The Environmental History of the Early British Gas Industry, 1812-1830

The manufactured gas industry was established in the United Kingdom in 1812, spreading to most cities by 1820. The process of generating gas also produced highly toxic effluent that was dumped into sewers and rivers, and so the rise of the gas industry generated immediate opposition. Environmental histories of industrial pollution during the Industrial Revolution have generally claimed that there was hardly any legal action, in the courts or by Parliament, taken against industrial polluters, and almost none of these was successful. This paper shows that gas companies were repeatedly named in nuisance lawsuits that they lost, forcing them to modify the worst aspects of their pollution. In addition, municipal authorities were active in moving against gas pollution. The City of London repeatedly indicted gas companies in the 1820s for polluting the Thames and poisoning its fish. Finally, the gas industry became the subject of regulation on a national level. By 1820 there were repeated calls for Parliament to intervene, and so it began inserting clauses into gas company acts of incorporation restricting the dumping of effluent. All these measures, however, were largely ineffective because enforcement mechanisms were weak and local authorities did not use the full powers granted them.