View from W showing tank

Description View from W showing tank

Date 14/8/1970

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

Catalogue Number SC 766084

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Girvan Gas Works, Gas Lane, Girvan, South Ayrshire This shows the old rectangular tar tank on the left, and the more modern riveted iron cylindrical on the right. From these the tar, collected from the condenser, washer and scrubber, was run into barrels for shipment to a tar distillery for refining. 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. Sale of tar was economically important. 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 H35/70/48/37

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/766084

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap