El gas del agua: entre la alternativa y la decepción a mediados del siglo XIX

Abstract

By the middle of the 19th century, gas lighting had reached a good level of implementation in some European countries. In France, lighting based on coal distillation had been implemented in many towns, resisting the emergence of other alternatives such as wood gas or resin gas. However, some drawbacks remained that led some inventors to make advances in obtaining hydrogen gas from water. The procedure was not unknown, but it had not gone beyond the laboratory phase. The transition to the industrial phase occurred in the 1850s with the work of some French inventors and with its subsequent application in some factories in this country. In this paper we study the advances and resistance that were generated in France in the development of water gas in those years. In addition, we delve into the repercussions that these new techniques had in Spain, either in the proposed applications or in those carried out.