The Lane hydrogen producer was an apparatus for hydrogen production based on the steam-iron process and water gas[1] invented in 1903[2] by a British engineer, Howard Lane.
Lane producers were installed at some British airship stations so the gas could be manufactured on-site.
To work efficiently however, the plant required skilled operators and to be running as a quasi-continuous process.
[4] In the 1940s the Lane process was superseded by cheaper methods of hydrogen production that used oil or natural gas as a feedstock.
In the steam-iron process the iron oxidizes and has to be replaced with fresh metal, in the Lane hydrogen producer the iron is reduced with water gas back to its metallic condition, after which the process restarts.