buoys, isolated beacons, lighthouses and railroad cars. Railway carriages Pintsch gas was first applied to the illumination of railway carriages on the Lower Silesian Railway in Germany in 1871. The system was successfully trialled in 1874 on the London and North Western Railway for its Irish Mail service: one tank of compressed gas in each carriage would provide for two Euston-to-Holyhead return journeys. Its use was then taken up by many other railway companies in England. By 1888, some 23,500 railway carriages across Europe and the USA were lit on Pintsch's system, of which just under 15,000 were in Germany. Lamps using Pintsch gas burned brighter and longer than the oil lamps they replaced and could withstand vibration and rough usage without the light being extinguished. In several railway accidents, Pintsch gas lamps added fuel to any fire which started, for example in the Thirsk rail crash (1892), the Sunshine rail disaster (1908), the Quintinshill rail disaster (1915), and the Dugald rail accident (1947). Electricity eventually replaced Pintsch illumination on railroad cars. Navigation lights In 1878, the successful illumination of buoys was first achieved by Pintsch's Patent Lighting Company Ltd using their compressed oil-gas system. The gas became a popular means of illuminating buoys, beacons and unmanned lighthouses, because it allowed the devices to remain lit for several months without servicing. The Clyde Lighthouse Trustees were the first company to adopt the system officially. That was followed by the Suez Canal Company, which installed 59 buoys and 39 beacons lit using Pintch's system, to enable the canal to be navigable by night as well as by day. The buoys held compressed gas sufficient for two months' constant illumination between refills. In 1884, the Pintsch company demonstrated its system as part of a trial of different lighthouse illuminants conducted on the cliffs by the South Foreland Lighthouses. After the trials, the Corporation of Trinity House purchased the associated gasworks and re-erected it at their Blackwall depot to manufacture Pintsch gas for its own use. In the following year, they established the first of a number of illuminated buoys and unattended beacons on the Thames Estuary using the system. By 1886, over 200 Pintsch gas-lit buoys, beacons, lighthouses and lightships were operational, in North and South America, Australia, and around the coasts of Europe, as well as on the Suez Canal. The automatic apparatus used in Pintsch gas beacons enabled them to