Long Island Power Authority / National Grid Information

Brooklyn Union Gas supplies natural gas to the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island and to a portion of the borough of Queens. Through its subsidiaries, the company also sells gas appliances and energy-related equipment, explores for and develops natural gas reserves, recovers methane from landfill sites, and distributes liquefied petroleum gas. Incorporated in 1895 as the successor to a group of competing gas lighting companies, the utility traces its roots to 1824 when enterprising Brooklynites launched the idea of lighting their village's streets with methane. In 1825 these entrepreneurs sought and gained approval from the New York State legislature for the establishment of the Brooklyn Gas Light Company. The fledgling company soon formed a board of directors and sold stock. Unfortunately for investors, the young village felt it was not ready for street lighting and would not sign a contract. With no business, the company bought back its stock and folded. Not long for the mothballs, Brooklyn Gas Light was revived in the mid-1840s and in 1847 signed a contract to light the streets of Brooklyn. Since natural gas from underground deposits was not then available, the company built a gas manufacturing plant on the East River by the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In that plant, it heated coal until it became coke and captured the methane that was released in the process. This was known as the coke-oven-gas method. By 1849 methane was coursing through six-and-a-half miles of mains and lighting the village's most prosperous areas. In 1850 a similar operation was launched in the neighboring town of Williamsburg, and by the 1890s there were at least 15 gas lighting companies operating in Brooklyn and Queens. Brooklyn Gas Light's first major head-to-head competitor, Citizen Gas Light, began serving the Brooklyn public in 1858. Other utilities followed and Brooklyn soon became the scene of intense and sometimes violent competition. Most often a new company would buy an unserved territory from an older competitor. Then, once established, the new company would begin battling with the older company for customers in the more prosperous areas--often laying parallel gas lines and competing on a door-to-door basis.