Gasworks in Tomlinson's Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts & Manufactures

The entries in this book tell us something about the interest in technology in the mid 19th century. Meanwhile the illustrations give a glimpse of the lack of health and safety equipment and standard life for industrial workers in the Victorian age. This images shows men 'stoking the retorts'. A 'retort' is an oven in which coal is baked to release coal gas.

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