OT(ish) - propane gas torch - cheapest?

[Steve Walker]

Derived from the mains AFAIK.

I'm (just) too young to remember it (we got rid of the coal fire when I was 5). My parents told me about it.

[Theo]

I'm amused by pictures of a gas fitting for connecting the poker right next to the fireplace

- when you could have just had a gas fire (and presumably some later installs used that as a supply).

Which leads me to wonder... why didn't people have gas fires and skip laying the fire altogether? Was coal cheaper, was it something about town gas that made it less good for heating (compared with cooking and lighting), or general inertia?

Theo

[Tim+]

Well if you were a miner the coal was free (or at least was in my neck of the woods).

Tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

Gas was made from coal so coal itself was cheaper.

[Robin]

gas was more expensive than coal in terms of cost per unit energy through the 50s and 60s.

[charles]

Coal fires had a life of their own. gas fires were very boring. Firms even made mock coal fires run off gas to look better.