Liquid fuels, synthetic, early

From a practical standpoint, coal, because of its abundance, has received the most attention as a source for synthetic fuels. As early as 1807, a coal-gas system was used to light the streets of London, and until the 1930s, when less expensive and safer natural gas started to flow through newly constructed pipelines, gas piped to homes in the Eastern United States was derived from coal. Kerosene, originally a byproduct from the coking of coal tor metallurgical applications, can be considered the first synthetic lic -uid fuel made in quantity. But once crude oil became cheap and abundant, there was little serious research on synthetic liquid fuels in the industrial world until the Energy Crisis of 1973. The main exceptions to... 

---