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10
Directly I notified the Brewery Company on the 12th July,
that their tanks were suspected, they passed the information on
to the firm from whom they had obtained the tanks, Messrs.
Hopkins & Sons, 52, Holloway Road, N. 7., who passed the
information on to the makers, Messrs. W. Macfarlane & Co.,
Saracen Iron Works, Possil Park, Glasgow, on the 13th July.
On July 17th, the Brewery Co. notified Messrs. Hopkins
definitely that the tanks were the source of contamination, and
the information was immediately passed on to the makers.
The enamelled container is made by Messrs. Macfarlane, but
the cover and all other fittings are made and fixed, and the whole
apparatus put on the market by Messrs. Hopkins & Sons.
In order to ensure that every tank was withdrawn, the Factors
were visited and it was ascertained that, with the exception of three
tanks which had been supplied to the City of London Brewery
Company, Messrs. Barclay and Perkins, and Messrs. Taylor,
Walker & Co., of Limehouse, respectively, all the tanks that had
been made had been supplied to the Isleworth Brewery Company.
Of the three supplied to other firms, only that supplied to Messrs.
Taylor, Walker & Co., had been in use. I communicated with
the Medical Officer of Health for the distiict, and he reported
that no trouble had been traced to the tank although in use for
throe months.
I also got into communication with the Medical Officers of
Health of the districts in which tanks had been installed prior to
and contemporaneously with those in our district. None of them
at first could trace any trouble to the Public Houses in which
these tanks were installed.
The following list shows the number of houses belonging to
the Brewery in which these tanks to the number of 162 had been
installed, together with the first delivery of beer into them has
had been used. The beer is delivered in large iron tanks on motor
lorries similar in appearance to those used for petrol, oil, etc., but
with a copper lining insulated from the iron casing, and is delivered
direct to the tanks through rubber pipes. Hitherto, all the tanks
supplied in this way have been earthenware:—