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152
of the daily testings at the Ladbroke Grove Station of the "common
gas," manufactured by the Gas Light and Coke Company at
their Kensal Green Works.

It appears from these results that the illuminating power of
the gas was above the Parliamentary standard. But it was stated,
in the Annual Report of the Metropolitan Board of Works for
1884, and as the result of testings with a portable photometer,
that there are parts of London, the inhabitants of which do not
always get their gas of the quality which it was thought had been
secured to them by Act of Parliament; the gas having been frequently
found to be inferior in lighting power to the prescribed
standard, sometimes by as much as one candle. There is no way
of preventing this, the companies in default being subject to no forfeiture
or penalty, as they are when the gas is shown to be defective
at the regular testing places. The above facts point to the necessity
for an alteration of the law. The gas referees, it was stated,
approve of the testing of gas by means of a portable photometer;
and the Metropolitan Board of Works have advised the Board of
Trade that statutory power should be obtained for that mode of
testing, so that gas companies may be liable to forfeitures for gas
which the portable photometer shews to be defective in lighting
power. The Metropolitan Board also suggested the expediency
of an alteration in the standard of light prescribed by the statutes.
The statutory standard is obtained by burning a sperm candle of
six to the pound, at the rate of 120 grains an hour; and the gas