This Week in Petroleum History: July 8 – 14

July 8, 1848 – Congress charters Gas Light Company –

Four days after the laying of the Washington Monument cornerstone, an Act of Congress established the Washington Gas Light Company, which manufactured “town gas” for lighting and heat. The new utility constructed giant tanks (gasometers) on 6.5 acres of gasworks in the D.C. neighborhood of Foggy Bottom. (more…)

Asphalt Paves the Way

How a petroleum product at bottom of the refining process improved American mobility.

 

As the U.S. centennial approached, President Ulysses S. Grant directed that Pennsylvania Avenue be paved with asphalt. By 1876, the president’s paving project using Trinidad asphalt covered about 54,000 square yards. (more…)

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