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125
Nuisance from Pigeons.
The Loudon County Council (General Powers) Act, 1927, gives power to local
authorities to deal with nuisances caused or which might be caused by the
congregation at any place in the County of London of house doves or pigeons.
The arrangements made for giving effect to the Act were fully dealt with in the
Annual Report for 1928.
During the year 1929, the Council extended these arrangements by
sanctioning a payment for pigeons eggs brought in by the Contractor from nests
in the Borough. During the year 222 pigeons and 213 eggs were brought in and
destroyed in the presence of an official of the Public Health Department.
In the Report for 1928, reference was made to the number of pigeons on or
about the British Museum premises. In the early part of 1929, the Museum
Authorities intimated that the number of birds had been reduced to well below
the figure contemplated by the Council, and that the Council might well be satisfied
with what had then been done. The Museum Authorities seize any opportunities
which offer of collecting and destroying eggs; a preventive measure of more
permanent value is wire netting which is being placed in suitable positions near
the top of the columns so as to exclude the birds.
Transport of Unguarded Sheets of Glass.
When a workman or other person has been seen carrying sheets of glass along
in the street not protected by a wooden frame or other means, the attention of the
person or persons responsible has been called to the danger of the practice. The
danger is increased when a man brings unprotected sheets of glass into a crowded
train or lift. I have also had to call the attention of a firm recently to the undesirability
of transporting unprotected sheets of glass in a side car. "Metropolitan life
is only made possible by mutual consideration."
Electrolysis in Gas Pipes.
A complaint, fortunately of a very unusual nature, was lodged with this
Department by a tenant of a block of expensive flats: a gas pipe had burst below
a bedroom floor, and two people sleeping in the room had been nearly asphyxiated.
A month or two later, another leakage occurred near the same spot and a few days
after a third leakage; this occurred in the flat immediately below. The bedroom
in which the tragedy had nearly occurred was alive with electricity.
At the time of the first inspection a wall near the leakage was markedly damp,
probably due to a defect in a water service pipe (running to a hand basin) buried
in the wall; this, however, had recently been discovered and repaired. The
external brickwork was of glazed brick and had been repointed in an endeavour to
remedy the damp; evidently the effect of rendering the outer skin impervious was
to drive the moisture very slowly towards the inside of the wall. The Public Health
Department, the Gas Company and the Electric Light Company were all called
in; by our joint efforts it was established that the damp had caused a defect to