One of the more obscure industries in Greenwich was the manufacture of gas mantles. I’m sure there was a factory here which made them but the details of it seems incredibly difficult to track down.
Now, I did write about this in June 2121 in an article about sites on Deptford Creek but I thought that it was worth expanding the two paragraphs I did then and put the subject – gas mantles, George Livesey and South Met. Gas – into a wider context and try and explain what is important about it – so, sorry if that ends up as boring!
Gas mantles are of course to do with gas lights and we might think there is no need for them today. But they are still needed in caravans and for some camping equipment which use bottled gas for lighting - and, so, mantles are still made. In their day though, in the late 19th century , they were revolutionary in that they made gas lighting more useful and cheaper – and more competitive with newly developed electric lighting.
There was a problem with early gas lights. The gas was coming in through a pipe and was lit at the end of it - but that single flame actually wasted most of the potential light – it needed to be spread out and be more diffuse to give all the light within it. Various devices were developed to produce ‘incandescent light’ but were not particularly successful. Then the gas mantle was developed in Austria by Carl Auer von Welsbach. He was an academic chemist who, while working on a different project discovered by chance that a small woven cotton sack soaked a thorium solution could be used to create a small fragile shell which would spread the flame . By the late 19th century , following a lot more experimentation and development, a successful product was available. The process was patented and the mantles were manufactured.,
There is a complex story about the Welsbach company, the patents and their monopoly position which they exploited ruthlessly. An introduction – for those interested –can be found in ‘Burning to Serve’ by Francis Goodall. Our local South Megtropolitan Gas Company, and its Chair, George Livesey, were involved but they also had a wider interest in that The electricity was being promoted for lighting –both for domestic use- and for street lighting. It was clear that the gas industry needed to find both new devices and a new customer base.
Gas for lighting was cheaper than electricity and ‘incandescent gas was still cheaper’. In 1894 Livesey said that with incandescent burner gas was cheaper than if the gas was lit in a traditional fishtail burner.. He said “the effect of improved burners is to reduce the price to half or even one quarter “. He estimated that for 1d. electrical customers got 500 thermal units - whereas they got 16,500 using gas.
The main London factory for the Welsbach mantles was in Garrett Lane, Wandsworth – now the site of Mantle House flats. There is a Pathe news film of King Edward VII visiting a Welsbach factory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Goo1Tav2s . Pathe say they don’t know the location but speculate that it is Greenwich – I’m really not convinced, nor do I think it is like Wandsworth – have a look at it. What do you think?
Now Welsbach ‘s monopoly was bound to be opposed in South London -and of course George Livesey -was just the man in the gas industry challenge it.To let Such a challenge to South Met. on their home patch continue, was unthinkable.
George Livesey had been an early promoter -of incandescent
lighting and had persuaded all the local authorities in the South Met. area to
adopt it in their street lighting. In
1898 they made an offer to the local authorities who bought their gas for
street lighting. They would convert, for free, all the street lights in South
London to incandescent ones. They would continue to charge the current price
for gas at first but once they had recovered the costs of the conversion prices
wouldcfall. How could the local
authorities refuse??
Soon all street lights had been converted and the parishes were
saving money. By 1900 incandescent light was effectively universal. South Met. also introduced a new lamp-post
and lantern – ‘The South London Lamp’ for use on main roads. The gas industry began to develop all sorts
of new ways of providing street lighting and throughout the 20th
century continued to light public areas – where most people assumed electric
light was being used.
From 1900 domestic customers were routinely supplied with
incandescent burners for all purchases.
In 1902 Livesey sought a settlement with competing mantle
interests. He set up a guarantee fund to
fight any legal action they brought and stop them unfairly supporting their patent
. They ensured legal representation was properly funded and South Met.
initially contributed £2,000.. Eventually; extensive and complex changes resulted
in new management at the Welsbach company and they had agreed to end aggressive litigation against small traders
In 1906 Livesey told South
Met. shareholders that ‘the incandescent mantle, had enabled gas to take up the
premier position as an artificial light. Eighty per cent. of the company ‘s
consumers used the mantle ....the use
of mantles accounted for the slight increase in the consumption of gas, but, on
the other hand, the mantle was making the position of the company absolutely
secures’. Livesey also advised all gas companies to adopt incandescent
.lighting via a letter in Journal of Gas Lighting.
Throughout this period South
Met. advertised incandescent burners throughout south London using their trade
name of 'Metro'. In order to dodge the Welsbach company monopoly they had
sourced a cheap supply of burners from abroad, where sometimes the Welsbach patents did not
apply. For example:
South
Metropolitan Gas Company. Showrooms 26 Powis Street. Woolwich. Telephone 106
Woolwich. ..Gas fittings of the most modern and artistic type available at
reasonable prices...supply and fix for cash or on hire purchase .... Estimates
free- incandescent burners cleaned and maintained at a small quarterly charge
A.G.
GOURLAY IRONMONGER. 162, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich, S.E.10. Call and See the Largest Stock of GAS BURNERS,
GLOBES, PENDANTS and FITTINGS in GREENWICH . “METRO" MANTLE .specially
manufactured for the South Metropolitan Gas Company. GIVES EXCELLENT RESULTS
BOTH IN LIGHTING, EFFICIENCY AND DURABILITY. 3d. each or delivered in lots of not less than six. Cash with
order or on delivery.”
Incandescent Gas Lighting. ...Ordinary
Burners, Mantle, Fork and Chimney .7 ½
each. New Inverted Burners, complete with Globe and Mantle 5/7½ each; Light Fittings, 16/6 each. Very Special Value
. 18/6. Gladiator Mantles under Welsbach License 2/9 dozen. GAS & ELECTRIC
LIGHT INSTALLATIONS. GOOD WORKMANSHIP. MODERATE' PRICE. Haycraft Son, Ltd., THE BROADWAY, DEPTFORD.;
119 & 201, LEWISHAM HIGH ROAD TRANQUIL VALE BLACKHEATH VILLAGE
Although the manufacture of
mantles was took place in Britain the main source of supply for the all
important thorium solution was the Austrian Welsbach Company. In 1905 it was
understood that a German consortium was now in control of the supply of
Brazilian monazite from which thorium is derived. Livesey at once took action and, having
failed to secure a supply y negotiation he sent Joseph Tysoe off to Brazil .
Tysoe was an important man in South Met. – the Manager of East
Greenwich Gas works itself. However thirty or years earlier he had worked at
a gas works in Brazil so – I assume – it
was thought he would ‘understand’ it there. His visit is covered in Brian
Sturt’s article ‘Joseph Tysoe and Monazite Sand.(Historic Gas Times 106 Dec 2021 – HGT available Inst
Gas Engineers).
Tysoe had started work with South Met. – and had nearly been killed during the construction of East Greenwich works when a crowbar aimed at his head by a ‘marsh dweller’ was narrowly averted. In charge of East Greenwich works he had overseen that it “first .. gave employment to but fifty workmen... now between fourteen hundred and fifteen hundred men aee employed... the daily production of gas reaches nearly twenty-three million cubic feet, for the manufacture of which 2,200 tons of coals are used.” In Greenwich Tysoe was an active politician and was an Alderman on the Metropolitan Borough Council and he lived in Westcombe Park Road.
I am aware of two articles written by Tysoe about his experiences in Brazil and hopefully can get copies – from an archive in Warrington- to relate what he had to say about his expedition in another article. It seems they were unable to get a Brazilian source of monazite
In 1906 South Met. bought a monazite mine in Shelby North Carolina. but before extraction could begin Livesey had died and the mine was mothballed as unviable but it emerged as potentially useful again in 1914. The episode is cited in gas histories as ‘an extreme example of a gas undertaking stepping outside its traditional role’.
I began by saying that there was a mantle factory in
Greenwich. In my earlier article I said
that it was in the ‘Roan Street’ gasholder site on Deptford Creek – now the
site of the trading estate in Norman Road and to the north of Greenwich
Station. It was called Gas Efficiencies
and, I think, dated from the 1930s. In
the earlier article- the only additional information I had was that its manager
was a Mr.Higgins
Mantles continued to be made –eventually at Phoenix Wharf – which
was part of East Greenwich gas works. As I said they are still used –mainly in
portable gas lighting – who knows where they are made now.
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