ABSTRACT
On December 16, 1921 a new chapter opened in the history of the energy and power industries.
Fritz Winkler of Germany introduced gaseous products of combustion into the bottom of a crucible
containing coke particles, creating the first demonstration of gasification of coal in a fluidized bed.
Winkler saw the mass of particles lifted by the drag of the gas to look like a boiling liquid (Squires,
1983). This experiment initiated a new process called fluidization, the art of making granular solids
behave like a liquid.
