Brooklyn Union Gas Company Bond Certificate

Description

Product Details
Beautifully engraved antique bond certificate from the Brooklyn Union Gas Company dating back to the 1970's. This document, which contains the printed signatures of the company President and Secretary, was printed by the Security-Columbian Bank Note Company and measures approximately 12" (w) by 8" (h).
The vignette features a female figure with a globe.
Images
The images presented are representative of the piece(s) you will receive. When representative images are presented for one of our offerings, you will receive a certificate in similar condition as the one pictured; however dating, denomination, certificate number and issuance details may vary.
Historical Context
The Brooklyn Union Gas Company was originally established in 1825 as the Brooklyn Gas Light Company.
In the face of low profits because of price wars and stiff competition from electric light, , Fulton, and five other combined to form the Brooklyn Union Gas Company. Incorporated in 1895, the new company, which served 106,650 customers in Brooklyn and 1,400 in , also included Citizens Gas Light Co., Metropolitan Gas Light Co., Nassau Gas Light Co., Peoples Gas Light Co., and Williamsburg Gas Light Co.
In the early 1900s the legislature created the New York Public Service Commission, which began regulating rates. In 1906 the Public Service Commission established the “80-Cent Gas Law” which reduced the price of gas by 20 percent. Brooklyn Union Gas fought the law all the way to the Supreme Court but lost—regulation was there to stay. The 80-Cent Gas Law was followed by the Dollar Gas Law in 1923 and by other regulated rates in subsequent years.
Between 1910 and 1926 business virtually doubled. To meet the demand, Brooklyn Union Gas constructed a vast new coal-gasification plant at Greenpoint. Opened in 1928, the new Greenpoint Works replaced five older plants at 60 percent of the cost. Built on 115 acres of land on Newtown Creek, the Greenpoint Works used both the coke-oven method and the water-gas method to produce new supplies.
Later, to supplement what it could manufacture at Greenpoint and other plants, Brooklyn Union and other area utilities helped finance the Transcontinental Pipeline, which began in in 1948 and ended 1,840 miles and two years later in Brooklyn.
In 1998, the Brooklyn Union Gas Company merged with the Long Island Lighting Company to form MarketSpan, which quickly became KeySpan.