The British Gas Industry before 1850

T tHIS paper attempts to describe and quantify certain aspects of the spread of the gas industry in the United Kingdom during the first half of the nineteenth century. It deals in particular with three problems: (i) the extent to which the gas industry had developed by mid-century, (ii) the pace of construction of new gasworks in the period, and (iii) the amount of fixed capital investment in the gas industry. Finally, a few general remarks are made on the method of financing gas undertakings. The principal conclusions reached are that by about the middle of the nineteenth century the gas industry was widespread and the vast majority of towns with a population greater than 2,500 possessed gas companies; that the construction of new gasworks took place in phases corresponding to the trade cycle; and that throughout the period there was a marked tendency for gas manufacture to spread to progressively smaller towns. It is estimated that fixed capital investment in gasworks (at historic cost) was approaching [I2 million by the late i840's.