Stadens ljus : Etableringen av de första svenska gasverken

Sammanfattning: The earliest Swedish gasworks, built around 1850 in Gothenburg, Norrköping and Stockholm, were the first public utilities in Sweden. The establishrnent of these gasworks forced the municipal authorities for the first time to make decisions concerning a complicated technical system - decisions which involved not only technical, but also financial, organizational and legal components.The first part of the thesis outlines the back-ground of these decision-making processes: on the one hand the political organization of the Swedish cities at this time and on the other hand the growth of gas technology, primarily in England.The second part contains a detailed description of the decision-rnaking process in each of the three cities, followed by a comparative analysis. This analysis intends to show that the content and course of the decision-making processes were determined both by the system characteristics inherent in gas technology and by the social and political traits of each of the three cities.The thesis ends with a chapter called the rise and fall of the Swedish gasworks, summerizing the development from the mid 1800s up to the present day.