Gasometre Found in Canada’s First Industrial Neighborhood

MONTREAL, QUEBEC—Construction workers uncovered the brick foundations of a gas reservoir or “gasometre” that stored fuel in the late nineteenth century. The cylindrical container, owned by The New City Gas Works, lit Canada’s first industrial neighborhood. Coal was brought into the city by barges traveling on the Lachine Canal, which was then heated and transformed into gas that was stored in the gas-holder and then piped into homes and street lights, reducing the risk of fire posed by oil lamps and candles. “We will be able to create a 3-D image of the whole structure as it was when it was first built,” said archaeologist Bernard Hébert.