How gas was made

[@frankjames7247]

That was my fathers old Gasworks he at time foreman, the stoker in the film Charlie Shaw a real character. This was Milnthorpe Gas works it shut down whist I attended school which was just a playing field away !

[@The-KP]

I feel for them blighters, breathing in coal gas and smoke.

[@ATINKERER]

Thanks for posting!

[@conqueringlion420]

My dad was an old gasser to

[@orangejjay]

​@@conqueringlion420 Mine was an old fart but gasser sounds much more kind. ❤

[@WeebRemover4500]

i read this comment in, whatever accent the guy on the video spoke lol

[@derekferguson385]

I remember making coal gas in science class at school. Put coal in an old coffee tin about 6 inch in diameter. Made a small hole in the tin lid. Put the tin on a stand with a Bunsen burner underneath smoke comes out at first then as the smoke dies down we lit the gas coming out the hole. Worked great. Nowadays probably not allowed to do experiments like that anymore lol health and safety. We also turned crude oil into petrol. Teacher singed his eyebrows. How we all laughed.

[@jagtan13]

Up until 2015 at least we were spinning steel wool on a string lit on fire. It was in CA of all places as well.

[@BogSulphur]

My son is at secondary school now (2024) and he has been distilling crude oil into petrol last week.

[@whatevernamegoeshere3644]

Over here it really depends what school you attend. If you're learning a trade, forget about experiments like that, if you are in an advanced chemistry or biology class in middle school, you do a bit more even, we had to handle water soluble lead salts too, or some really nasty stuff sometimes like H2S which is similar in toxicity to cyanide and smells like hell's asshole, but you will work with it in your later life so... You gotta learn that sometime. And then you have chemical technician schools where you have to create lab setups for making things like basic medicines or distill organic solvents like terpenes. That's a whole other level of danger. As for university, you get to work with cc nitric acid on your first semester which is fun too

[@Shaker626]

I remember when we could play with liquid mercury 😂

[@jwalster9412]

It's a shame that my high school years were partly in the covid pandemic. Otherwise my science class and many others wouldn't have been basically nothing but paperwork.

[@UtahDelaCruz]

This guy was more formally dressed shoveling coal than some people I've seen in their weddings.

[@cycleSCUBA]

It's the fashion nowadays. You can pay a lot of money to get the look of a Victorian vagrant.

[@pepperypeppers2755]

He's dressed up for the filming

[@mrbr0skii923]

It looks formal to us now but at the time his cap and vest were considered working clothes. I suppose you could say it's the old timey equivalent of a man in a reflective orange vest. Was a way to signify you were a man of physical labor.

[@lookoutforchris]

@@pepperypeppers2755working class people used to dress as a matter of pride. You will see old brick layers come in to work in a work suit, take off their jacket, put on an apron, roll up their shirt sleeves and get to work laying brick. Pride is severely lacking in almost every profession today.

[@pixelpatter01]

Coal gas had problems with condensate in the pipes showing up as a tar or oil unless the gas was thoroughly cleaned, which would be a problem in a small plant such as the one shown. There is another type of gas made from coke, called "producer gas" in which a stream of air and steam is introduced into a chamber filled with red hot coke. These were very common in major cities in the US. The producer gas plants would work all day to produce the gas which was stored in a big tank with a floating top and during the night the floating top would provide pressure. This producer gas contained hydrogen and carbon monoxide and was the gas that would poison you in a gas leak. Natural gas and propane have replaced it.

[@iwb316]

From large town gas plants coal tar was collected as a biproduct and sold on for medical and industrial uses. The coke produced was sold on to the steel industry to power the blast furnaces.

[@markgrender5638]

AND ????

[@novaenricarter705]

​@@markgrender5638 A good bit of information! That's what's and

[@beryllium1932]

Sylvia Plath and many others.

[@rosco4659]

The tar oil can still be found in some of the old cast irons mains, they call it weasel. It's often found when replacing the mains by the insertion of PE pipe and you come across an old syphon pot.

[@bl7355]

An excellent brass band in the background too!

[@4wheelwarrior]

That's a beautiful process ... I didn't realize coke was a byproduct, and fueled the furnaces besides ... amazing video, thanks!

[@WilliamValin]

Coke is prized by blacksmiths as well for its clean burning and high heat output in a forge. Sure wish I could find a source for it in small quantities these days.

[@malakai651]

70 years ago my mother used to send me to the local gas works on a Saturday morning for a bushel of cinders and I watched them doing this job. But it was bigger than in this film with a row of ovens.

[@stijn2472]

Absolutely fantastic video!

[@jimmybritt9537]

I wish the pipes for cleaning the gas were explained 🤔👍👍🇺🇸

[@firesurfer]

Right here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaSkqXh_acSLfpY

[@jimmybritt9537]

@@firesurfer Thank you very much , that is a wonderful video 👍👍🇺🇸

[@aerialcat1]

@@firesurfer thank, that was very informative.

[@yemo34]

Basically the same way a modern catalytic converter works in a car just bigger.

[@adamsfamily4060]

I was friends with the son of Sid Dack, Sid was in charge of the gasworks at Melton Constable. Melton gasworks supplied the railway and the village. Some weekends Sids son and I would help barrowing coal and coke. Coal was tipped from rail wagons down a shute into the plant. There was also a rail sideing with a wagon containing lime, this was used to seal the retort doors. Melton seems a very quiet place today compared to when it was the centre of a large rail system.

[@wwfeatherston]

I still remember the gasworks smell.

[@soundseeker63]

Now it makes sense why those huge gas holders (gasometers) were needed, to build up a store for when demand would be higher than output. I kind of miss seeing those actually, very imposing structures and some of the older ones especially were quite ornately designed. Very few left in the UK now and none that are working.

[@robertking3130]

Nothing was wasted; the coke could be used to make more gas or used for various heating tasks elsewhere. Thanks for showing this.

[@cleanmachine08]

Here in Australia a lot of former gasworks sites, soil and groundwater are heavily contaminated due to the tar pits. This waste was buried.

[@Bloated_Tony_Danza]

And this is why natural gas now has the name it does! It's a reference to the old processes of manufacturing gas from coal. Town gas (coked coal vapors) and producer gas (coked coal vapors reacted with steam) were obviously manufactured products, but this new-fangled "natural gas" just came out of the ground as is!

[@JP-vs1ys]

thank you fat tony danza. you just did a better job in a handful of words explaining this documentary than the narrator did. i wish you the best in whatever sitcom you have in the works.

[@HHHGeorge]

It brought back some nostalgia. I remember our house using coal gas (city gas). I remember in science class at school being taught how gas was made that powered industry and provided cooking gas at home.

[@Theiliteritesbian]

This was a nice video - idk how i got into researching town gas but thanks for putting this old stuff on the web

[@johnjakson444]

We had one of these coal to town gas plants in our town where I grew up, Stanford Le Hope close to the train station, you can still see the circles where the gas tanks stood, this was in the 60s until north sea nat gas took over. During the day you could see the towers slowly go up and down with the pressure. There are row houses that stood a 100ft from those things and they are still there. There must be 1000s of these brown sites across the country.

[@scratchluka6157]

You have solved a great mystery for me. I found this strange looking piece of 🤔? I had no idea what. But seeing the pieces that came out of the small furnace I know what I found

[@shadeburst]

I recommend overcooked cabbage, past best before milk and baked beans especially when home-prepared.

[@AJ-qn6gd]

Sounds like school dinners lol !

[@RetroJack]

The only think I remember about our old gasworks was the stink, which could be smelled blocks away!

[@UnitSe7en]

This honestly seemed like it was going to be a parody video or some kind of YTP when you look at the title, thumbnail and channel name.

[@veg411]

Either way I sure as hell learned nothing from this video.

[@ratchetfox8111]

I thought the exact same thing haha was expecting it to be a look around you style parody.

[@peterbardwell1668]

Thank you - most enjoyable, and educational too! Looking forward to visiting the museum in the near future...

[@thegreenbastard5171]

Where is the museum?

[@cuttingcut1321]

@@thegreenbastard5171 yes , the gasworks shown in the video is a museum somewhere in East London. It was one of the gasworks which shut down and later was preserved.

[@nigelmitchell351]

Very interesting many thanks for posting this.

[@markward6076]

Uk documentaries are the best and most satisfying, I always enjoy watching them. 😊

[@mossmonaco9061]

Excellent and informative, thank you.

[@klaust.2769]

A very rare movie! These small gasworks are almost forgotten. Only a few are left an preserved as museum. I know two more Museums in Europe: Biggar Gasworks (Scotland) and one other in Neustadt, Dosse (Germany)

[@pirobot668beta]

The Seattle Gasworks is part of a Parks complex.

[@johnmacmillan3941]

am amazed always by the fact how much energy is stored in coal

[@johnjakson444]

well nuclear has millions times more energy kg for kg

[@Rainhill1829]

Very interesting process.

[@burtlangoustine1]

What a belter of a tune!! So giddy ❤️

[@aparanoidbw]

@TechnologyConnections did a cool bit on "coal gas" and "natural gas", as they were what was used to light homes. I think the overarching video was on household lighting with a primary focus on electric. Nice to see how the precursor to natural gas was made, and have it done by hand! seems wild.

[@cmw184]

“And after more than a century of faithful service, the works closed down” Sad words man.

[@fmike15]

I usually use beans and or cabbage.

[@philjameson292]

The trouble is lighting the gas tends to burn the hairs off my arse

[@choppergirl]

Here in the states, we use Taco Bell.

[@ReidHenderson]

If you want the best gas production you need collard greens or mustard greens

[@matthewrussell8239]

Broccoli is my personal go to.

[@lalannej]

Try sugar-substitute maltitol, wow.

[@martinflaherty5873]

That's a great video to watch martin flaherty

[@mankayng]

This is how Hong Kong's Towngas company got its name, with the same gas production methods of the old days.

[@felixthecat265]

There is one of these producer plants still operating on an occasional basis in the town of Biggar in the Scottish Borders. True producer gas was generated by injecting steam into the retorts to increase the H2 content and raise the calorific value of the gas at the expense of the fuel needed to heat the retorts.. At Biggar the chemistry teacher from the local school was paid to analyse the gas on a regular basis as the price charged was based on the calorific value of the gas (technically it still is if you look at your gas bill!)

[@ronliebermann]

All fuel is supposed to be tested for energy value. Gasoline is supposed to contain a minimum BTU per gallon. Natural gas as well.

[@NotoriousPyro]

And they want you to believe that gas is running out while the ground is filled with coal lol

[@homo192]

yeah, lol instead of thinking further, lol

[@DunkingJaffaCakes]

Bet it smelled lovely.

[@earlwarren59]

Good Times!

[@michaelsimpson9779]

Thanks for providing this information

[@gorbalsboy]

Fantastic,thanks for posting this

[@muldie101]

Remember when Europe had industrie and pride? Those were the days!

[@chrisjarvis4449]

and i was thinking i was going to see the baked bean seen from blazing saddles !

[@TheSorters]

Fun fact, this gas isnt methane like natural gas, but is in fact carbon monoxide.

[@scotthutchinson6891]

Fairly interesting. The music sounds like it's from a monty python sketch !

[@1337fraggzb00N]

Here in Germany we had different method to make gas.

[@frydemwingz]

they called it town gas, that's funny. It's like we say "plant air" when a big facility has their own pressurized air system.

[@Gr8thxAlot]

Is that coal tar dripping from the furnace? We had one of these plants in our neighborhood that became a SuperFund site. Now it's a gravel parking lot.

[@saintessa]

Probably. My local one has almost all the old gas holder bases covered up by car park too. The last one is being turned into a hotel. I want to make a doco on it.

[@alexjn5460]

This looks like an insanely dangerous profession

[@johnfrompeconiccounty4274]

I have no idea why I just watched this. I felt like I was in some kind of a trance from the goofy music.

[@Grimhorn]

Well, you learned a bit of history too just like I did. Pretty exciting stuff imo! it's rarely discussed information.

[@danrichards496]

I never knew you could get gas out of coal. Interesting.

[@shaun5552]

Prior to the development of natural gas and LPG (propane / butane) it was the only source. So 100% of the gas supply was obtained from this process historically.

[@CAMSLAYER13]

You can get it out of wood as well

[@walterwixzwerg6735]

the complete GDR was supplied with town gas, made in Schwarze Pumpe. The biggest brown coal power plant of the world. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4bKZHRtnJWojtU

[@davidkirksey8521]

I learned something, thanks

[@douglasheld]

Did just about everybody have low grade CO poisoning in these days?

[@paulnicholson1906]

We had all kinds of poisoning, CO, lead, mercury you name it 🙃 Maybe they counteracted each other because we seemed alright.

[@georgepointer1127]

No,the houses had plenty of cold fresh air circulating,open fireplaces chimneys.

[@AJ-qn6gd]

My Dad was a stoker in the early fifties I think he earned £7 a week !

[@rustynailer8655]

It must be pointed out that town gas was a poison if inhaled. It was a common suicide method to gas ones self in the oven at home. people literally put their head in the oven and committed suicide, a bit like carbon monoxide poisoning with car exhaust smoke. Natural gas did not poison so suicides moved to jumping off bridges and jumping in front of trains sadly.

[@mlauntube]

Now, when we drill for oil, there is pressurized methane that didn't have to come out of wood or coal, and that is why it is called "natural gas".

[@pressureworks]

The title should be: How Coal Gas Was Made. (So people searching for the subject can actually find it)...pet.

[@Slowpaws1389]

My coworker makes gas on demand. Sometimes it is a horrific putrid liquid on demand if he has a night of curry and a few brown ales to wash it down.

[@mrbebetm]

how many days a week does your factory work?

[@anelpasic5232]

I was wondering if one could use the same principle in isolating methane from composting organic matter in a closed, air tight container connected directly to a gasometer.

[@tz8785]

You can gasify organic matter, but it won't make a lot of methane. Town gas/coal gas was mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

[@silverismoney]

it would be easier to make a biogas generator from cow crap and food waste/decomposing organic matter. You can cook off of it and the kits already exist pretty cheaply.

[@OffGridInvestor]

Go look up biogas and the biogas digester. They essentially have a part that's above where the has collects and the input is like ab S bend in the way everything in the digester doesn't allow for air to come in. Needs to be above 20C to run well but will make a small amount of its own heat

[@thegreenbastard5171]

Where is the museum?

[@debbiebrown2096]

Fakenham

[@mmee123456789]

How Gas Was Made: Man ate beans.

[@cycleSCUBA]

Wai aye, bonnie lad !

[@Klaus-y3v]

I have always made it the old fashion way: a good can of beans..

[@llorttaf]

In my 40's and only just learning this is how coal gas was made...I feel stupid.

[@AudieHolland]

Hand made gas!

[@pressureworks]

Looks like Creosote was being made too !!

[@Jim-zn9qy]

Kinda sad but time moves on

[@altpotus6913]

Lung cancer and emphysema might have been a problem for the workers...

[@GyroCoder]

What year was this short film originally produced? I'm curious

[@cillianennis9921]

likely 70s or 80s matches the kinda style I've seen from similar documentaries that are on old 70s & 80s doctor who extra's.

[@lukedoherty8062]

@@cillianennis9921more likely pre 1970s as the UK had pretty much switched over to North Sea Natural Gas by the early to mid 1970s

[@cillianennis9921]

@@lukedoherty8062 Since its in colour it is more likely the 70s. The TV was still black & white till the 70s & I wouldn't think this was a kinda movie with the budget to get the ability to be in colour.

[@lukedoherty8062]

@@cillianennis9921I cannot lie it gives me British Pathe in style and they were filming on colour film in the 1960s. We switched from Town gas 1967-1977. So could have been between those dates. But doesn’t feel very 1970s. Also if it’s the gas works who’s posted the video in Fakenham it closed in 1965

[@cillianennis9921]

@@lukedoherty8062 Yeah then again I don't really know the date for any of the documentaries its similar too as they could really be from a range of times.

[@budstep7361]

Thank you for sharing this history... You never know when we might go back to these old technologies 😁

[@johnjakson444]

you would have to recreate the coal industry, and we don't want that, better to go nuclear instead

[@Survivalguy]

Thats like making wood gas.

[@MHLivestreams]

My stove at home is often ran that low anyway, should tap the chimney sometime. Definitely lots being wasted on a slow burn.

[@davidhaynes3126]

Is that Anthony Hopkins ?

[@curtisnixon5313]

James Bolam maybe? kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKCnnmOeg7eIZsk&ab_channel=WhenTheBoatComesIn

[@JP-vs1ys]

it would have helped if in all the shoveling and wheeling....they explained what the hell they were making and how it was made...'town gas' uh ok.

[@VanderlyndenJengold]

Was that James Bolam narrating?

[@chap666ish]

Yes

[@stevethegreasemonkey]

I was thinking that was James Bolam

[@johnjakson444]

agreed, it must have been him, I think he did alot of narrating in his time

[@Gazr965]

There was no explanation on tar removal or the poisonous chemicals removal processes.

[@posmoo9790]

The UK has 800 years worth of coal left. But it instead of using it they de-industrialized and made themselves dependent and useless, not because it was cheaper, but because it is much more expensive and therefore the liberal oligarchy can make more money off their citizens.

[@CAMSLAYER13]

The coal was also fucking up the air (in the smog sense) and the mines where fucking up the countryside. Moving away from industry was stupid, moving away from coal is pretty normal. We have oil as well

[@posmoo9790]

@@CAMSLAYER13 dude people were burning coal under their beds as they slept - it was everywhere of course it was dirty

[@oldsteamguy]

interesting

[@kaleoariola]

Very interesting. Is that the same concept as a gasifier? Very neat indeed. Mahalo for sharing

[@curtisnixon5313]

They are different types of pyrolysis, like making charcoal is too

[@jamestregler1584]

❤❤

[@nebojsanesic5326]

...and I thought it was made in the ocean by the whale syndicate.

[@datadavis]

Black Country vibes

[@dankoch5357]

As a lactose intolerant individual all I need to do is drink milk and achieve the same end goal. Less work in my opinion.

[@cycleSCUBA]

A gas of much better quality and calorific value can be obtained by consuming baked beans.

[@andrewtomlinson18]

Wonder what the life expectancy was of the poor sods that worked in this industry

[@MichealRandall-q2x]

They’ve just pulled the gasometers down where I live,some thought they were ugly,I disagree,it’s now waste land and our industrial history erased for immigrant housing

[@fargus5000model]

Taco Bell makes the gas

[@rickbertrand740]

"you know"

[@HanzelikR]

Coal gas turbines would produce electricity efficiently today.

[@robertmccabe8632]

Trompe pump 80% efficient. And no moving parts Wind turbine 20-40% efficient.

[@HanzelikR]

@@robertmccabe8632 Gas turbines are like aircraft jet engines, that use gas in a combustor to create rotation..

[@parviz3998]

And how do you generate electricity with a trompe pump? You're comparing completely different technologies with wildly different applications.

[@robertmccabe8632]

@@parviz3998 nothing new about utilising compressed air. The point being you have a simple continuous source of energy (compressed air) and stackable along a water source, without the need to dam and flood large areas.

[@parviz3998]

@@robertmccabe8632 I know that but you compared a wind turbine and a trompe pump. Please explain why you compared these two technologies and why you highlighted the efficiency? A wind turbine generates electricity, also known as most useful form of energy, a trompe pump generates compressed air which must be converted into other forms of energy at a low efficiency.You cannot compare the efficiencies of those two technologies as they generate different forms of potential energy.

[@Yanus3D]

Very not efficient way and pollution as hell...well this was different time when there was no alternative yet for this nightmare.

[@Napoleon_dynamite]

Such dramatic music lol

[@Sauce787]

Dramatic? Comes across as cheery and up beat to me

[@veg411]

@@Sauce787 maybe he likes to mute videos and hum his own score while reading the subtitles.

[@jackking5567]

I still think that the UK will return to using coal to make gas and engine fuels. My mother, as a child, would venture into town with Grandads bicycle and some sacks. She was allowed to take coke for free (no idea why) to help heat their house. Sacks filled and tied and then placed through the bicycle from and over it. The bicycle then pushed by her through town and home.

[@MHLivestreams]

Wood is commonly available for gasifying, cars etc ran on it during wartime.

[@johnjakson444]

I would think the coal stocks are long depleted, but the Irish sea has perhaps mega tons of coal and a new mine has opened up to exploit that for coking steel, its a big step back in my opinion, but since the Tata steel plant is shutting down, wonder who needs it now. I also remember the coal man came every friday 1 or 2 sacks per man, dumped into the coal box. These old concrete coal boxes still seem to exist all over the place. I also remember the fog and smog that resulted from all that coal burning in our homes, there is no way we can go back.

[@veg411]

@@johnjakson444 We’ll go back to coal just like we’ll go back to using horses for every day transport. Just you wait and see.

[@THEBIGMEOW]

Why 1 video 😢

[@leenevin8451]

You’d think coal would be more powerful than coke

[@cillianennis9921]

Coke is pure carbon & that makes it great for making stuff like steal. They likely just differ in uses. probably some video or something could explain the benefits of both & the cons of them too.

[@brucew.5767]

I wonder what horrible gases this guy was breathing in while working?

[@paulmatthews5470]

I’d say lots

[@HanzelikR]

There is no OSHA.

[@OffGridInvestor]

Gas containing sulphur if the coal wasn't great. Worst of all though was carbon monoxide which is common in gasification.

[@kingjames7273]

Fart gases for sure😮😅😅😊

[@aryaman05]

Stopped this video half way..and ended up binge watching 2nd thoughts !😆

[@paulb9769]

I made gas by eating beans.

[@shermanyoung8185]

A Global warming factory 🏭

[@HanzelikR]

Global warming is a natural cycle. It comes and goes

[@microdesigns2000]

Maybe not really. It was less polluting than 300 homes heated individually with coal, and far less polluting than 300 homes heated with wood. Later when people switched to "clean inexpensive" natural gas it was another step in the right direction. Then coal was used to make electricity with even more careful attention to efficiency. And that is now how most electric cars are charged. Life was much more difficult back then. It will be a long time, if ever, before we will be able to live on so-called renewables. Until then we aren't any better than those before us because we are more wasteful now than anytime in history. Let's not be arrogant about what our ancestors did.

[@johnjakson444]

@@microdesigns2000 Also when Germany shamefully replaced nuclear with coal, they did so with new coal burners that were probably much cleaner and hotter so their thermal eff is closer to 45% rather than the usual 30% or so and they act as peaker plants for the renewables. They still did the wrong thing though, their carbon emmisions are about twice those of France per capita and German CO2 emisions never went down even with the REs. I also remember every step along the road when houses were converted from coal burning to town gas then north sea gas

[@calderarecords]

Unbelievable that they willingly subjected themselves to dangerous particles, smog, & its filthy stench just to stay warm. You can tell that does not look healthy. lol

[@powertool4uau]

still dont know how the gas was made?

[@CATech1138]

coal in a sealed container is heated and that turns anything that isn't pure carbon into gas, that gas is drawn off and cleaned before being piped to customers

[@OffGridInvestor]

You can also do the same with wood. There's OTHER methods where it essentially creates its OWN heat but you have to light it first. Called a wood gasifier. You can run charcoal in them too. They were common in Australia in WW2. I had a relative who drove a truck with one 6 days a week.

[@veg411]

Honestly this video is awful. Explains absolutely nothing and assumes you already understand all the terminology and processes involved, like an inverse educational video.

[@anthonykot]

Should have played ...Dirty Old Town...(The Pogues)

[@28704joe]

Global warming 101