Gasholder house

Description

Before the 1870s, most iron gasholders were constructed without a building structure, but following practices already common in New England, gasholders houses were adopted in New York. Additionally, gasholder houses were constructed in England as early as 1825, although the mild climate made them less of an advantage.

Gasholder houses were built to protect the iron gas holder from the elements, and enabled it to be built from thinner plates. A gasholder house provided a number of advantages:

• Provides a way to withstand the wind, and the forces on the thinner iron gasholder.
• Avoids snow loads on the top of the holder, and icing of the guides that controlled the vertical movement of the gasholder.
• Prevented the freezing of water in the pit around the gasholder that provides the seal to the gasholder, thus preventing the loss of gas.
• There is also some belief that a gasholder house allayed fears about explosion from the stored gas.

The gasholder house also provides economic advantage by reducing the condensation of gas in cold weather, and provided an attractive architectural element of the gas complex.

There are approximately a dozen known gasholder houses still standing in the United States, with the Troy Gas Light Company structure in Troy, New York, being one of the largest remaining structures of this type.

Extant gasholder houses

United States

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places Source:

Elsewhere

• Gasometer, Dresden, in Germany
• Østre Gasværk Teater, now houses a theatre, in Copenhagen, Denmark
• St. Petersburg Gas Plant, at the Obvodny Canal in Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Vienna Gasometers, now residential and commercial use, in Austria

Gallery

File:Attleborough Falls Gasholder.jpg|Attleborough Falls Gasholder Building in Massachusetts File:Concord Gas Holder.jpg|Concord Gas Light Company Gasholder House in New Hampshire File:Saratoga Gas Light Company, Gasholder No. 2, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation Substation Facili, Saratoga Springs (Saratoga County, New York).jpg|Saratoga Gas, Electric Light and Power Company Complex in New York File:Troy Gas Light Company, Gasholder House, Jefferson Street & Fifth Avenue, Troy (Rensselaer County, New York).jpg|Troy Gas Light Company in New York File:Gasometer Dresden.jpg|Gasometer, Dresden, Germany File:Simmering (Wien) - Gasometer (1).JPG|Gasometer, Vienna, Austria File:Oestre Gasvaerk - Copenhagen.jpg|Østre Gasværk Teater, Copenhagen, Denmark File:Gasholder at Obvodny Canal in SPB.jpg|St. Petersburg Gas Plant, Russia

References

References

1. "Historic American Engineering Record, Troy Gas Light Company, Gasholder House".
2. The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc.. (August 2017). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Concord Gas Light Company Gasholder House". [[New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources]].