Resumen de The adoption of new technologies by Gasworks in Spain
Francesc Xavier Barca Salom, Joan Carles Alayo Manubens
The technology of gas production for public lighting and domestic and industrial uses has become obsolete. The replacement of coal gas by natural gas resulted in the abandonment of distillation and physical and chemical depuration technologies in favour of extraction and distribution processes.
The production of coal gas contains the germ of renewal because of the need for frequent changes due to the deterioration of retorts. As a result, iron retorts were replaced by ceramic ones. Their position changed from being horizontal, tilted, and finally vertical. In order to boost production, the retorts were enlarged before being replaced by chambers. Another change in coal gas production concerns heating, i.e. by coke or tar combustion or by gas producer. Subsequently, new methods were introduced in order to obtain town gas by means of mixing blue water gas and carburetted water gas with coal gas. The decade of the 1960s marked a trend towards a new technology of gas production: cracked gas. This process replaced coal by oil as a raw material, giving rise to a cleaner and more chemical system of production.
This paper provides a preliminary approach to the evolution of technologies of gas production at fifty gas works in Spain. To this end, an attempt is made to gather dispersed and heterogeneous information in order to shed light on the evolution of technological change in the cities where this took place.
