When Gas was first introduced to Birmingham it was not called Gas but Inflammable air
Below extract from a 1911 Article by William Moughton
The Council in 1875, during the mayoralty of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, bought up the two existing Gas companies, and undertook the duty of supplying the town with gas. That this was good business policy was soon shown, for the consumers had better gas at a cheaper rate; moreover large profits were in a few years forthcoming, which went to the relief of the rates. In 1910 the handsome sum of £72,000 was thus paid over.
The chief gas-works of the Council were at Nechells and Windsor Street. An idea of the enormous size of the Nechells' gasholder has been well given in the following way: —
"It is large enough to hold not only the Town Hall, but could that be put in, there would be room for another building of the same size on the top of it, and the Midland Institute and a few other buildings might be used to fill in the remaining spaces."
The gas mains or chief pipes stretch a distance of nearly 800 miles; that is, they would run, if placed end to end in a straight line, from the south of England to the extreme north of Scotland.
When gas was used only for lighting purposes, the consumption during the hours of daylight was very small; now however so much is used for cooking, for heating rooms, for the motive power in gas engines, and by manufacturers in japanning, lacquering, and welding, that the consumption is as great during the day as at night. The introduction of the penny in the slot meter in the houses of artisians met with great success. There are now 70,000 houses fitted with gas on pre-payment system.As one consequence of this innovation, accidents from the use of badly constructed parrafin lamps are now comparativly rare
Poster from 1938
Photo Windsor St.Gas Works
