Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (19.2019)

Also after the citys takeover of the gas plant on September i, 1898, the generał
public expected - as it had happened in German cities - that the facility would
be expanded and modernized. Professor Gostkowski recommended that city
officials undertake detailed studies, preceded by a visit to the most “progressive”
gasworks. He also pointed out that“townspeople do not grant a monopoly in order
to pay dearly for their light, but so that the money collected for gas would not go
abroad, and so that would get their light morę cheaply”.112 In accordance with
these postulates, the councillors resolved to delegate the new director of the Mu-
nicipal Gas Plant, engineer Adam Teodorowicz (1863-1921), on a business trip. In
the years 1899-1903, he visited gas plants in the largest cities of Cisleithania and
Germany. At that time, the increase in production at municipal gasworks resulted
from the improvement of coal degassing technology in oblique-angle chamotte
retorts, which were heated by generators. Then mechanisation of the gas produc-
tion process took place. Teodorowicz postulated a completely new installation
of the Humphreys & Glasgow system for the production of carburized water
gas, which turned out to be a morę efficient fuel for lighting compared to coal
gas.113 The increase in gas production also necessarily had to result in fitting
new cooling and purifying equipment, folio wed by adding a third gasholder with
water tank capable of storing 10 thousand m3 of gas. Particularly noteworthy is
Teodorowiczs postulate regarding the use of petroleum oils for carburization,
which are waste products obtained during the distillation of crude oil.114
Provisional modernization of furnaces and gasholders with water tanks used
to datę, carried out in the years 1900-1902, allowed the extraction of up to 3.5 mil-
lion m3 of gas during one year. In May 1905, the councillors accepted the gas
plant expansion plan, submitted by director Teodorowicz.115 At that time, A. Ka-
mienobrodzkis company erected an ammonia water distillery (see: Drawing 11).
This building was a simple hall built of brick on the projection of an elongated
rectangle. The interior was illuminated with evenly spaced rectangular window
openings closed in segments, madę on two levels in the sidewalls. In the gable
walls, Windows were madę on two levels along the axis of the faęade. The hall was
covered with a steep gable roof with wooden slopes, covered with ceramic tiles.
The roof was supported on three iron truss girders. The interior, devoid of any
divisions, madę it possible to set up devices and installations capable of processing
up to 10 tons of ammonia water daily.116
The water gas factory was a much larger building, madę of brick by Kamie-
nobrodzkis company on a plan of an elongated rectangle in 1905-1906. It was
covered in the same way as the ammonia water distillation plants. In its western
112 R. Gostkowski, Nasza gazownia, “Gazeta Narodowa”, 3 xi 1898, issue 244, p. 2.
113 Posiedzenie Rady m., “Gazeta Narodowa”, 27 iv 1899, issue 116, p. 2; J. Kórting, Geschichte der
deutschen, pp. 186-192.
114 dało, file 599, description 1, case 5, “Sprawozdanie w sprawie powiększenia gazowni miejskiej”,
edited by A. Teodorowicz, Lviv 22 iv 1905, f. 3-9; A Teodorowicz, O rozwoju gazowni, pp. 7-8.
On the significance of carburized water production for maintaining the competitiveness of gas
industry at the time, see also: W.Ż., Z Towarzystwa Politechnicznego we Lwowie. Sprawozdanie
z wykładu dyrektora gazowni miejskiej Adama Teodorowicza “O najnowszym postępie w przemyśle
gazowym (gaz wodny)”,“Przegląd Techniczny”, 42,1903, issue 52, p. 714.
115 dało, file 3, description 1, case 4980, “Wniosek komisji gazowej”, Lviv 28 vi 1905, f. i-7v.
116 Description based on the surviving project of the dało, file 2, description 1, case 2101, “Projekt
na budynek destylacji wody amoniakalnej 1:100”, [Municipal Construction Office, 1904], f. 128.


Drawing 11. Situational
Plan of the Municipal
Gasworks in Lviv, status as
of 1914. Author’s own elabo-
ration. Key: 1 - workshops;
2 - storage area; 3 - gashol-
der with water tank of 1858
(extended post-1901);
4 - gasholder with water
tank of 1877 (extended post-
1901); 5 - gasholder with
watertank of 1906-1907;
6 - gasholder with carbu-
rized watertank of 1906;
7 - underground containers
for coal tar and ammonia
water of 1914; 8 - machinę
room of 1914; 9 - ammo-
nia water distillation unit
of 1905; 10 - regeneration
building of bog iron ore (of
1877); 11 - desulphurization
facility of 1858 (extended in
1877-1878,1906, and 1911);
12 - retort house of 1858
(extended in 1877-1878,
1891,1901 and 1908);
13 and 14 - underground
containers for coal tar and
ammonia water; 15 - under-
ground containers for coal
tar of1906;16 - desulphu-
rization facility of 1914;
17 - carburized water gas
facility (with the annex
of steam boiler) of 1905-
1906 ; 18 - petroleum oils
tank of 1906; 19 - storage
buildings and garages
of 1908-1914; 20 - vertical
retort house of 1914 and
1917; 21 - former workshop
building of 1858 adapted
for employees’ lodgings;
22 - administrative building
of 1858 ; 23 - stables
of 1861; 24 - administrative
building of 1908
-> see p. 193

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