I haven't looked onto it, but I think coal-gas was a by-product of the coke industry. Was big in the UK when Iron and steel making were common.
Any reason why the same industries in NE US didn't use coal-gas in towns? Just that oil was cheaper and more abundant?
N.
I am only speculating, but that would be my guess. The oil industry started in western Pennsylvania around the same period that coal and steel were getting big. Oil in the 1860s and 70s was a huge boom and bust business. Whole towns were built up, only to become ghost towns reclaimed by the wilderness just a few years later. This was Pit Hole, Pennsylvania, at the height of the boom:
And this is what Pit Hole looks like today:
When the oil pressure dropped, the entire town packed up and moved elsewhere, many to Texas, and they actually tore down most of the structures to reuse the wood. This town only lasted for about 15 years.
Oil was huge in the US. More recently, fracking technology has resulted in a revival of natural gas here.
