Artificial Gas Plant
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member JimmyEv
N 32° 45.376 W 094° 20.820
15S E 373819 N 3625069
Jefferson was home to Texas's first artificial gas system, used both in homes and for street lights. This marker explains how the gas was manufactured and piped.
Waymark Code: WM140Y
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/07/2007
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member clayj
Views: 22

Marker Number: 8036

Marker Text:
Jefferson Gas Light Company, chartered 1870 for public and domestic service, used retorts--7 foot iron drums with small necks--to make illuminating gas. (One retort stood on this site.) Loaded with pine knots and rich pine wood, a retort was heated; its gas was forced into mains by use of a pressure drum. Street lights on hollow posts, 300 feet apart, were 10-candle glass globes, lighted by a man on a ladder. These and gaslights in houses gave Jefferson--then largest inland port and second largest city in Texas--the state's first gaslight system.


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