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Company. The Great Eastern Railway until 1888. He later worked for the
did not give up as a gas manufacturer BGLC as company secretary until 1897,
for good, as it resumed gas manufacture when he retired due to ill health. Mr
at Norwich in the 1880s. This time they Linging was replaced by John Young
were manufacturing oil gas for lighting as engineer and manager. Norwich
railway carriages, using the Pintsch high was an early adopter of a process
pressure system. Oil gas, unlike coal gas, called the carburetted water gas (CWG)
could be compressed at high pressure process, which was installed at the St
and stored in specially-designed high Martin at Palace gasworks and put into
pressure gasholders. These gasholders action in August 1897. This process
were incorporated into the carriages was originally developed in Britain,
and would supply gas for lighting the but it had never been made to work
carriages when it was dark. effectively until it was improved by the
The complexity of building a American engineer Thaddeus Lowe.
gasworks on unsuitable ground The process used coke as a fuel, which
conditions within the limited land was burnt until red hot, after which
available was highlighted in 1877, steam was injected and a mixture of
when a new 70-foot diameter, two- hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon
lift telescopic gasholder was to be dioxide gases were produced. This
built at the St Martin at Palace site. process produced a low quality gas
The gasholder designed and built by that could nevertheless be enriched
Messrs C and W Walker of Donnington, by the injection of oil to increase both JOHN YOUNG
Shropshire, had to be built with some its calorific value and luminating
novel features. Due to the uneven properties. The process became widely 1840. In 1888, Norwich Town Council
ground conditions, the gasholder had to used in gasworks across Britain. formed the Lighting Committee, which
be built with an iron tank. The base of As further extensions became was to inquire into the cost and method
the tank was constructed from wrought necessary, the company extended its of introducing electric lighting to other
rather than cast iron, as it was thought area of supply. However, this required towns and cities. Demonstrations had
it would better withstand the unequal the extension of the St Martin at been undertaken in Norwich in the
ground conditions. The tank sides 1880s, but these had not persuaded the
were reinforced with channel irons to There was a constant tension council to switch from gas to electric
distribute the load evenly around the lighting (Anon, 1888).
tank should it be emptied of water. between gas companies and The gas industry was not willing
The gasholder was equipped their civic authorities. Relations to be pushed easily from its valuable
with wrought iron columns, rather between Norwich Town Council gas lighting contract and, in 1900,
than typical cast iron columns. This and the gas company were a trial of incandescent gas lighting
reduced the weight of the columns, was undertaken in Norwich. The
but required that they be constructed sometimes confrontational. In same lighting committee which was
by bending plate wrought iron into a 1877, complaints were made considering electric lighting also
cylinder. This was a complex process about the state of the street released a report on the merits of
and a new approach at the time. Each repairs made after mains-laying incandescent gas lighting presented to
of the columns was attached to the them. It was recommended that about
other by middle and upper trellis had been undertaken. The town 125 lamps, with fittings and burners, be
girders. This lightweight gasholder was clerk discovered on interviewing fixed by the Street Lighting Company of
found to be very effective and a novel the company’s engineer that the Liverpool for an experimental three-
design for its time. month period at a cost not exceeding
There was constant tension between company had insufficient staff, £25. If the experiment was deemed
the gas companies and their civic made worse by a strike satisfactory by the city engineer,
authorities. Relations between Norwich (Anon, 1877b) the lanterns and fittings would be
Town Council and the gas company purchased by the corporation.
were sometimes confrontational. In In 1900, the growing rivalry between
1877, complaints were made about the Palace gasworks, resulting in many competing gas and electricity interests
state of the street repairs made after historic buildings adjacent to the in the committee became evident. Mr
mains-laying had been undertaken. The works being demolished. Cunnell moved for the adoption of the
town clerk discovered on interviewing The space available at the two incandescent gas lighting report on the
the company’s engineer that the gasworks sites was so limited that the basis “it would furnish a much hotter
company had insufficient staff, made British Gas Light Company purchased light”. However, Mr Mallett feared
worse by a strike (Anon, 1877b). The land at the Midland and Great this was the thin end of the wedge,
1870s were a time of unrest in labour Northern Joint Railway goods yard, as it would lead to increased capital
relations in the gas industry, which led which was used by BGLC to store a expenditure on incandescent lighting.
to the formation of the National Union large amount of coal. He suggested that the Electric Lighting
of Gas Workers and General Labourers Just as Norwich had adopted Company should be approached to see
by Willie Thorne, who worked at the gas relatively early on, it was also what it would charge for illuminating
Beckton Gasworks in London. progressive in seeing the benefits the streets. In the end, gas won the
Mr FE Linging was the Norwich of electricity, which had been argument and the report was adopted
station gas engineer and manager demonstrated in Norwich as early as (Anon, 1900).

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