Dollar gas predicted for Bangor in 1906

The price of gas in Bangor and Brewer dropped from $1.65 to $1.25 on Jan. 1, 1906. It had been $2 just four years before that, and $2.25 a decade previously. Dollar gas was on the way, predicted the Bangor Daily News. The price was going down because demand was going up, making it possible to produce more cheaply, the gas men told the newspaper.

Anyone familiar with “the good old days” knows, of course, I’m talking about coal gas, also known as manufactured gas or town gas or illuminating gas, not gasoline or natural gas. Coal gas was made right here in River City and many other communities across the nation. It provided city people with fuel for lighting and cooking. The gas was sold by the cubic foot, and the prices applied to 1,000 cubic feet.

The Bangor Gas Light Co. operated the Bangor Gas Works, which was located where Shaw’s Supermarket and some adjacent property is today on Main Street. Gas was made from burning more than 17 tons of coal daily in 1904. Other marketable byproducts were coke and ammonia. Whether the Gas Works polluted the Penobscot River with tar, another byproduct, is the subject of a lawsuit today over who will pay for the cleanup.

The Gas Works was a dark and dismal place where burly men shoveled coal into big furnaces that belched acrid smoke. The gas was channeled through a purification process into huge iron tanks as tall as 82 feet. Smoking regulations were strictly enforced to avoid an explosion, although newspaper stories assured the public the risk was minor. Neighborhood boys sneaked through the grounds in search of mystery and danger, but their mothers knew they had been there from the smell of coal tar on their shoes.

The Gas Works had been in operation since 1851. By 1899, 18 miles of gas main snaked through the city. The Bangor Gas Light Co.’s store on Central Street sold desk lamps, gas ranges and “countless numbers of hanging lamps.” Its shop on Franklin Street sold piping and fittings and did installations.

The network of pipes had increased to 32 miles by 1905, and to “40 or 50 miles” in 1912 when the plant was using 25 tons of coal daily. By then there were 3,500 customers, and there were 2,500 gas ranges “in active use in this vicinity,” according to a story in the Bangor Daily Commercial on Aug. 17, 1912.

Ever heard the expression, “Now you’re cooking with gas”? I still remember while learning how to ride a two-wheeled bicycle how my father chased my wobbling figure down the street calling, “Now, you’re cooking with gas.” Cooking with gas was a big deal. It became synonymous with success, even the good life.

The advertisements the Bangor Gas Light Co. sprinkled throughout the Bangor City Directory in 1905 give an idea what gas consumers expected when they had the company come out and hook them up to the system. “The gas range solves the servant girl problem,” one ad said. Another said, “A match for kindling; gas for fuel,” a reference to the effort it took to burn wood or coal. Other ads promised that cooking meats and vegetables on a gas stove retained “from 10 to 25 percent more of their food value than when cooked in any other way.”

The Bangor Daily News was ecstatic at the latest price drop. “Until somebody shall discover a better storage battery than any which has been invented as yet, or until public electric lighting plants get out from under the control of selfish corporations, gas will continue to be the cheapest illuminant for everyday use,” said an editorial on Jan. 2, 1906, a century ago today.

But not everyone was happy. The gas company had devised a rate schedule favoring big users and establishing a fee to read meters. Most users would still save money, but big users would have lower rates.

The Bangor City Council called for an investigation. “Alderman Sullivan is of the opinion that the price of gas is too high, and he says that he has heard many complaints that the recent readjustment of prices, while it benefits large consumers, bears unjustly on the users of small quantities. He also intimated that the recently established service charge of 25 cents a month per meter is too high,” reported the BDN on Feb. 14.

Electric lights, kerosene lights and gas lights were all in keen competition. The newspaper predicted electric lights soon would become cheap enough for the average person to afford, thanks to increasing competition. Dollar gas would drive down the cost of coal as well, the paper said.

Coal was the backbone of the economy back then. Besides producing coal gas, it was used to power factories and steamers and to heat homes and businesses. Coal shipments unloaded at Bangor harbor had increased twentyfold in 30 years to more than 360,000 tons by 1905. Some of it went north to power paper mills and other industries.

Early in December 1905, the price of coal went up 50 cents a ton. There was speculation that labor unrest might lead to strikes and another dramatic price spike such as that in 1902 when the United Mine Workers crippled the country’s industrial production. But that didn’t happen.

The Bangor Daily News had great faith in the ability of rational men to create a sensible energy system by staying informed and taking practical steps: “…it is apparent that no lighting monopoly can get very rich in communities where people read the papers and are following the trend of events. The announcement that Bangor patrons are going to have cheaper gas in 1906 than they had in 1905 is cheering news.”

Wayne E. Reilly can be reached at wreilly@bangordailynews.net.