This Week in Petroleum History: Aug. 31 – Sept. 6
August 31, 1850 – San Francisco Utility manufactures Gas from Coal –
The San Francisco Gas Company was incorporated in 1850 to produce and distribute manufactured gas extracted from coal. Irish immigrants Peter and James Donahue and engineer Joseph Eastland erected a “gasification plant” to distill coal for manufacturing the gas for lighting. Their company in 1852 illuminated San Francisco’s first “town gas” street lamps. San Francisco Gas became Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in 1905, and by 1915 the company operated almost 8,500 street lamps — each hand lit and shut off every day. The last coal-gas lamp was extinguished in 1930 (also see the History of Con Ed).
