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William
Sugg & Co
1837 - 1969 |
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William
Sugg & Co
1837 - 1969 |
Choose the main section above to link directly to that section.
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Burners
Choose the element of 'Lighting - Burners' above to link directly to that page after reading the introduction below. Introduction to Burners. The development of the gas burner is the very first step in the practical use of gas. Before the burner, gas released from any natural source occasionally caught fire - perhaps from a spark or lightning. These natural "fire wells" as they were known could often burn for a very long time and there is a well known picture of Thomas Shirley musing over one of these 'fire wells' back in 1659. This is of course 'natural gas' formed by the action of rotting vegetation and which, many years later, would result in the revolution of the Gas Industry as it converted from 'Towns Gas' manufactured from coal to 'Natural Gas' brought up from below the north sea. The story goes that the Chinese used the gas from these fire wells, collected in an animal bladder, as a means of mobile lighting, by piercing holes through which the gas escaped and could be lit. The first 'burner'?
150 years after Thomas
Shirley, the small amounts of gas manufactured from coal were simply
burned through a hole or series of holes in a pipe.
The trays below show a collection of burners and some other items presented to The Museum of London by The Company about the time of the takeover. They were last seen and photographed by CS around 1980.
Tray 1 above and below (reversed)
Tray 2, below.
Tray 3, below
Tray 4, below
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