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PLACES AND PEOPLE IN THE EARLY EAST LONDON GAS INDUSTRY by Mary Mills 1999 238 pp maps, illus. A4 SB Available from M Wright, 24 Humber Road, London SE3 8LT price £25.00 post free A chance remark I made to a group of school leavers found a complete lack of knowledge of the coal gas industry. Only a few of those that had gas central heating or used gas for cooking knew that today’s gas comes from the North Sea. When one considers that nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since North Sea Gas replaced coal gas, this unfamiliarity becomes understandable. How many of us, I wonder, can remember the days when the gasometer dominated the skyline? When every town had its gas works and when streets were lit by gas which had to be lit at night and extinguished in the morning by a man who rode round on his bicycle. When gas was the means of lighting the house, and the gas poker was pushed into the coke in the range in the morning to get a good blaze going. When the gas geyser was the means of heating water, and even, in the more well to do families, gas worked the refrigerator. How many of us can remember the by products of gas: coke, ammonia, coal tar, not forgetting of course the smell and the pollution. As all the above is well within living memory for a lot of us, it was no surprise to me to find that the coal gas industry is well documented, albeit that the facts are scattered over a wide area, but this book brings together the numerous threads of information to form a virtual encyclopaedia of the East London Gas Industry. Initially, coal gas lighting was developed for a single building, which could be either private or business. These evolved into “gas works”, a small gas factory to supply a group of houses or a factory. Eventually these gas works serviced a district or parish. The industry was not nationalised until 1949 so initially there was a wealth of private companies supplying gas. Mary Mills has research these companies in great detail listing in many cases their proprietors and there professions. Some like William Paxton, who lived at Middleton Hall, near Carmarthen and owned coal mines which supplied coal to the early gas companies. Another note worthy proprietor was John Taylor the famous mining engineer. Others like Boulton and Watts the famous Birmingham mining engineers who also made gas making equipment and supplied gas making plants to factories as early as 1803. The coal trade benefited significantly from the gas industry. In the 1850’s three and a half millions tons of coal a year came into London, half by rail and half by sea. It is interesting to speculate how much the Durham collieries, one of the chief suppliers, relied on this trade. What I like most about this book are the footnotes. These are placed at the bottom of each page for easy reference. The references occupy 6 pages and the scope is awesome. Mary Mills has carried out a depth of research, and left no page unturned. The book is conclude with a 5 page index making it an invaluable reference work. TO _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com