William Murdoch introduced the concept of gas for domestic use in 1812, and for the next 60 to 70 years the fuel was almost exclusively for lighting. It produced a much stronger light than candles or oil lamps, it could circulate through the houses of the upper and emerging middle classes and remain lit in the drawing houses of our ancestors. Indeed, the introduction of a better fuel for lighting, in the form of electricity, was necessary to drive private gas companies and their associated manufacturers to change direction.
Socially, this coincided with the separation of heating and cooking and the creation of artisanal and middle-class housing that included a kitchen and a ‘living room’. With cooking elsewhere, the living room fire moved away from stove design to purpose built units where heating characteristics were optimized. Along with this was the average middle-class user’s desire for fires that required less work than their existing coal chimneys.
It is difficult to say which company produced the first gas fire. Short-lived gas collector Billy Carter believes that it could have been Willsons and Mathiesons and that an early fire dating to around 1895 in their collection may, in fact, be the first commercial model. The company had started out as umbrella makers, but in the business environment of the late Victorian era, good engineers tended to do anything that was profitable. The first fires were very simple: a basic gas burner heated a cast iron casing that radiated heat into the room. They were generally independent and movable with the combustion products fed directly into the room.
When the country entered the 20th century, there were literally hundreds of companies that produced all kinds of gas fires along with stoves, water heaters, scrubber boilers, and a whole host of other products. Some names like New World and Parkray continue to this day. Others like Arden Hill, Eagle Range, and Bratt Colbran have disappeared into larger conglomerates. As companies proliferated, technology also improved. The designs were based on fireplaces, using the ‘Milner fireplace plate’ that had appeared at the end of the previous century as the efficient fireplace base for artisan cabins. Ceramic radiant heaters, often with elaborate designs, began to be used to project radiant heat from the front of fires into rooms. These design progressions saved World War I, and by the 1920s a well-established industry was producing over a million gas fires a year that were sold by myriads of gas showrooms owned by gas companies. private and municipal.
The companies themselves did not stand still. A definitive move toward acquisition and conglomeration was visible during the 1920s and 1930s, and its most obvious effect was the creation of the Radiation Group. With gas service companies, notably the London-based company Gas Light and Coke, wielding incredible power, the companies saw an advantage in merging to form a larger unit with economies of scale. Radiation initially comprised Fletcher Russell, Arden Hill, Eagle Range Company, New World, Willsons & Mathiesons, Davis Gas Stove Company, Richmond Gas Stoves & Meters, and John Wright Ltd, although other companies were later incorporated. His inspiration and direction came from Ivan Yates, an entrepreneur, JF Davis, who as ‘leader’ created the right image for the group and Dr. Hartley, who provided the technical expertise. Until World War II, individual companies retained their names and many designs were sold under a variety of names to different gas companies.
The interwar period saw a number of other innovations. Jordans, part of the Radiation Group, perfected stove enamel (stove enamel and kitchen stove enamel), which could be applied in a myriad of “modern” colors. The move to enamel was, in part, spurred by the growing influx of the middle class who viewed their homes as something to be “fashionably decorated” as well as a place to live. Other developments, often regarded as “post-war” innovations, were first created around this time. The Metro Log Fire, a precursor to today’s open flame fires, was sold by the Gas, Light & Coke Company in 1932. The Raytonic fire of 1935 had a simple heat exchanger, often regarded as a feature of the 1950s. The Raytonic design saw itself as a replacement for soapstone lined fires, which had improved the convection output of the gas fire since its inception in 1932.
The wartime halted virtually all development projects, but when the UK entered the Harold Macmillan era when “… we’ve never had it so good!” the gas fire continued its onslaught against the traditional coal fires which, in the mid-1950s, were still the UK’s main source of domestic heating. More mergers had taken place and some new ‘players’, including GlowWorm, had appeared on the scene. The gas fire design had begun to include heat exchangers and the ornate ceramic radiant type “Cinderella” was replaced by the box designs that still appear in many public sector selective fire designs. Bringing gas to the fireplace was vitally important – many of the newly nationalized gas boards had plans to provide gas poker points near the fire for as little as ’30’ (£ 1.50) and were used by vendors to increase prices. growing sales. of gas fires.
In the 1950s, Leamington Spa-based Flavel introduced a product that is still available today: the Radiant Gas Firebox with a metal or wood-clad housing. The Flavel Debonair revolutionized gas fire pit sales, and while people’s tastes now prefer glowing embers (or even logs, driftwood, pebbles, or geometric shapes), the faithful old-box radiant fire survives over 2 years. million homes across the country. Highly realistic “live flame” gas fireplaces with elegant surrounds are now available. There are options that follow a variety of periods such as Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Noveau. Some companies even offer fires that can be lit with the touch of a button on a remote control telephone, offering the ultimate in convenience and comfort.