It has been nearly 150 years since full-scale use of gas began in Japan. The Gas Museum is a history museum that presents how gas relates to daily living. The museum is housed in two buildings, "The House of Gas Lamps" and "The House of Gas for Life." There is also a Gas Light Garden illuminated by real gas lamps.
http://www.tokyo-gas.co.jp/en/index.html
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The first gas lamp
It is said that gas lamps were first used in England (London) in the first half of the 19th century. The Gas Museum is unique because it presents history not only by the exhibit of 17 gas lamps of Japan and other countries, including copies of gas lamps from the Meiji period, but also by the entire location of the museum itself comprising two brick buildings from the Meiji period and a courtyard.
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Gas lamp from Yokohama
Gas at this time was not so much a heat source as a source of illumination, which is evident in the museum's collection of Nishiki-e prints from the Meiji period, most of which feature gas lamps as the motif. Lamp posts used in Yokohama in 1872 that were moved to the courtyard of the museum can be lit with open gas flames. Compared to the candles and rapeseed oil lamps of the Edo period, these gas lamps were surprisingly bright, a symbol of Westernization in Japan.
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Gas lamp with a mantle
Eventually gas lamps with luminous bodies called mantles replaced conventional gas lamps that gave off the light of red flames produced by burning gas. Mantles generated white or cream-colored light when heated by gas. This light was 5 times brighter than the light of previous gas lamps and established a new image for gas lamps as producing a blue-white light.
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From gas as illumination to gas as
a source of heatIn the ten years beginning around 1897 in the Meiji period, gas began to make the transition from a source of illumination to a source of heat. In 1902 gas was used in the kitchen when the residence of politician and educator Okuma Shigenobu was rebuilt. The cooking appliance resembled a commercial stove composed of a gas range, a grill, and an oven. The kitchen was described in the best selling book of the time Shokudoraku (Gourmand) (author: Murai Gensai), which did much to spread interest and knowledge of gas for use in household cooking.
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Gas stove and hibachi (brazier)
In 1902, a gas appliance (gas stove) was produced that answered the need of household consumers wishing to cook rice with gas. This was the first gas appliance in Japan to be patented. Foreign-made stoves were hard to use in ordinary homes in which tatami mats served as flooring, so gas hibachi braziers were a good alternative for use in Japanese-style rooms. Ashes were placed in the gas hibachi just as in the traditional hibachi that burned charcoal.
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Five gas heating appliances
The Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) was critical to the transition to gas as a heating source. From that time on, gas was increasingly used in ordinary homes to make coffee, iron clothes, bake bread, to heat foot warmers, and in other ways as lifestyles became more modernized in the Showa period.
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Bathtub boiler
In the average home, heating water--especially bath water--required the most energy. In 1931, a bathtub boiler (Hayawaki Kama) was put on the market 1931 that was paired with wooden bathtubs to very effectively heat bath water. For a long time until the mid-1960s, it was a mainstream bathtub boiler.
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Ceramic brazier
During World War II, the use of metal was restricted by the wartime regime, so gas appliances were made of ceramics instead. However, water boiling over would sometimes cause ceramic appliances to crack.
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Balanced bathtub boiler
Balanced bathtub boilers focused on safety by using air from outside instead of inside the bathtub to burn gas and discharging exhaust gas outside. At this time, bathtub boilers equipped with a shower fixture also appeared on the market. This type of bathtub boiler was used in public apartment buildings throughout the country, which supported the popularization of indoor bathtubs and showers. (Building Equipment Heritage Authorized by The Japanese Association of Building Mechanical and Electrical Engineers)
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Small gas hot water dispenser
The first small hot water dispenser equipped with an incomplete combustion detection device. It had several standard features that included a push-button ignition device, lever-type one-touch hot water supply, and a shower nozzle.
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Household gas fuel cell cogeneration system
(Lifuel)This eco-system uses hydrogen extracted from city gas to generate electricity and also boils water with heat produced from power generation. The system enables generation of electricity and hot water for household use while reducing heat and lighting expenses to achieve comfortable living that eliminates wasteful power consumption.