View from ESE showing scrubber with gasholder in the background

Description View from ESE showing scrubber with gasholder in the background

Date 14/8/1970

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

Catalogue Number SC 766074

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Girvan Gas Works, Gas Lane, Girvan, South Ayrshire This shows the scrubber, used to remove the last traces of tar and ammonia from the gas before final purification. The cast-iron casing contained water-laden brushes which exposed the gas to a large cold surface. To the right of the scrubber is a washer, an earlier stage of tar and ammonia removal. To prepare coal gas for customers the tar and ammonia were removed, and were saleable. This left hydrogen sulphide as the last unwanted impurity, which was removed in purifiers. Girvan Gas Works closed in the mid-1970s when the town was connected to the Gas Grid. This was one of the last coal-gas works in Ayrshire, and still used hand-charged retorts in 1970. It was relatively large because of the number of summer visitors, most of whom stayed in boarding houses. The retort house had an opening to the street, allowing the operation of the works to be viewed by small boys. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

External Reference H35/70/48/28

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/766074

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap