Making Coal Gas and Coke circa 1920s Bray Picutures

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• published: 09 Apr 2013
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more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/ "Hunt's Point plant of Consolidated Gas Co. at New York City (Bronx)." Silent. Public domain film from the Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas Coal gas (also town gas and illumination gas) is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal and contains a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen. It was the primary source of gaseous fuel for the United States and the UK until the widespread adoption of natural gas during the 1940s and 1950s in the US, and the late 1960s and 1970s in the UK. It was used for lighting, cooking, and heating and was often supplied to households via a municipally owned piped distribution system. Originally created as a by-product of the coking process, its use developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries tracking the industrial revolution and urbanization. By-products from the production process included coal tars and ammonia, which were important chemical feedstock for the dye and chemical industry with a wide range of artificial dye colours being made from coal gas and coal tar. Facilities where the gas was produced were often known as a manufactured gas plant (MGP) or a gasworks. The discovery of large reserves of natural gas in the North Sea off the UK coast during the early 1960s led to the expensive conversion or replacement of most of the nation's gas cookers and gas heaters, with the exception of Northern Ireland, from the late 1960s onwards. The production process is distinct, both physically and chemically, from that used to create a range of gaseous fuels known variously as manufactured gas, syngas, hygas, Dowson gas, and producer gas. These gases are made by partial combustion of a wide variety of feed stocks in some mixture of air, oxygen, or steam, to reduce the latter to hydrogen and carbon dioxide although some destructive distillation may also occur... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_(fuel) Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content. It is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made... Volatile constituents of the coal—including water, coal-gas, and coal-tar—are driven off by baking in an airless furnace or oven at temperatures as high as 2,000 °C (3,600 °F) but usually around 1000--1100 °C (1832--2012 °F).[10] This fuses together the fixed carbon and residual ash. Most modern facilities have "by-product" coking ovens. Today, the volatile hydrocarbons are mainly used, after purification, in a separate combustion process to generate energy. Non by-product coking furnaces or coke furnaces (ovens) burn the hydrocarbon gases produced by the coke-making process to drive the carbonization process. Bituminous coal must meet a set of criteria for use as coking coal, determined by particular coal assay techniques. These include moisture content, ash content, sulfur content, volatile content, tar, and plasticity... The greater the volatile matter in coal, the more by-product can be produced. It is generally considered that levels of 26-29% of volatile matter in the coal blend are good for coking purposes... Natural coke is formed when a coal seam is intersected by a volcanic intrusion... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt's_Point Hunts Point is a neighborhood located on a peninsula in the South Bronx in New York City... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Edison ...In 1823, Con Edison's earliest corporate predecessor, the New York Gas Light Company, was founded by a consortium of New York City investors. A year later, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1884, six gas companies combined into the Consolidated Gas Company.... Con Edison's electric business also dates back to 1882, when Thomas Edison's Edison Illuminating Company of New York began supplying electricity to 59 customers in a square-mile area in lower Manhattan. After the "War of Currents", there were more than 30 companies generating and distributing electricity in New York City and Westchester County. But by 1920 there were far fewer, and the New York Edison Company (then part of Consolidated Gas) was clearly the leader. In 1936, with electric sales far outstripping gas sales, the company incorporated and the name was changed to Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. The years that followed brought further amalgamations as Consolidated Edison...