|
AD
|
1st - 17th Century
|
|
100
|
Streets
of Fontaine Ardent, near Grenoble, France, lit with natural gas (in place
for centuries). |
|
400
|
Streets
of Antioch and Jerusalem lit at night; probably by bonfires. |
|
825
|
Saxon
Chronicle makes first note of coal in England. |
|
900
|
Approximate
time of Arab street paving and street lighting, by oil, at Cordoba, Spain. |
|
c.1000
|
Coal
begins to replace wood and charcoal as preferred fuel in Britain. |
|
1180
|
First
systematic mining of coal in the British Isles, as fuel. |
|
1259
|
Henry
III grants Royal Charter for mining of coal at Newcastle, England. |
|
1200's
|
Oil
lamps illuminate Madonnas at Paris crossroads. |
|
1306
|
Dense
coal smog at London; Parliament complains to Edward III. |
|
1316
|
Royal
proclamation against use of coal in London as a "noisome smell." |
|
1325
|
English
coal exchanged for French corn, in sailing ships. |
|
1330
|
Monks
of Tynemouth Priory selling coal from their colliery, to those who would
come to extract such. |
|
1414
|
Rudimentary
street lighting, by oil, at London. |
|
1490
|
Cast
iron coal and wood-fuel cooking stoves introduced in the Alsace. |
|
1509
|
Cast
iron box stoves introduced at Ilsenburg (now Saxony-Anhalt), historic German
iron foundry. |
|
1524
|
Rudimentary
street lighting, by oil, in place at Paris. |
|
1541
|
Paracelsus
discovers hydrogen gas. |
|
1558
|
Paris,
France, inaugurates main boulevard lighting with large metal tar pitch pots. |
|
1580
|
Queen
Elizabeth prohibits use of coal at London, while Parliament is in session. |
|
1608
|
Beginning
of American chemical industry when British send eight Poles and Germans
to Jamestown, Virginia, to make tar, pitch, glass and soap. |
|
1609
|
Belgian
chemist van Helmont discovers artificial gas, by fermentation and combustion;
Names it geist (ghost). |
|
1620
|
Sir
William St. John receives first English patent for the bee-hive coke oven,
to convert coal to smokeless fuel. |
|
1622
|
French
missionaries discover Native Americans igniting natural gas in NW New York
State. |
|
1654
|
Robert
Boyle experiments with illuminating gas generated by fermentation of organic
matter. |
|
c.1654
|
Sir
Thomas Shirley discovers natural gas issuing from groundwater spring at
Wigan, England. |
|
1658
|
Thomas
Shirley reads a paper before British Royal Society on experiments with natural
gas issuing from geologic outcrop near Wigan, later seat of the vast gas-coal
beds. |
|
c.1659
|
Rev.
Dean John Clayton, British clergyman of Kildare, prepares gas from bituminous
coal of Wigan, collects such in animal bladders and ignites such to amuse
friends. |
|
1662
|
Robert
Boyle announces Boyle's Law of Gasses. |
|
1667
|
Charles
II initiates Hearth Tax on fireplaces, in response to widespread
use of coal for heating. |
|
1669
|
Shirley
writes of his gas generation and illumination experiments in Trans. of
Royal Society. Streets of Paris lit by candles set in glass boxes, by
Royal decree. |
|
1672
|
Hague,
Netherlands, has illuminated streets; probably by oil.
Hamburg, Germany, has illuminated streets; probably by oil.
Nicolas Denys, French explorer with rights from Louis XIV, publishing at
Paris, describes coals on the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. |
|
1675
|
Coal
is distilled to produce tar; No further details. |
|
1679
|
Jesuit
explorer Father Hennepin reports existence of coal in Illinois .
Berlin has oil-fired street lamps. |
|
1681
|
First
British patent on generation of coal gas; To Johann J. Becher and Henry
Serle for "a new way of makeing pitch and tarre out of pit coale, never
before found out or used by any other. |
|
1684
|
John
Clayton experiments with natural gas at Sir Thomas Shirley's gas spring. |
|
1694
|
City
of London places oil street lamps before every tenth house. |
|
17th Cent.
|
Coke
was known as "charked coal" |
