Highlights from the Life of a Gasometer

Timelapse video of a gasometer outside my window. 2005. Camera and editing: Steve Pemberton. Music: "Blade" by AKM Music.

[@SuperMok68]

That is me and my mate working on that gasholder. They were a fantastic piece of engineering. It looks as if we were checking all alarms and making sure that it was safe to put to work. The cycle of a gasholder is that at night it fills when demand is low and will start to empty around five thirty in the morning to assist with demand. There were many safety devices that would be monitored by grid control and were a source of many callouts to high alarms low alarms and many others. This holder was relatively small only being two lifts, the larger ones were between three and four lifts. This holder was an above ground holder spiral guided. Some are column guided. The lifts as they rise pick up water from the tank to provide a seal the seal of water being above the pressure that the holder throws at it high point. Weight of each lift produces the pressure. Each lift had heaters to prevent ice forming in the seals in extreme cold weather. Conversely in warmer weather with no demand Sun gas was a problem as the heat would cause the holder to rise sometimes to it's high alarm setting. There was much more to them than just an old sometimes rusty hulk but it was a great job looking after them. Sadly they are now virtually all gone.

[@StevenJPemberton]

Small world :-) Thanks for this information - very interesting.

[@billsauer3164]

Thanks!!

[@WhatALovelyDisaster]

This is so fascinating thanks for sharing!

[@aleonard4426]

what kind of noise did the lifts make?

[@DanielDaaar]

Tom Scott anyone?

[@patriciomunoz2830]

Lol came just from there

[@nangotoman9429]

Yesss!!

[@douglastytko9572]

yep

[@Arado159]

I came from the channel Technology Connections (from a video on gas lamps).

[@Amjo90]

Yess

[@sloblock1972]

You really can find just about anything on KZbin! My 3 year old son has developed an obsession with the derelict one of these just down the road from where we live and I wanted to show him one in operation. Now he knows what they do! Thanks for sharing :)

[@Nitrxgen]

as an urban explorer, I climb them while they still exist

[@rybolfc]

As a kid growing up I was always fascinated by gasometers due to always walking/getting driven past them for a section of my life! We still do have two working gasometers in Bootle, Merseyside.

[@fruitella196]

nitrxgen done the Southampton ones yet?

[@lolnamelollastname9788]

BBC Sounds has an episode about gasometers in The Boring Talks!

[@ashthegreat1]

Newstead (Brisbane) resident here for the exact same reason.

[@selinagonza1186]

this is so cool and scary at the same time. i have a gas holder directly behing my garden and I've always wondered how they worked. thanks

[@originaluddite]

Only found out that these things move today while reading about them. I'm from Australia and we have few if any, but I was in the UK recently and saw plenty (mostly disused) which got me curious. Amazing to have a part of the urban landscape that is so dynamic.

[@robwebster4895]

There's one in Brisbane. I'm guessing it's been decommissioned, but it still stands, at least partially, and is at the heart of the Gasworks Pcct at Newstead

[@originaluddite]

Cool.

[@robertleeimages]

1 near me in Bendigo Central Victoria, its being preserved and recently had a huge tidy up of the grounds and have started giving tours. It only ceased operation in 1973, and was used as a dumping ground for bulky things by council and even old trams of which some are still there waiting for restoration

[@originaluddite]

@@robertleeimages how cool. May have to check it out next time I go there.

[@DavidJones-nf3de]

Superb video, looks just like the one outside the window of an office I worked at, never could actually perceive it moving, just noticed that at some points of the day a lot of the buildings behind were suddenly visible. This was in 2010 so they can't have all been defunct that long.

[@BigKelvPark]

Great vid. I had to explain to a young apprentice what the accumulator was. Currently being cut down in Norwich. A triumph on Victorian engineering.

[@StevenJPemberton]

+Kelvin Park Thanks. I'm glad you found it useful :-)

[@QKicks]

for a while I thought it showed the construction of one. I was wondering why they build it so oddly from the bottom up lifting the entire thing. then it started sinking down. what the heck man. they just move like that

[@garaiselvis]

The same

[@krashd]

What fills up must empty out.

[@metalmicky]

You always tell when you were in for a cold spell because the containers would be filled up (up high ) to cope with predicted demand.

[@justinbyers7443]

Thanks for sharing this, I've always wanted to see these in operation. We don't have these in America

[@zeddeka]

Yup, you do. There are several in Philadelphia alone.

[@ARSZLB]

yeah there’s plenty here, wtf are you talking about

[@emotivepiano]

This brings back some memories, thanks for the upload (I think!). This type of gas holder, without a surrounding frame, is like the dark and brown, forbidding behemoths towering over the towns I've lived in. I guess they were cheaper to construct than the ones surronded by girders but I always thought couldn't they have painted the outside or even rented it out as advertising space to brighten it up?

[@kenkahre9262]

Thank you. I've al;ways wondered exactly how these worked. Just never could visualize it.

[@maestro66uk]

Brilliant video

[@StevenJPemberton]

Can you see them move in real time? Maybe if you're very patient :-) I've never seen it happen.

[@MrStr8den]

I could spend a summer's day with a flask and sandwich watching one of these

[@ylette]

Never knew they rotated.

[@whitemonkey7932]

Have runners....it stops them kicking over as they move

[@charliecharliecharliecharl8554]

I remember walking up one f two near me and seeing water all round the joints and told the water was used as a seal

[@Hypohair]

Is great, you don't notice this at their normal movement rates. Fascinating and a little scary lol

[@jagc1969]

There are steel works nearby and they have two gasometers, one per blast furnace. But these gasometers never move. They have an internal diaphragm that does the job, but you never see any movement.

[@batsondceiling]

Nice place for a rooftop restaurant.

[@DonHavjuan]

We haven't had these since the 1960s but you still see the frames around.

[@zeddeka]

They were still in service in many parts of the UK well past the 1960s, indeed, into the early 2000s at least in some places. In the 1990s, the IRA tried to bomb some of them in the North east.

[@imkirbo3094]

We had these still in operation in the early 2000s in the UK.

[@strdown]

Where abouts is this? Borehamwood?

[@StevenJPemberton]

Not quite as glamorous a location as the restaurant in "Fast Food", but I can see the attraction :-)

[@UKWMO]

I remember the argument I had with a work colleague who wouldn’t believe the Gasometer opposite our office would change in height depending on the gas levels. He was dumbfounded when he realised I was right.

[@laraj777]

I remember a movie with Ralph Fiennes about lonely man with mental illness where home that person localized just near that awful gas holder making awful sound.

[@StevenJPemberton]

Yep - Station Road.

[@aleonard4426]

Hey, Steve , cool video! What kind of sounds did the gasometer make? Was it loud? Do you have any audio of the thing itself?

[@StevenJPemberton]

Thanks. I'm afraid I don't have any audio to go with this. I don't recall ever hearing the gasometers make a sound, though there's a railway station on the other side of picture, so if they did make a sound, I'd probably have assumed it was a train. They move much more slowly than shown in this video, and I think the moving parts sit in a bath of oil, which would tend to absorb sound. My guess is either they don't make a sound, or any sound they do make is too low for humans to hear.

[@BenevoIence]

That's pretty cool

[@instakillgaming]

Tom scott brought me here

[@tsitracommunications2884]

Did some gasometers have red lights on the sides at night?

[@martytrain]

Are there any gas holders that rise like this anywhere left in the UK? They all appear to be down these days waiting demolition!

[@StevenJPemberton]

Martin H The one in the video is still there, though I don't know if it still goes up and down. It's due to be demolished later this year, probably to make way for flats.

[@martytrain]

Thanks Steve, allot of these Holders are out of use now, everyone I,ve visited in Berkshire are down, just hoped perhaps some might still be used but its looking like time is up.

[@StevenJPemberton]

+Martin H We had a letter about the demolition yesterday that said this gas holder hasn't held gas since the 1990s, so I don't know why it was moving in 2005...

[@turbodistortionirmc]

Mystery

[@borehamwoodcc]

@J Brown That sounds plausible. And yes, the gas holder was demolished a couple of years ago. The flats that replaced it are just about finished and have gone on sale.

[@turbodistortionirmc]

Nice

[@Omlet221]

Why does it spin?

[@StevenJPemberton]

I don't know. Maybe it allows for a tighter seal than if the top goes straight up and down?

[@anelpasic5232]

It's so that it doesn't kink and get stuck.

[@thedave7760]

if you still have the original jpgs you will be able to make a much better video now days as opposed to 15 years ago, send them to me and i will do it for you and send it back.

[@kurade1096]

10 people: i hate this