22 May /17

Gas

Gas – Word of the day - EVS Translations
Gas – Word of the day – EVS Translations

Outside of the more general scientific usage, today’s word is all about energy. Regardless of usage, this word has been associated with key energy resources for at least 200 years, and, if predictions are to be believed, today’s word is expected to become an even bigger part of the energy industry as time goes by. So, let’s have a closer look at gas.

For starters, if you are from North America, then this word is the short form of gasoline, and the flammable hydrocarbon gas mixture that heats your home and powers your stove is natural gas. To non-North Americans though (i.e. the British English speaking world), petrol is what runs your car and natural gas is, well, just gas. As if that wasn’t confusing enough, the first reference to a fuel gas comes from 1794 and refers to the predecessor of (natural) gas, which is coal gas. In origin though, our term comes from the 1650’s, when the Flemish chemist J.B. van Helmont reused the term khaos (from Paracelsus), substituting the Dutch “g” for the original Greek “kh”, thus giving us the word gas.

Chronologically, the use of this word and what it means is much easier to understand.
In the late 1700s, aside from the methane in coal mines, it was discovered that while processing coal, a flammable gas could be created which was usable for fuel as well as lighting.

In the decades following the Second World War, due to it being safer, cleaner, and more readily available, coal gas – as well as the infrastructure to support it – was replaced by natural gas. As for the American term gas, that was first used as a shortened form of gasoline in 1905, which is a bit problematic when considering that the term for the place to get gas (i.e. the gas station) originated in 1916.

The first known usage comes from an 1878 edition of English Mechanics, which stated that: “The two tanks may be named the wheel-chamber and the gas-holder respectively. In the former the gas line is kept up to a constant level.”

Speaking of constant levels, this seems to be becoming a more and more challenging task: from 1980-2010, global consumption more than doubled, from 53 trillion cubic feet to 113 trillion cubic feet. Additionally, consumption is projected to increase at an annual rate of 1.7% and reach 200 trillion cubic feet by 2040.
Given that global regulations are becoming stricter and natural gas seems more and more fitting as a clean, abundant, safe, and responsible fuel, it appears to be the right fuel at the right time.