine and rum
casks for gas liquor. Due to his unpredictable nature, Winsor caused
the GLCC numerous problems and eventually the Company was obliged to
dispense with his services. He was forced (by a process which today
would be termed constructive dismissal) to relinquish his
Directorship and leave the company in 1815, with an annuity of just
£200 per year.
In spite of the fact that he left the GLCC under a cloud, Winsor
should be credited with the rapid growth in the success of gas
lighting, for being the driving force behind the formation of the
GLCC, for recognising the potential value of chemical by-products,
and for forecasting the coming into existence of ‘a great national
gas company’. He was also responsible for constructing the first
proper gas-works, in Great Peter Street, London. The principal
recognition that he received for all this was to have the approach
road to Beckton Gas-works named Winsor Terrace!
Coal tar
In the early days of its existence the GLCC had difficulty in
disposing of crude tar, due mainly to its unsuitability for coating
wood or metal.
In 1815, Fredrick Accum, Chief Chemist of the Company, published his
famous book Practical Treatise on Gas Light. He was interested in
by-products and stated that "to render tar fit for use it requires
to be evaporated to give it a sufficient consistence". Or, in modern
terminology, to be dehydrated and have some of the lower boiling
components distilled off from it. He carried out the operation in
closed stills: the first time that these had been used for that
purpose; earlier on, pitch had been produced by boiling down tar in
an open vessel. Accum’s still produced a low boiling distillate
which was sold as a cheap substitute for natural turpentine. It was
used as a solvent in paints and varnishes, and later for the public
lighting of Waterloo Bridge and neighbouring streets, burning it in
constant level lamps. Accum was one of the first chemists to carry
out formal research into chemical by-products from gas manufacture.
At the request of Winsor and the other promoters of the new company,
he conducted a long series of experiments. He described these in his
testimony before committees of the House of Commons and the Lords,
when he produced specimens of ammonia, sulphur, oil, tar etc, and
discussed their possible uses.
In 1816, the GLCC’s Chief Engineer, Clegg, carried out some
experiments on carbonising crude tar to make gas. Although the
trials reached production scale, they were unsuccessful and were
abandoned in 1817. Surplus tar was then sold to an independent tar
distiller, Thomas Kempson, for an unspecified period. Also in 1816,
Thomas Dalton, a foreman caulker at the Blackwall shipyard of Wells,
Wigram and Green, wrote to the GLCC about possible applications for
tar. As a result, it seems that the GLCC employed Dalton as their
sales agent for this substance, principally for use in caulking and
rope making.
In 1817, the GLCC decided to process all its crude tar itself,
instead of selling it. Premises were leased at Poplar ‘for one year
certain, at a lease of £61’ and a tar works was established at
Orchard Place, near the junction of the River Lea with the Thames,
which could be regarded as the forerunner of Beckton Products Works.
Thomas Dalton was appointed Superintendent and, during the next ten
years, he developed and expanded Poplar Works and built up and
promoted the range of products, which included pitch, refined tar,
varnishes, oils, paints and lamp black. A major outlet for tar was
its use by the Royal Navy for preserving its wooden ships. In 1823
the first export orders for tar were received and deliveries were
made to Hamburg and, in 1827, to the USA. Tar was also sent by sea
to Aberdeen. In 1824 the Court of the GLCC minuted its obligation to
Dalton for his perseverance.
In 1824, Mackintosh, the inventor of rubberised fabrics, purchased
coal tar spirit from the GLCC and this would almost certainly have
come from Poplar. Thomas Hancock, whose factory was near Brick Lane
gasworks, purchased spirits of tar from the GLCC in 1828, to be used
in manufacturing rubberised fabrics, possibly under licence from, or
in partnership with, Mackintosh.
But in spite of Dalton’s hard work, and the many references to tar
sales in the Court minutes, the Directors decided in 1833 that
‘despite the volume of business the works failed to pay its way’ and
it was sold.
Tar distillation by the GLCC after the closure of Poplar works
Between the sale by the GLCC of Poplar works in 1833, and the
opening of Beckton Products Works in 1879, there is very little
reliable information about the way in which the GLCC disposed of its
crude tar. Poplar works was sold as a going concern to Turner,
Shackell & Hopkinson, and was later owned by Turner alone, who
continued to buy (and presumably process) crude tar from the GLCC.
In 1840 the premises reverted to the ownership of the GLCC, and tar
distillation may have ceased then, but Turner was still at the works
in 1853, making ‘varnish’.
Some of the GLCC’s crude tar was probably sold to independent tar
distillers, but there is some evidence that the Company did distil
tar at certain of its gas works. In 1833, George Lowe,
Superintendent at Brick Lane gas works, patented a method of
collecting tars of different specific gravities, which suggests that
tar distillation was being carried out there. In 1848 the GLCC
supplied tar to the Wylan Patent Fuel Co, Greenwich, for making fuel
briquettes with coal dust. This may have been crude tar, but if it
were refined tar then the GLCC may have been distilling crude tar.
In 1855, a quantity of coal tar spirit was sold to Mackintosh,
suggesting that the Company was distilling tar at that time, but
where this was done is not known. In 1850, F J Evans, Manager of
Westminster gas works, produced a patent, jointly with Richard
Laming, about improvements to tar distillation plant, and in 1865
another referring to the curative properties of "dead oil", a high
boiling coal tar distillate. This shows a familiarity with coal tar
distillation that was probably acquired by practical experience
within the GLCC.
Around 1836 there was a slump in the demand for crude tar from
gas-making plants and large stocks of it had to be disposed of by
burning it, mixed with breeze, under gas-making retorts.
There is confirmation that, shortly before the opening of Beckton
Products Works in 1879, some of the Company’s crude tar was being
sold for processing to independent tar distillers. In the
Co-partners Magazine of April 1937 a pensioner, H T Bird, who had
probably been an office worker, wrote:
While the Beckton gas works were in course of construction, all
[sic] our residuals were sent for treatment abroad, so my knowledge
of French and German was available.
It seems unlikely that this was entirely accurate, but it does show
that some crude by-products were being exported at that time.
Between the commencement of operations at Beckton gas works in 1870
and Beckton Products Works in 1879, crude tar from Beckton was
conveyed by barge to other tar works for distillation, although it
is not clear whether these belonged to the GLCC or independent
companies. The largest of these in the GLCC’s area was Burt, Boulton
& Haywood, with works at Prince Regent’s Wharf, Silvertown and at
Millwall. Crory, in East London Industries, 1876, states that "Into
these [Prince Regent’s Wharf Works] and the Millwall Works, the
whole of the gas tar made at most of the gasworks in London finds
its way. This is about 12,000,000 gallons annually". Also, Poplar
works was reported as being a tar works as late as 1880, possibly
distilling crude tar from the GLCC.
Gas liquor
Although gas liquor was, in many ways a ‘poor relation’ to coal tar,
its commercial potential had been recognised even before the GLCC
came into existence. Ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac) had been made
in London as early as the 18th century and was mentioned by Accum
when giving his support to the formation of GLCC. And in 1810, he
claimed that ammonium carbonate would be a valuable source of
revenue.
When, in 1814, the Court considered the desirability of setting up
its own by-products research organisation, the first project was
concerned with the manufacture of ammonium salts (probably sulphate
and carbonate), and other uses for gas liquor. Benjamin Newton, a
Director of the GLCC, engaged a Mr McCormick to take charge of the
research. Two weeks later, however, the Directors changed their
minds and McCormick was paid off with the sum of two guineas, as the
Court minutes report, "for wasting his time". No results of his work
survive.
The first practical research in the GLCC on the processing of gas
liquor was carried out by Frederick Winsor, Jnr, his father having
recommended him to the Directors. Winsor, Snr was, at that time, at
the peak of his career in the GLCC and, for a while at least, had
considerable influence with the Court. The research commenced at
Peter Street gasworks in 1814, when Winsor Jnr was just sixteen
years old. But because the Directors failed to define Winsor’s terms
of reference properly, difficulties inevitably arose. He made many
promises, but delivered very little. As mentioned earlier, his
father then fell out of favour with the Company and, after a few
months, Winsor Jnr was relieved of his post, denied access to the
works, and his research stopped. Within a week these prohibitions
were lifted, but interest in the work declined and, in 1815, Winsor
was told to dismantle his equipment and his laboratory was
demolished. There was then a wrangle about the payment due to him
for his work. Eventually a modest sum was agreed upon and Winsor
left the scene. At a later date, he commenced a sixty years’
association with the GLCC, becoming a Director of the Company. It
was he who first suggested that an integrated by-products works be
constructed.
Meanwhile some other Directors of the GLCC had begun to take an
interest in by-products. The first of these was Thomas Livesey, who
investigated possible uses for gas liquor. In 1814 he arranged for a
sample to be sent to Barchard, Hilton & Platt, textile dyers,
situated in the Borough, for experimental use as a mordant, and he
also sold all the weak gas liquor from the GLCC’s Curtain Road works
to Alcock & Co, Haggerston. There are no records of the results of
these experiments.
In the same year, John van Voorst, a shareholder in the GLCC but not
a Director, arranged for experiments to be carried out by a Mr
Dunstan, an apothecary, in Old Broad Street. Dunstan reported that
gas liquor would be valuable to dyers and would give a considerable
advantage in producing sulphur salts (presumably sulphate of
ammonia). In 1815 further experiments in the processing of gas
liquor were carried out by the GLCC. They were, however,
unsuccessful and thenceforth the liquor was either sold to outside
contractors for processing, or disposed of as waste.
In May 1815, David Richards, who had formerly been employed by the
GLCC in 1813 as a foreman, was a sales agent for the GLCC’s gas
liquor. He sold gas liquor to a chemical manufacturer, Jewell, who
made sulphate of ammonia from it, in association with Richards who
was acting on behalf of the GLCC. In January 1816 Richards carried
out some research on gas liquor on behalf of the GLCC, and in
November of the same year sent a sample of sulphate of ammonia
(probably made by Jewell and himself) to a Mr Cotton of Kenilworth.
This was rejected because of its poor quality, and the GLCC
terminated Richards’ contract.
Samuel Clegg took an interest in gas liquor at this time. In April
1816 he recommended that sulphate of ammonia should be made from
surplus gas liquor, and in 1817 he tried, unsuccessfully, to use gas
liquor to remove hydrogen sulphide from coal gas.
There was, by now, a growing interest in gas liquor from independent
chemical manufacturers, for making sulphate of ammonia and sal
ammoniac, which resulted in substantial sales of gas liquor by the
GLCC; Appendix II lists some its customers.
In 1822 the GLCC bartered coke in exchange for sulphuric and
hydrochloric acids with Thomas Farmer of Kennington, who also
purchased ammonium carbonate, chloride, and sulphate from them. In
1828 the GLCC engaged a contractor, Sergeant, to manufacture
sulphate of ammonia on their behalf at Brick Lane and Westminster
gasworks. By 1833 they had become dissatisfied with Sergeant’s
efforts and changed to a different contractor, Greenhalgh, who made
sulphate of ammonia and sal ammoniac for them. In 1830 the GLCC
bartered sulphate of ammonia and sal ammoniac in exchange for
hydrochloric acid from a Mr Malades.
Eventually, the GLCC decided to undertake the processing of gas
liquor itself and, in 1832-1833, its first two ammonia products
plants were established, at Westminster and Brick Lane gas works.
There was a steady and profitable demand for sal ammoniac and
sulphate of ammonia. In 1832 George Lowe, Superintendent at Brick
Lane, took out patents for making Prussian Blue from gas liquor and,
for enriching coal gas with coal tar naphtha. Additionally, at about
the same time, the chemical manufacturer, F Hills, was making sal
ammoniac on behalf of the GLCC.
In 1857 F J Evans, the Manager of Westminster gasworks, was granted
a patent referring to improvements in the manufacture of sulphate of
ammonia, so obviously the GLCC were still making it at then. It
appears, therefore, that the GLCC processed some of its gas liquor
virtually from the date of the Company’s formation, to make sal
ammoniac and sulphate of ammonia. This was certainly done at
Westminster and Brick Lane gas works, and possibly at others. It
also sold gas liquor to independent chemical manufacturers and, from
1859, for direct application to the land as a cheap agricultural
fertiliser (this was still being done at Beckton Products Works as
late as 1950). After Beckton Products Works commenced operations in
1879, all processing of gas liquor was consolidated there.
Appendix II provides data on gas liquor for the period 1815 to
1832.
The planning of Beckton Gas Works
During the mid-19th century, the GLCC continued to develop and grow.
In 1867 a General Amalgamation Bill resulted in the Company
amalgamating with, or taking over, a considerable number of other
London gas companies. By 1876 the Company served the whole of London
north of the Thames, except for Poplar, Stepney and parts of
Westminster, Chelsea and Fulham.
During the 1860s, its principal gas works was at Westminster, but
there had always been difficulties in transferring coal into that
works from ships in the Thames. This problem, combined with the
increased production of gas, was the driving force for the
construction of a new, larger and more accessible gas-making
facility, where colliers could be brought right up to the works.
A site was selected at Gallions Reach, Barking, Essex, on the north
bank of the Thames, and construction of Europe’s largest gas works
commenced. Gas was to be conveyed from the works to central London
by a trunk main. The first pile was driven by Simon Adams Beck, who
had become Governor of the GLCC in June 1860, on 19 November 1868,
and on the following day the Court recorded that "… the Company’s
property at Gallions Reach near Barking Creek be henceforth called
Beckton".
In 1868 Beckton was a lonely spot and the nearest habitation was the
village of East Ham, a few miles to the north west. Beckton was so
isolated that the GLCC built a small village stretching along Winsor
Terrace, the approach road to the works. This contained Anglican and
non-conformist churches, shops, a post office and, of course, a
public house. One hundred and twenty houses were built, which were
occupied by key operatives such as foremen and engineers, who would
be on call. Later on, in the 1920s, hostel accommodation was
provided for bachelor engineers, and in the 1930s a number of
prestige houses were built on the other side of the Manor Way for
process managers. Many of the original 19th century houses are still
inhabited today. By 1870 the first part of Beckton gas works was
nearing completion. Gas production commenced on 25 November 1870,
but the works was still undergoing construction as late as 1882.
Closely related to the establishing of Beckton Gas Works was the
decision by the GLCC that it would be more profitable to process tar
and ammonia by-products within the company itself, rather than to be
in the hands of independent chemical manufacturers. This decision
proved to be a sound one. The revenue from tar and ammonia
by-products proved to be a worthwhile source of income, remaining
substantially constant over the years at about 11% of the total
profits of the company. By becoming fully involved in the
manufacture of chemical by-products, the GLCC was able to increase
the scale and sophistication of the processes involved, and to set
higher standards for the products. To this end, within a few years
the construction of Beckton Products Works, on a site adjacent to
the gas works, commenced.
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