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The gas supplied by the Gas Light and Coke Company is
tested daily by gas examiners appointed by the Metropolitan Board
of Works, at places and with apparatus prescribed by the gas
referees, who are appointed for that purpose by the Board of Trade.
The testing place convenient for Fulham is at 1, Carlyle Square,
Chelsea. The gas is required by the Companies' Acts of Parliament
to have a lighting power of 16 candles when burnt at the
rate of 5 cubic feet per hour, ascertained by comparing with that
of a sperm candle burning 120 grains per hour, so that the street
lamps in Fulham are supposed to give light equal to 16 candles.
Cannel gas is said to be equal to 344 candles. As regards purity,
the gas must be entirely free from sulphuretted hydrogen, and the
maximum quantities of sulphur and ammonia permitted are fixed
from time to time by the gas referees. The limit for ammonia is
now 4 grains in 100 cubic feet of gas. Sulphur from April to
October is allowed to the extent of about 17 grains in 100 feet, and
from October to April about 22 grains in 100 feet.
The gas has, when tested at the official testing place, been
found generally to be equal in illuminating power and purity to
the requirements of the Acts, and there has been no such ascertained
default as to render it necessary for the Metropolitan Board
of Works to ask that any forfeiture be imposed.
The arrangements under which the profits which may be
divided by Gas Companies among their Shareholders are made to
depend upon the price at which the gas is supplied, an additional
¼ per cent. of dividend being allowed for every 1d. per 100 feet, by
which the price is reduced, and conversely, the dividend being
reduced when the price is increased, is still found to work satisfactorily.
Under this arrangement, combined with other favorable
conditions which have attended the business of gas-making in
recent years, the price of gas has been lower and the dividends
higher than ever before.