water gas and oil, which is led through the chambers while the steam blast is on the producers. The Lowe process is endothermic, and cools the generator and checker work, so the process has to alternate between air blast for heating and steam blast for gas production. The process spurred on the industry of gas manufacturing, and gasification plants were established quickly along the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Similar processes, like the Haber Process, led to the manufacture of ammonia (NH3) by the combining of nitrogen, found in air, with high volumes of hydrogen. This spurred on the refrigeration industry which long used ammonia as its refrigerant. Prof. Lowe also held several patents on artificial ice making machines, and was able to run successful businesses in cold storage as well as products which operated on hydrogen gas. Retirement in Pasadena, California In 1887, Lowe moved to Los Angeles and in 1890 to Pasadena, California, where he built a 24,000 square foot (2200 m2) mansion. He started a water-gas company, founded the Citizens Bank of Los Angeles, established several ice plants, and bought a Pasadena opera house. Mount Lowe Railway Early Pasadenans always had a dream of a scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains. David J. Macpherson, a civil engineer graduate of Cornell University, had the general plans for just such a railroad. He was introduced to Prof. Lowe with the idea of joining Macpherson's plans and Lowe's money together in one venture. In 1891, Lowe and Macpherson incorporated the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railroad (later the Mount Lowe Railway). Unable to obtain all the rights of way to Mt. Wilson, the two men redirected their railway toward Oak Mountain via the Echo promontory. The difference between this and any other scenic mountain railway of its kind was that it was an all-electric traction trolley (streetcar), the only one of its kind to ever exist. Oak Mountain was later renamed Mount Lowe, and to make it official, Andrew McNally, the co-founder of the map printing company Rand McNally who had moved to Altadena, had the name Mt. Lowe printed on all his maps. Lowe opened the first section of the railway on July 4, 1893, from the corner of Lake and Calaveras in Altadena to the Rubio Pavilion in the Rubio Canyon, then transferring to a steep long funicular to Echo Mountain. At the