Imperial Continental Gas Association
The Imperial Continental Gas Association ( ICGA ) was a pan-European gas supply company with headquarters in London . It was founded at the end of 1824 with the aim of supplying the larger cities of continental Europe with luminous gas in order to primarily operate street lighting .
history
The founding of the Imperial Continental Gas Association goes back to the military man, inventor and entrepreneur Sir William Congreve .
The lighting of streets and buildings by means of coal gasification was already established at the beginning of the 19th century in the then technologically leading United Kingdom . Congreve's business idea was to introduce this technology on the European continent, where nothing comparable existed before. Since continental European cities lacked the necessary know-how as well as sufficient capital for the development of an infrastructure for gas supply at that time, Congreve planned to finance, build and operate gas works , pipeline networks and street lighting as part of an operator model . In return, the city should purchase the supply service under long-term contracts.
In the nation-state- fragmented Europe of the time, a transnational project of this kind was a considerable challenge for a British company. Congreve secured the support of ambassadors from major European countries, including a. of the Netherlands , Austria / Hungary and Prussia . He achieved this not least because of his personal friendship with King George IV , King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 1820 to 1830 .
The planned company also had considerable capital requirements. Congreve convinced z. T. well-known investors from his idea. Among them were Matthias Attwood, Isaac Lyon Goldsmid and Moses Montefiore , who became presidents of the Imperial Continental Gas Association alongside Congreve when it was founded. The raising of capital was facilitated by the fact that the British stock market was in a boom in the first half of the 1820s.
The technical expertise came from Congreve himself, u. a. but also by George Thomas Landmann and John Frederic Daniell , who worked for the Imperial Continental Gas Association .
On this basis, the Imperial Continental Gas Association was founded in December 1824 as a stock corporation with a share capital of £ 2 million . This sum would currently (as of 2011) correspond to a purchasing power of around 200 million pounds. The first chairman of the Imperial Continental Gas Association was Sir William Congreve.
The company was particularly successful in several European countries in the 19th century, when gas lighting was common in continental Europe for decades until it was gradually replaced by electric lighting around 1900.
In 1986, a takeover offer from Gulf Resources & Chemical Corporation was rejected. Instead, the company went into its own subsidiary Calor Group and the Contibel company (now part of GDF Suez ) in 1987 .
Gasworks
The Imperial Continental Gas Association was located in Germany from 1825, in the Netherlands from 1827 and in Austria from 1842 and in Austria-Hungary from 1867 .
Germany
Director of the German branch based in Berlin was Leonard Drory from 1833 , later his two sons Leonard George Drory (1823-1896) and from 1896-1904 Edward Drory (1844-1904).
Hanover
Colored steel engraving after a lithograph by Friedrich August Schmidt , around 1830
On February 26, 1825, Hanover , capital of the kingdom of the same name , with around 19,000 inhabitants, was the first city on the European continent to sign a gas supply contract with the Imperial Continental Gas Association . The ICGA carried out the trial operation on August 12, 1826 in the Glocksee in the Hanover suburb of Linden . The first technical manager was the engineer Leonard Drory , who was appointed by Ernst Körting senior in 1833 . was replaced, successor from 1878 to 1908 was his son Leonhard Körting . In 1912, the Imperial Continental Gas Association completed the gas works and gas container on Bauweg in Linden, which had been built in 1911 .
In 1930 the gas works (with the exception of the gas tanks ) was shut down. As a result of maintenance work, the gas mixture caused an explosion that killed one person and injured six people on May 24, 1956.
Berlin
From 1826 to 1918 (from 1847 in competition with the municipal gas companies ) Berlin was supplied with gas by the Imperial Continental Gas Association . From 1833 Leonard Drory was director. The following expansion stages were recorded:
- 1825–1826 Communication at Halleschen Tor (later Hellweg, today's Gitschiner Strasse 18–31 in Berlin-Kreuzberg, area of the Kreuzberg summer pool )
- 1836–1838 Holzmarktstrasse (north of the Schilling Bridge )
- 1847 I. Städtische Gasanstalt (south of the Schillingbrücke) and II. Städtische Gasanstalt or Gaswerk Hellweg (today's Gitschiner Straße east of Prinzenstraße, today Böcklerpark in Kreuzberg)
- 1896 Oberspree, Grünau
- 1901 Mariendorf gas works
With the opening of the gas market on January 1, 1847, the municipal municipal gas authority came into being as a competitor to the ICGA.
Aachen
From 1838 to 1912, Aachen was supplied with gas by the Imperial Continental Gas Association .
Cologne
From 1841 the Imperial Continental Gas Association supplied the city of Cologne with gas. Friedrich August Neuman was responsible for the buildings :
- In 1841 the first hard coal gas factory in Cologne was built in the Severinsviertel on the Buschgasse 11 / Rosenstrasse property. The director of ICGA Cologne was William Haseldine Pepys III. Pepys III was born in 1818 as the son of the scientist and co-founder of the Askesian Society , William Haseldine Pepys II (1775-1856), and married Phillipina Mayer from Bonn.
- In 1860 another gas works was built in Ehrenfeld , Subbelrather Strasse 175.
- The gas works at Spieserhof (today Spiesergasse) in Cologne was built in 1863.
In 1873 the city acquired the ICGA gas works in Severinsviertel and Spieserhof for one million thalers and continued to run the two works itself. In 1880 the city acquired the facilities in Ehrenfeld.
Frankfurt am Main
A special situation arose in Frankfurt am Main : The "Frankfurter Gasfabrik" (today Mainova ) founded in 1828 by Johann Friedrich Knoblauch and Johann Georg Remigius Schiele (1795–1861) at Mainzer Landstrasse 28 in today's Bahnhofsviertel (today Mainova ) ceased operations after six months a. However, by purchasing a license and renewing the equipment by the Imperial Continental Gas Association in 1829, it was able to resume production.
In 1844, the ICGA in Frankfurt was given the privilege of building a gas works to produce gas from coal. Now the collaboration with the Frankfurt gas factory ended; the ICGA completed its own gas works on Obermainstrasse (today Oskar-von-Miller-Strasse) in Frankfurt-Ostend in May 1844 . In 1869 an ICGA gas works was opened on Solmsstrasse in Frankfurt-Bockenheim , which later became the West Gas Works .
In 1909 the Frankfurt branch of the Imperial Continental Gas Association was taken over by the Frankfurter Gasgesellschaft .
Austria-Hungary
The director of the Austrian branch based in Vienna was Henry James Drory from 1881 to 1899 .
Vienna
With the acquisition of the company for lighting with kk exclusively privately improved gas with the Fünfhaus gasworks in 1842, the Imperial Continental Gas Association managed to enter the gas supply business in Vienna , its suburbs incorporated in 1850 and its suburbs incorporated in 1892.
By buying up the second private gas company based in Vienna - the Austrian Society for Lighting with Gas with its Rossau gasworks founded in 1828 , its last competitor, in 1843 - and by building its own gasworks (e.g. Erdberg gasworks ) into the controversial position of the monopoly. Two more private gas companies, which built their own gas works, were founded later, but these could not endanger the supremacy of the ICGA.
The later prevailing dissatisfaction with the English gas company finally led the municipality of Vienna to build the Simmering gasworks as the first municipal gasworks and to establish the Vienna gasworks and the supply contracts with the ICGA for Vienna with the former suburbs (districts 1–9) expired at the end of 1899.
This decision by the city administration caused the ICGA to close the following gas works in 1899:
- the Belvedere gasworks (3rd district, )
- the Erdberg gasworks (3rd district, )
- the gasworks Zwischenbrücken-Tabor (2nd district, )
On February 10, 1906, the Vienna City Council decided to also supply the suburbs 10-19 , which were still supplied by the Imperial Continental Gas Association , with urban gas, and also to build the Leopoldau gasworks in Floridsdorf , which was incorporated in 1905 , the 21st district, and the last contract to expire with the ICGA on December 31, 1911.
Until the end of 1911, the ICGA operated in what was then the city:
- the Döbling gas works , 19. , Billrothstraße ( )
- the Fünfhaus gasworks , 15. , Gasgasse ( )
- the Baumgarten gasworks , 14. , Deutschordenstrasse ( )
- the Floridsdorf gasworks , since 1905: 21. , Brünner Straße ( )
(District numbers and addresses as of today).
Around 1904, lighting fixtures with around 7,700 flames were supplied from the three gasworks in today's districts 14, 15 and 19 in Vienna. Outside the city limits at that time, Weidling , today a district of Klosterneuburg, and Hadersdorf-Weidlingau , incorporated in 1938 as part of the 14th district, were also supplied with gas. Around 630 workers were employed.
Other locations
In Sankt Pölten ( Lower Austria ), the ICGA built a gas works in 1865. Together with an electricity company, it was taken over by the city administration towards the end of the 19th century.
The Imperial Continental Gas Association , headed from Vienna, also operated gas stations in Komotau , Saaz , Graslitz and Brüx in Bohemia as of 1899, as well as in Neutra (now Slovakia ) and Esseg (now Croatia ), then in Hungary .
Netherlands
The Imperial Continental Gas Association founded a gas works in Rotterdam in 1827 . From 1836 to 1902 the ICGA supplied the city of Haarlem with gas. In 1883 ICGA built the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam , mostly based on the plans of the well-known architect Isaac Gosschalk (1838–1907), and the associated gas containers by the engineer Klönne at 8-10 Haarlemmerweg.
Belgium
From 1835 George William Drory ran the gas works in Ghent . The Imperial Continental Gas Association also had locations in Antwerp and Brussels .
literature
Great Britain
- Imperial Continental Gas Association (Ed.): Imperial Continental Gas Association 1824–1974. Published Privately, London 1974, OCLC 24149101 .
Germany
Berlin
- Hilmar Bärthel: The history of the gas supply in Berlin. A chronicle. Edited by GASAG. Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-87584-630-3 .
Frankfurt
- 175 years of gas and water supply: And you only see them in the light. ISBN 3-9806986-3-7 .
Cologne
- Hans Pohl in: Two millennia Cologne economy. Volume 2: From the 18th Century to the Present. Greven, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3-7743-0119-0 , pp. 263, 330.
Austria
- The construction of the Vienna city gas works on behalf of the mayor Dr. Karl Lueger edited. Self-published by the Vienna City Council, Vienna 1901.
- Vienna at the beginning of the XX. Century - A leader in technical and artistic direction. Edited by the Austrian Association of Architects. Gerlach & Wiedling, Vienna 1903.
- Technical guide through Vienna. Edited by the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. Edited by Martin Paul (city planning inspector). Gerlach & Wiedling, Vienna 1910.
- Robert Medek: 85 years Vienna-Simmering municipal gas works - municipal gas supply since 1899. Wiener Stadtwerke - gas works
- The Vienna Gasometer - locations and details of the ICGA gas works and gasometers in Vienna
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ gas utilities in Berlin from 1826 to 1949 . ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ; PDF) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 3
- ↑ Sir Moses Montefiore (PDF) In: The Halycyon 29, 2002, p. 8.
- ^ Inflation: the value of the pound 1750-2011 - Commons Library Research Paper
- ↑ Horst Bohne, Michael Jürging: Germany's first gas plant is built in Linden. In: Lebensraum-linden.de. February 3, 2017, accessed July 2, 2020 .
- ^ Hilmar Bärthel: The history of the gas supply in Berlin. A chronicle. Edited by GASAG. Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-87584-630-3 ; Overview
- ↑ ICGA
- ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List , accessed on November 4, 2012
- ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List , accessed on November 4, 2012
- ↑ Directors, lifting of gas monopoly
- ↑ STAWAG ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Cologne timetable from yesterday to today ( Memento from February 22, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Address book Cologne 1855 - Pepys William Hasledine, director of the Gas Assoc., Buschgasse 11
- ↑ Genealogy ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ehrenfeld ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Mainova
- ↑ Cooperation with the ICGA ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Takeover of the gas works in Vienna by the ICGA ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ ICGA's entry into the Austrian Society for Lighting with Gas ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Termination of the contracts between the City of Vienna and the ICGA ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Vienna
- ^ Vienna at the beginning of the XX. Century ...
- ^ Jürgen Schneider: Public and private economy in changing economic systems. Steiner, Stuttgart, p. 167.
- ↑ deaths. In: Neue Freie Presse , July 26, 1899, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ World Economic History Conference, Helsinki, August 21 to 26 2006 (PDF) p. 5
- ^ History of the EBH terrain
- ↑ WesterGasfabriek ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
