Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Technology Connections" channel.

  1. Two massive units were astride the 405 Freeway in Long Beach, California -- for years. They eventually became buffers for the adjacent refinery -- IIRC. This was the same refinery that Cody Jarrett blew up in "White Heat." He was atop spherical propane-butane tanks... a bad place to smoke. They must be gone by now -- so old -- and sitting atop valuable land.
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  2.  @felixmervamee7834  Actually -- it WAS. What is here described as 'coal gas' was rarely so named. Instead, the terms: 'city-gas' ( the stuff was never seen outside of cities ); 'manufactured gas', 'lighting gas' were much more common. If you roll back through old Hitchcock horrors -- one scene stood out -- a murder victim is held -- head first -- into an oven. In the scene, the pilot lamp has been put out by the murderer -- and the audience is left squirming as the event goes on and on. The murderer is holding his head to the side -- while the poor victim is forced to inhale carbon monoxide. This ultra nasty reputation IS what the new term was contrasting against. You'll find other, similar scenes, from crime dramas dated back in time, the era before natural gas. Natural gas took off when the Texas Railroad Commission compelled oil companies to gather it -- not flare it -- as had been the custom. This was resisted -- at first -- until it became idiot obvious that said natural gas could be sold in a big way to ammonia plants... facilities that weren't too far down the road. ( The US government paid for massive plants to generate ammonia => nitric acid => explosives during WWII.) Until then, natural gas had no market. Retail consumption was nil. When the war ended, the industry had to find new buyers -- and soon did.
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  3. You might mention that Rockefeller -- essentially -- invented modern kerosene -- just for these lamps. His ENTIRE fortune started because he 'standardized' his petroleum fraction -- and labeled it Standard Oil. (Kerosene) His rivals were blending in gasoline into their stuff. At the time, gasoline was, otherwise, a waste product. (!) Rockefeller was burning it within his distilleries. (Modern oil refining was decades away into the future.) The number of lost buildings due to gasoline vapor explosions -- after the illumination flame was put out -- were tragic. The insurance industry -- essentially -- compelled clients to ONLY used Standard Oil's kerosene. (Gasoline was just too volatile.) Today, Rockefeller's standardization lives on in API's standards. Late in life, you can imagine Rockefeller's surprise as gasoline became his number one seller. Ford's Model T had made him richer than ever.
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