HISTORIC GAS TIMES
NEWSLETTER

Historic Gas Times is published four times a year and is produced by members of the Panel for the History of the Gas Industry. The Historic Gas Times consists of articles created by Panel members and sent in by readers covering all aspects of industry's history. The first issue appeared in 1994 and gradually built up its content from 1000 words per issue to over 8000 words. Distribution has also increased from about 100 copies per quarter to 500 today, which are mailed to addresses globally. The cost to subscribe is £6 per year for UK residents and £10 for overseas. The Editor of Historic Gas Times is Barry Wilkinson. He invites articles or letters of under 500 words for consideration and publication, and can be contacted at 10 Coniston Way, Wetherby, LS22 6TT; Tel 01937 584672.

The IGEM Panel for the History of the Gas Industry was formed in the mid 1970s at the time when traditional gas manufacturing processes were being closed down after almost 170 years of continuous development. Natural gas had replaced the old gasworks, there were nearly 1500 of these in operation at one time using over 25% of the output from the collieries in Britain. Also new techniques for gas distribution were being introduced. The gas industry was changing into a modern integrated utility company and the old face of the gas industry was fast disappearing. There was a real need to save some of its history. Nine of the gas regions had formed collections of archival material and old appliances and created gas museums to conserve their "heritage". The Panel proceeded to advise and support these and prepared "collecting policies" for the museums to avoid duplication and repetition. There were more significant changes to the industry in the mid 1990's, which saw the regions disappear and the formation of a central archive at Partlington and a single national museum at Leicester. Nine museums were closed and their contents of archival documents and artefacts were dispersed or put into storage.

The Panel decided to concentrate on producing the Historic Gas Times, a quarterly publication available to anyone who is interested in the history of the industry. The Panel supports the IGEM History Fund, which is a registered Charity, and the HGT is the newsletter of the fund. For further information on the history of the Gas Industry   visit the website, www.nationalgasmuseum.org.uk

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