Publication Account

Date 1904

Event ID 1022028

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1022028

Provan gasworks was built on a 123 acre site aquired by Glasgow Corporation to the east of the city. It was claimed in 1904 that the works when completed could manufacture 48,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day (there were to have been 5 gasholders on site). Town or coal gas was manufactured here. By the late 20th century all of the gas making buildings had been demolished and the gasholders were used for storing natural or north sea gas. Due to the different levels on the site, and this was used to advantage.

The coal, lime and so on required for required in the making of town gas. were broght in at a high level and the spent coal (coke) and other material was sent off site on the low level. The northernmost part of the ite had a residual products works. Here the bye products of gas making - ammoniacal liquor and tar flowed there using gravity as the site sloped down to the north east. At this chemical works sulphate of ammonia, pitch, naptha,benzole and carbolic acid were manufactured. When initially costructed Provan had a 'main avenue'. On one side were the offices and workshops (both of which survive), small locomotive sheds, workmen's bathrooms and dining hall (demolishd). On the other side were the governor, meter, exauster and boiler houses (demolished).

The boiler house contained two Babcock and WIlcox water tube boilers fitted with 'Meldrum' furnaces. Each boiler could evaporate 8000 ounds of water per hour at a 'pressure of 150 pounds per square inch. The two compound pumping engines were by the Airdrie Iron Company and supplied water at 500 pounds per square inch pressure to the charging, drawing and tipping machines and to the hydraulic capstans.

The retort houses were 390 feet 8 inches in length by 78 feet in breadth. Each retort house contained 720 fireclay retorts, built in 'regenerative settings of twelves'. The coal passed from the main storage hoppers to breakers and then to a bucket gravity bucket conveyer, The coal was thus carried to the overhead storage hoppers which in turn supplied the charging machinery for filling the retorts.

The charging (filling) and drawing (emptying) machines were of the 'Arrol-Foulis' type invented and patented by Mr Foulis and Sir William Arrol. These machines reduced the cost of carbonising and made labour efficiencies possible in the retort house. All coal and coke was handled by machinery on site - there was no manual handling at any point. The spent coal or coke when drawn from the retorts fell through the retort house floor into wagons on the narrow gauge railway on the ground floor. The small Andrew Barclay locomotives and conveyed to to the plant for storing, screening and loading the coke.

Some of the coke was not quenched burt removed hot from the retorts and was taken in hopper style wagons to fill the producers. The fuel gas with which the retorts were heated was generated in the large gas producers outside the retort house. The gas was moved to the retort settings along steel mains pipes lined with firebricks.

The hot coke whilst still in its tipping wagons was quenched by a shower of water in the coke quenching houses. It was then discharged into one of the theree steel hoppers which fed the buckets of the coke conveyors. It was then moved to the screening machinery wher it was sorted and loaded into railway wagons. The conveyors were also designed to store the coke as it could be discharged along its length to create a coke heap 140 feet in length and 50 feet in height.Travelling cranes could then remove coke from stock as required.

Oil Gas Plant: this plant had four units, each capable of producing 2500 cubic feet of gsa per hour. This was housed in a steel framed structure coverd with corrugated sheeting as it was required to be of a temporary nature.

The purifier house: This was 503 feet in length and 85 feet in width and contained 24 purifiers in six sets of four. This part of the plant was made and erected by the Branson Bridge Building Company. The purifying agent was lime which was fed into the purifiers from above through camvas chutes.

The spent lime was discharged through plugs in the bottom of the purifiers into the narrow gauge railway beneath. The lime that was required for purification of the coal gas was burnt in lime kilns within the works asthere was a plentiful supply of limestone.

The scrubbers and water tube condensers: The 'Holmes' rotary scrubbers were a portion of the cyanide plant. This allowed the cyanogen to be extraced from the gas. Four ammoniacal scrubbers, 'Walker's' purifying machines, had been built by 1904. These abstracted ammonia from upto 3,000,000 cubic feet of gas every 24 hours. The four water tube condensers (Kirkham, Hulet and Chandler) were situated between the scrubbers and the exhauster house. Each condenser could deal with 3,000,000 cubic feet of gas every 24 hours.

The exhauster house contained eight 'Waller's' patent exhausters in four sets of two, each set driven by a vertical steam engine. Each exhauster could pass 120,000 cubic feet of gas per hour if required. By 1904 three gas maters for measuring the gas produced had been erected. Each meter was capable of passing 200,000 cubic feet of gas per hour. Space had been laid aside for another three meters.

The gasholders 'are being made' by the Barrowfieeld Iron Works limited according to the author of the pamphlet/. One had been finishd by 1904 and in use, the second holder was under construction by the official opening of the site in September 1904. Both holders were of the same diemnsions with the uter lift 280 feet in diameter and 50 feet in depth. The middle lift was 276 feet and 10inches in diameter by 50 feet in depth. The innr lift was noted as being 273 feet 9 inches in diameter by 51 feet in depth, each holder having the capacity of 8,500,000 cubic feet of gas. the tanks were but by Messrs Robert MacAlpine and Sons (contarctors for all of the buildings on site unless otherwise stated) ar of brick, the depth from the copeto rhe granite bearing blocks be8ing 50 feet in depth. The guide framing standards erected by Sir William Arrol and Co. Ltd were 152 feet 6 inches in height.

There was also a pump house supplying water to the works close to the holders/. The plant, consisted of two sets of centrifyugal series pumps, driven by 'Acme' gas engines which delivered water to a high level reservoir. This plant was needed as the pressure form the water mains was insufficient to supply higher parts of the works.

The govrnor house contained a 'Parson's' turo-exhaustr. this propleeled the gas doen the high perssure main to the holders at Dalmarnock. This plant could deal with upto 780,000 cubic feet of gas per hour and was 'guaranteed tp pump the full quantity with a difference of pressure between the inlet and outlet of 24 inches of water'.

Three bridges had to be built with the consstruction of a new road along the eastern boudary of Alexandra Park.. One crossed the Monkland Canal and two crossing the Caledonian Railway.

Cororation of Glasgow, Gas Department, 1904; see HES drawing number GWD/177/1