Manufactured Gas: A New York Legacy

@oldschooljack3479 28 days ago

Fun fact: When many homes and businesses decided to "electrify" the existing gas light infrastructure was often used... The gas lamps would be removed from the gas pipe and would be replaced with electric light fixtures. The gas pipes would be used as conduit for the circuitry.

@MrKotBonifacy 1 month ago

6:52 - OUCH. Someone clearly hasn't done his homework... While there could be SOME methane (aka "natural gas") in "coal gas" there was hardly any hydrogen in it, and, EXCUSE ME, where that carbon dioxide was supposed to come from? Huh? Someone CLEARLY mixed up TWO DIFFERENT processes, and two totally different "town gases", and then thrown in some mistakes for a good measure... So, the "town gas" is a pretty broad term, used for any "gas produced in/ by town gas works", but they are not all the same. That gas produced here was "coal gas" - i.e. the most volatile compounds of all volatile stuff contained in so-called bituminous coal (which is the coal people used for centuries in their stoves and latter in steam locos), and the process shown here is called "dry distillation" (or destructive distillation, aka pyrolysis). For explanation of "volatile compounds" in bituminous coal you may like to see the LMS training video for steam loco firemen, "Little & Often": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4J2wcDP3YA&t=250s (the link is set to open at 4:10, where composition of coal is explained). Anyway, what was produced in the process described in this video above wasn't "methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen" but rather a concoction of all and sundry carbon based compounds, with varying volatility - and very few of them were actually volatile in "normal" temperature - hence the "condenser", where all these "not really that much volatile" compounds were condensed into that "coal tar" stuff (pretty smelly and nasty, TBH). Which was then either further processed (distilled) for procurement of all sort of useful chemical compounds or used "as it was" for waterproofing of building foundations (AFAIK). And these "volatile volatiles" which were still gaseous at this stage consisted mostly of lighter aliphatic unsaturated hydrocarbons (aka alkenes and alkynes) plus vapours of lighter aromatic compounds like benzene and toluene (which actually made the gas suitable for "direct" lightning, i.e. by luminous flame itself), with a dash of heterocyclic compounds (like pyridine and furan, and their derivatives like benzopiridine or indole) thrown in for better flavour ;-) HOWEVER, since unsaturated hydrocarbons are rather reactive and prone to polymerisation and/or polycondensation it often lead to clogging of gas pipes, over time, with tarry goo, produced in situ by all these compounds travelling there. Also, this type of gas, while rather easy to produce, wasn't very "economical" - especially after the chemical industry developed a taste for all these valuable compounds in it, which began to be used as a feedstock for manufacturing all sort of valuable chemical products - phenol, toluene, pyridine, methanol and what not. And this is where things have changed a little (and confusion and mix-up got the author of the script of this video by the... erm, never mind) - anyway, Ladies and Gentlemen, please enter new, cleaner Town Gas! So at this time coke production was relegated to specialised "cokeries" (which produced higher grade, purer coke that this "town gas by-product") and the volatiles distilled off of "coked" coal were used either in situ to heat coke ovens, and/ or whatever was left was used as a feedstock for manufacturing all sort of organic compounds. And only THEN some of that coke was taken to Gas Works (the rest was used either for iron smelting or for heating) in all towns across the country, where it was put in special retorts, or "reactors", and heated up (by burning itself) to red-hot state and subjected to alternating "wet runs" and "dry runs". Once it got sufficiently hot the air supply was cut off and dry steam was pushed through the red-hot coal (coke) bed, and yes, this reaction produced carbon monoxide (MONOXIDE, NOT "dioxide!) and hydrogen: C + H2O –> CO + H2 But since this process is endothermic (i.e. uses energy instead of producing it) the wet run lasted only couple of minutes (3--4 minutes if memory serves me, maybe even less than that) and when the coal bed cooled a little the wet run was cut and replaced by dry run - i.e. the air was let back in, and it restarted normal burning of the coke, which lead to it reheating itself again sufficiently (which took twice or so as long, AFAIR) to be subjected to another wet run - and so da capo al fine. THIS "town gas" was a different animal altogether - it had a very high "energy density" and did not produce that tarry goo in pipes, but at the same time was pretty dangerous - VERY toxic because of carbon monoxide and very "explosive" when mixed with air (in case of gas leak) since hydrogen when mixed with air produces explosive mixtures with VERY wide "percentage range" of it. (Uncle Google says explosive range of hydrogen is from 18.3% to 59% and the flammability limits of hydrogen in air are very wide, from 4% to 75% - and who am I to question his knowledge or challenge his authority, right?) Also, as the flame of this "CO + H2" town gas was almost invisible, very pale blue, to use it for direct street lightning benzene vapours had be admixed to it - or a lamp has to be fitted with so-called Auer mantle/ jacket (after the Austrian inventor of it, Carl Auer) - or just "gas mantle" (what a lack of respect...) - but since this is the subject for another lecture, I'll end it here. So "now you know". Yeah, tad long, I agree - but then if you find it too long or just plain boring, just skip it altogether. And I should probably say that right at the beginning, but hey, "better late than never" as my auntie used to say whenever she was late for a train ;-)

@neiloflongbeck5705 21 days ago

There used to be a coking plant alongside the Middles to Redcar railway in the UK. If you got lucky then your train would pass by as the unloading of the coke occured. It was wonderful enough during the day, at night it took on a more spectacular effect. There was also a footpath that went on the railway on the opposite side to the coke plant. It's all gone now since the closing of the blast furnaces.

@johnstreet797 6 days ago

In the 1950's in northern New Jersey we had town gas , which replaced the coal stove in the kitchen. Then a few years later natural gas came and the stove had to be converted.

@jimcypher 14 days ago

"You kids look like the Gashouse Gang!' - My father

@TeeroyHammermill 4 years ago

Awesome

@skipd9164 14 days ago

Got up to do my nightly pee and now writing comment. Worked for a large gas utility in MASS and have always been amazed at the early years. As a meter reader I met some retirees from the old gas company and they were usually missing limbs but most retired never enjoyed retirement. That was in the late 80s and today workers get to retire. We still had drips that needed to be vacuumed because of water getting in. Still nasty as hell but there were actually people that did that every day when gas was manufactured. Also the utilities used to give the liquid away to city's and towns to keep dust under control and everyone used it. The good thing about natural gas is you would pass out and maybe sh1t yourself instead of dieing with manufactured gas. That when people use to use an oven for self deletion. In the 80s and 90s the cast iron mains were getting close to a hundred years old and I could work 24/7 from Dec to beginning of April. It allowed my family a great lifestyle and the adrenaline rush from standing infront of buildings that could go boom was great. My group never lost one but YouTube shows what could of happened. Luckily the main replacement is now been upgraded with plastic. Going to bed but will look for other videos. My city's worst fire and lots of firefighters were killed in a coal fire at the old plant

@PplEtr 21 days ago

This documentary struggles to get to the point. Seems like the first mention of gas is about 4 minutes in.

@lawerencestimpson2280 6 days ago

Just for fun.Does anyone remember the radio program with Big John & Sparky and The Land of Make Believe? The Gas House St Gorilla Gang was talked about.