This story starts in the mid-nineteenth century when a brazed copper sphere was used to store gas for a breathing application. This vessel was only rated at 20bar with a water capacity of 2litres, but by 1885 copper based spherical vessels were rated at 28bar (400psi) and 45litres (100 pounds). Enter into our story the Brins Brothers who used the latter vessel to not only store compressed oxygen (produced by thermally decomposing barium peroxide) but more importantly founded the first of the major industrial gas companies viz. The BOC Group.
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