Glimpses of old Glasgow

Part I. Historical

Gas and Electric Lighting in Glasgow

In 1817 the city and suburbs of Glasgow and places adjacent were looked upon as populous, and it was thought that it would be of great benefit to the inhabitants thereof, and to the public at large, if the streets and other public places were lighted with gas. In that year (on 16th June, 1817) an Act of Parliament was accordingly obtained, giving statutory powers to "The Glasgow Gas Light Company" for the purpose of producing "Inflammable Air" and other products from coal. The capital authorized was £40,000, in shares of £25 each. The first business of the company was to fix upon a site for works, the place chosen being on the "west side of Kirk Street, near the High Kirk," on which was erected the first gas work in the city. The cost (including street mains, etc.) amounted to over £50,000. The gasometer erected here, capable of containing 25,000 cubic feet, was then the largest in the kingdom.

The year 1818 is memorable in the history of Glasgow for the introduction of gas lighting: it began in the first week of September of that year. The strange news ran from house to house that there would be an experiment with gas in "the shop window of Mr. James Hamilton, grocer, No. 128 of the Trongate," situated half-way between Hutcheson Street and the Candleriggs. The lighting consisted of six small burners (or jettees, as they were then called), and excited a great amount of interest and some adverse comment amongst the people who crowded the streets to see the new and marvellous light which burned without a wick. The first street lamp was lit with gas on 5th September of the same year.

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Soon after the principal part of the shops in the town and suburbs were lighted with gas, several private houses, almost all the cotton mills and other public works, and the public and private lamps. In 1818, the period at which the lighting of the city commenced, the charge for a single jet lighted to 8 o'clock was 12s. per annum, there being no meters. So rapidly did the applications for a supply of gas increase - for people were throwing aside their oil lamps - that the company, on 1st June, 1822, obtained a new Act of Parliament to increase the capital by £40,000.

Within three years afterwards (May, 1825) a third Act of Parliament was obtained to increase the stock by £20,000. Again in April, 1826, a fourth Act of Parliament was obtained to raise an additional sum of £50,000, so popular had gas become in the public estimation. The demand for gas continued steadily until, in order to keep up an abundant supply to the city, and also meet the increasing necessities of the population in the suburbs, the company, in 1835, purchased ground in Tradeston which possessed considerable advantages as a station for the manufacture of gas, on which to erect an additional work. These works were originally erected in 1838, at a cost of over £20,000. In 1841, owing to the great increase in houses and works that had taken place in the western portions of the city, and the still greater increase reasonably anticipated in that quarter, the directors were induced to purchase a piece of ground in the "village of Partick," on which they in 1843 erected a gas station to give the inhabitants of the "village" who had applied for it the benefit of gas light.

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In 1843 the City and Suburban Gas Company of Glasgow obtained, after some opposition by the existing company, an Act of Parliament to supply the inhabitants of Glasgow and neighbourhood with gas. After erecting works at Dalmarnock, which were larger than any belonging to the old company, they in 1844 proceeded to enter the field of gas-lighting as competitors with the Glasgow Gas Light Company. The capital of this company was £150,000. The receipts for the first year were £10,537, and the company proved so great a success that in 1857 an Act of Parliament was obtained to increase the capital by £50,000. Notwithstanding the competition both companies were so successful that in 1869 they promoted new bills for additional capital. The Corporation, in the interests of the ratepayers, opposed, and promoted two bills of their own - one to empower them to purchase by agreement the existing gas undertakings; and the other, an alternative one, to empower them to erect competing gas-works. After some days' procedure the House of Commons Committee declared that they were strongly of opinion that there should be one sole management of gas supply in Glasgow, and that such management should be in the hands of the Corporation. This decision resulted in the Corporation acquiring the undertakings of the two companies.

In 1871 the Partick, Hillhead, and Maryhill Gas Company was created in opposition to the Corporation, for the supply of Partick, Hillhead and Kelvinside. They took over the works of the Maryhill Gas Company, besides erecting new works at Temple in 1873. This company continued with varying success till 1892, when, by "The Glasgow Corporation Gas Act, 1891," the works, pipes, etc., of that company, together with the works of the Old Kilpatrick Gas Company (which had been purchased during the previous year), became vested in the Corporation at a cost of £202,500. In the same year the works and pipes of the Pollokshaws Gas Light Company were also acquired by the Corporation at a cost of £14,500. The acquisition of these undertakings removed all opposition to the progress of the Corporation Gas Trust, and also to the extension of the city, which was to some extent blocked on account of the Partick, Hillhead, and Maryhill Gas Company.

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It has been already stated that the gasholder erected in 1818 was capable of containing 25,000 cubic feet of gas, and was, at that date, the largest in the kingdom. How great the contrast with the one erected at Temple by the Corporation in 1892, the capacity of which is over 5,000,000 cubic feet!

The gas supply area of the Corporation has recently been largely extended. Gas is now delivered at Mount Vernon on the east, and Bowling on the west, a geographical distance of sixteen miles; also at Bearsden, in the north-west, and Burnside, Rutherglen, in the south-east, a distance of nine miles; also from Springburn in the north-east to Crookston in the south-west, a distance of about seven miles. The capital of the Trust at 31st May, 1893 was £1,135,198. The revenue for the year ending same date was £594,049, and the quantity of gas manufactured during the same period was 4,282,353,000 cubic feet.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING. - In order to further extend their usefulness in artificial lighting, the Corporation obtained a provisional order in 1891 to enable them to supply electricity for lighting and motive purposes, and purchased the electric lighting works and plant of Messrs. Muir, Mavor, & Coulson (Limited), at a cost of £15,000. Since 1st March, 1892, they have been supplying electric energy to consumers in the central area of the city from these works, and since 1st February, 1893, have supplied current from new works erected in Waterloo Street on the most approved principles, at a cost of £45,000. These works supply current on the low tension three-wire system, the cables in connection with which are laid underground; this system being considered superior to the former and more dangerous system of high tension and overhead wires. The streets of Glasgow were first lighted with electricity on 25th February, 1893. The lighting was inaugurated by Lord Provost Bell turning on the current in public to seventy-one lamps.