Prochain point :
Panorama sur la ville de Marines
Prochain point : lat="49.147133" lon="1.987385"
Gas plant
Airborne gas was quickly supplanted by the “electricity fairy”
The gas plant...
The town of Marines, which already had public lighting using kerosene lamps, became interested in 1900 in a new lighting mode, "airborne gas."
By installing a network of pipes this system could also supply domestic gas to homes for lighting, cooking and heating at a cost of forty cents per cubic metre. A small gas plant was built between Marines and the hamlet of Hautiers by the French airborne gas company, which won the concession for thirty years.
Lighting the gas lamps at night was the job of the "gas lighters". But with competition from electricity this form of energy rapidly declined and the gas supply became increasingly erratic. The 1914-1918 war brought the closure of the gas plant due to shortages of staff, raw materials and spare parts. The gas plant was finally bought by the town in 1923 and converted into housing.
... a complicated process!
The "airborne gases" produced by the plant has nothing to do with mains gas. It actually consists of hydrocarbon vapour, obtained by evaporating gasoline in a rather complex "gasifier", by mixing and stirring it with air. This gas is then sent under pressure through the pipelines laid in the town.
