Den lysende gas: Etableringen af det danske gassystem 1800–1890 by Ole Hyldtoft

Abstract

1002 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE graphs make it a pleasant read. Especially the advertisements pro­ vide insight into the figures and line of argument for the introduc­ tion of new technologies and into arguments against competing solutions. A good example is the natural ice industry’s campaign against the artificial ice industry, another one the campaign of the early air-conditioning industry. The book introduces new details and it is a fine, thick text, unlike anything previously published on the history of indoor technology. Thus, the book makes a contribution, even if it does not yield many new insights to the specialized histo­ rian of technology. Hans-Liudger Dienel Dr. Dienel runs the Center for Technology and Society at the Technical Univer­ sity, Berlin. He has published a book on refrigeration and thermodynamics in Ger­ many and the United States, 1870-1930 (Ingenieure zwischen Hochschule und Industrie: Kaltetechnik in Deutschland und Amerika, 1870-1930. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995). Den lysende gas: Etableringen afdel danske gassystem 1800-1890. By Ole Hyldtoft. Herning, Denmark: Forlaget Systime, 1994. Pp. 252; il­ lustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, appendices, index, sum­ mary in English. (No price given.) In the 19th century, gasworks represented the British technology that was transferred to other countries in packages. The first Danish public gasworks, for example, were financed by British capital and assembled from British components by British technicians and work­ ers to vaporize British coal. Even their business contracts with au­ thorities and customers were copied from British models. The main theme in this book, however, is not the meticulous transfer of tech­ nology but the quick adoption and efficient domestication ofpublic gasworks technology on such a scale that the author regards the whole process as the construction of the Danish national gas system. Practically from the very beginning, Danes rose to the posts of con­ struction engineers and managers of gas utilities. Within just a few years, domestic workshops became capable ofdelivering most of the equipment needed by the gasworks and a sufficiently competent Danish workforce was trained. In the fifteen years from 1853 to 1868, Denmark raised the density of its gasworks almost to the British level. Only three of thirty-one towns with a population over three thousand lacked a public gas­ works. Ole Hyldtoft aims to explain why the Danes were so efficient in developing a successful urban energy system. A comparison to other Nordic countries is striking. By 1890, when the first wave in the construction of gasworks was exhausted, there were forty-two technology and culture Book Reviews 1003 utilities in Denmark, or as many as in Sweden, Norway, and Finland together. The author neglects to emphasize that the scarcity of indigenous energy resources was the fundamental reason why Denmark was forced to use imported fuels and to economize on their use. In the kingdom of chronic energy famine, illuminants were not the only fuels in great demand. From the late 1860s, Danish gasworks were also cokeries; they normally earned 20 to 30 percent of their income by selling coke, which was a widely used fuel in Denmark. Other Nordic countries, in contrast, were able to rely on indigenous fire­ wood more extensively and therefore the demand for solid fossil fuels there was much more modest. In addition, the sales ofcoke and other by-products enhanced the financial well-being of the Danish utilities because their prices remained stable whereas the price of gas gradually decreased. Although the Danes, due to their fair technical training and high level of motivation, proved talented imitators of British and later also German gas equipment, theywere not innovative in gas technol­ ogy. They directed their creative power to organizational innova­ tions. As early as 1862 the price differentiation of gas between light­ ing and heating was invented by a medium-sized Danish gasworks in Nakskov. This trailblazing pricing policy soon spread all over the country and while stimulating the use of gas ovens it also boosted the sales of gas. After many years, the same policy was adopted by gas utilities abroad. The municipally owned gas supply utility was another organiza­ tional innovation that the Danes exploited energetically. The first gasworks of this type was set up...