'Growing up with Gas: A History of the Gas Industry' by Danny and Helen Lawrence
The UK’s energy problems are now centre stage. 'Growing up with Gas' puts them in perspective with a history of the gas industry from its revolutionary origins at the beginning of the 19th century, manufacturing coal gas, to the present, as a now handful of international companies gear up to move it from carbon-emitting natural gas to the clean gas hydrogen.
En route, the fragmented industry was rationalised by nationalisation then returned to the vagaries of (now global) market forces by privatisation. Because the industry consisted of small companies for most of its 200 years, this national history is combined with a detailed case study. Focused on North Tyneside, it illustrates how local companies evolved and how their directors, shareholders, employees, and customers responded to national changes and local circumstances, including often fraught relationships with local Councils, competition from the electricity industry, and the huge impact of two world wars.
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