1766 Renowned English chemist and physicist Henry Cavendish is the first to recognize hydrogen gas as a distinct substance. He also described the composition of water as a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. Town gas, a gaseous product manufactured from coal, supplies lighting and heating for America and Europe.
Town gas is celebrated as a wonder, bringing light and heat to the civilized world.
Then, large natural gas fields are discovered, and networks of natural gas pipelines displace town gas. Chemist Carl Bosch directs the development for ammonia and fertilizer to be manufactured from hydrogen and nitrogen gases. This innovation leads eventually to synthetic fertilizers, making it possible for agriculture to feed a rapidly increasing world population. After several years of safe and elegant passenger travel by many airships, the zeppelin Hindenburg, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, is ignited by electrical discharge after its flight across the Atlantic from Germany. Within seconds, the airship burns and crashes to the ground, with a death toll of 35 of the 97 people on board and one on the ground.