Natural gas as fuel
Gas natural como combustible
- Date
- century I a.C. · confidence medium
- Place
- Linqiong (Qionglai), Sichuan, China
- Credited to
- Sichuan salt workers (Han dynasty)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The 'fire wells' of Linqiong used natural gas piped through bamboo tubes to boil brine and obtain salt. It is the earliest known industrial use of this fuel.
The sources (Yang Xiong, Zhang Hua) date from the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE.
What it led to
- industrial brine evaporation
- bamboo pipes as a gas network