Building the First Gas Network, 1812-1820

Between 1812 and 1820, the Gas Light and Coke Company built the world's first urban gas network in London. The company transformed the technology from the existing stand-alone installations into an integrated network spanning much of the metropolis. Doing this involved solving business, technical, and social problems. Technically, the gas company found ways to generate large volumes of gas efficiently, mitigate leaks and stabilize pressure, and balance gas generation with demand. Socially, the company's customers had very different expectations of how to use gas than the company did. The company had to find ways of controlling usage patterns. From a business point of view, the company w! as only able to do this once it had reformed its internal mana! gement into a hierarchical structure of committees with clearly defined mandates. All this shows that the gas industry was one of the first integrated technological systems, a claim usually made for railways.