Kirkcudbright, Gasworks, Interior View showing retorts

Description Kirkcudbright, Gasworks, Interior View showing retorts

Date 1967

Collection Papers of Professor John R Hume, economic and industrial historian, Glasgow, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 602263

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Kirkcudbright Gas Works, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries & Galloway This was a typical small-town gas works using horizontal retorts to make coal gas. It was founded in 1886 on a site close to both Kirkcudbright harbour and the railway station. This shows a setting of six retorts. The D-shaped doors give access to the interiors of the retorts. The round hole leads to the producer, a bed of red-hot coke through which air is drawn to make a gas which burns round the retorts, to heat them evenly. The lid of the producer is on the left. There were 18 retorts in this works. Coal gas manufacture was to a large extent phased out in the 1960s, partly, as here, by the construction of a gas grid which allowed a few large works to supply a large area. This works had closed earlier in 1967, and was demolished soon after. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

External Reference H67/339/2C

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/602263

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap