THE NEW CARBONISING PLANT AT BRIDGWATER GAS WORKS
INAUGURATION OF THE NEW CARBONISING AND COKE SCREENING PLANT 18TH JANUARY, 1940
Digitised by Tony Woolrich,15/07/2022
Extracts:
The Bridgwater Gas Light Company was formed in 1834, by an act entitled ” An Act for Lighting with Gas the Town or Borough of Bridgwater, in the County of Somerset, and Suburbs of the said Town or Borough.” The Company operated under this act up to the year 1903, when a new Act was passed under which it still operates, with modifications, of course, in accordance with subsequent legislation governing the Gas industry.
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In 1859, Mr. James Hughes Cornish was appointed Clerk of the Company, in which position he carried on the executive management of the Company under the Board of Directors for 45 years, until, in 1904, his son, also James Hughes Cornish, the present Managing Director, succeeded him. He, in his turn, was succeeded in 1924 by his son, also James Hughes Cornish, at present Manager and Secretary of the Company. Thus the executive management has been in the hands of three successive generations of the same family for 80 years, over threequarters of the Company’s history.
Throughout that period the Company has steadily progressed. The make of gas in 1859 was 9,414,000 cubic feet ; in 1918, it was 83,500,000 cubic feet, practically nine times as much. Perhaps even more impressive, in view of intensified competition from other forms of fuel, has been the increase since the last war. The make has gone up, as will be seen from the chart opposite, steadily year by year, with one slight exception, from 83,500,000 cubic feet to 181,000,000 cubic feet in 1938, or by over 117%. Up to the outbreak of war, a similar rate of increase was achieved in 1939.
External link – build a model of a typical small town gas works.