Why Gas?

Abstract

This chapter aims at explaining the relevance of the gas industry in the history of the industrial revolution. Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has awoken popular awareness on the World’s dependence on Russia’s gas supply. Therefore, it is required that experts in economic, industrial, and business history go back to identifying the moment when gas became a crucial energy source for Europe’s industrial take off, at the turn of the eighteenth century. Not only was gas relevant as an energy source to put the factories into motion, but it also made possible the take-off of other industrial sectors that depended on such energy source, for example, transportation and communications.