Brooklyn Union Gas bond certificate 1970's

Nice stock-sized bond with a neat vignette of a classical female figure holding a globe of the earth.  Issued and cancelled.  Light perforation through the top of the engraving. Nice variety of colors available. Dated in the 1970's.

The Brooklyn Union Gas Company was originally established in 1825 as the Brooklyn Gas Light Company, changing its name after a series of mergers in 1895. Brooklyn Union Gas Company, doing business as National Grid New York, distributes and transports natural gas in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens in New York City. It distributes natural gas to approximately 959,000 retail customers; and transports natural gas to approximately 264,000 customers. The company, through its subsidiary, North East Transmission Co., Inc., owns a 375-mile pipeline that transports Canadian gas supply daily to markets in the northeastern United States. The company is based in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn Union Gas Company is a subsidiary of KeySpan Corporation.

KeySpan Corporation, now part of National Grid USA, was the fifth largest distributor of natural gas in the United States. KeySpan was formed in 1998 as result of the merger of Brooklyn Union Gas Company and Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO). On November 8, 2000, KeySpan acquired Eastern Enterprises, Eastern's natural gas distribution subsidiaries including Boston Gas Company, Colonial Gas Company and Essex Gas Company; Eastern's unregulated businesses including ServicEdge Partners, the largest unregulated provider of residential HVAC equipment installation and services in Massachusetts; and EnergyNorth Natural Gas in New Hampshire. It also was the operator of the Long Island Power Authority's electrical grid. KeySpan had its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, USA and employed 9,700 people.

In February 2006, National Grid USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Grid plc of the United Kingdom, announced that it had agreed to buy KeySpan for $7.3bn in cash, the deal being subject to regulatory approval and endorsement by the shareholders of the two companies. In 2007 the National Grid plc announced the acquisition of KeySpan Corporation.

Incorporated in 1895 as the successor to a group of competing gas lighting companies, The Brooklyn Union Gas Company  traces its roots to 1824 when enterprising Brooklynites launched the idea of lighting their village's streets with methane. In 1825 these entrepreneurs sought and gained approval from the New York State legislature for the establishment of the Brooklyn Gas Light Company. The fledgling company soon formed a board of directors and sold stock. Unfortunately for investors, the young village felt it was not ready for street lighting and would not sign a contract. With no business, the company bought back its stock and folded.

Not long for the mothballs, Brooklyn Gas Light was revived in the mid-1840s and in 1847 signed a contract to light the streets of Brooklyn. Since natural gas from underground deposits was not then available, the company built a gas manufacturing plant on the East River by the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In that plant, it heated coal until it became coke and captured the methane that was released in the process. This was known as the coke-oven-gas method. By 1849 methane was coursing through six-and-a-half miles of mains and lighting the village's most prosperous areas.

In 1850 a similar operation was launched in the neighboring town of Williamsburg, and by the 1890s there were at least 15 gas lighting companies operating in Brooklyn and Queens. Brooklyn Gas Light's first major head-to-head competitor, Citizen Gas Light, began serving the Brooklyn public in 1858.

In 1879 the Fulton Municipal Gas Company entered the Brooklyn gas lighting market. Unlike the small companies that had preceded it, Fulton did not buy a small territory for itself before competing with the more established companies. Instead, it brashly began by laying long mains in the most prosperous, most populated areas of the borough. In Brooklyn Gas Light's territory alone, it laid 34 miles of mains. Fulton's strategy was to put the heat on smaller companies and then offer to sell them gas wholesale.

In the face of low profits because of price wars and stiff competition from electric light, Brooklyn, Fulton, and five other gas companies 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 Queens, also included Citizens Gas Light Co., Metropolitan Gas Light Co., Nassau Gas Light Co., Peoples Gas Light Co., and Williamsburg Gas Light Co.