Today the gas we use for cooking and heating comes mainly in a form called natural gas. Natural gas is found in large deposits beneath the earth and has to be extracted by drilling, using the same technique as for oil drilling. In northern Europe, a great deal of gas is pumped from beneath the seas around the coast of Britain.

However, during the Industrial Revolution, gas was produced from coal during the process of converting coal to coke. (Coke was extensively used for iron and steel manufacture). Once the coal gas was produced, it had to be stored in a gasometer, a sort of gas reservoir. The gas was pumped through water into a large, hollow steel dome. The dome sat in a deep, concrete well which was filled with water. The gas could then be stored under pressure until it was required for use in lighting and cooking.

The first gas lights were just jets of gas with the light giving a yellow glow (a bit like the flame from a Bunsen burner). In 1885 an Australian, C. Auger, patented the first gas mantle. This took the form of a cotton mesh impregnated with chemicals. When gas was passed through the mesh and lit, the cotton carbonised but the chemicals made the gas glow with a bright, greenish-white flame. The gas light was enclosed in a glass tube, both to protect the delicate mantle and to speed up the flow of air, so giving a brighter light. This type of light was in use in homes, shops and factories up to the end of the 19th century. Gas lighting was largely replaced by electricity after World War I.

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