[4] Hydrocarbonate is an archaic term for water gas composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen generated by passing steam through glowing coke.
Hydrocarbonate was classified as a factitious air and explored for therapeutic properties by some eighteenth-century physicians, including Thomas Beddoes and James Watt.
Diseases treated by hydrocarbonate included: tuberculosis, inflammation, asthma, expectoration, hemoptysis, pneumonia, hydrothorax, spasm and other indications.
[8] The pioneering work of exploratory medicinal application of hydrocarbonate is an important origin for modern drug development.
James Watt suggested hydrocarbonate could act as "an antidote to the oxygen in blood" in 1794 and cautioned about the toxicity of an overdose prior to the discoveries of carbon monoxide (1800) and hemoglobin (1840).
Lowe's process improved upon the chimney systems by which the coal could remain superheated, thereby maintaining a consistently high supply of the gas.
The process spurred on the industry of gas manufacturing, and gasification plants were established quickly along the eastern seaboard of the United States.
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.