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Appendix "B."
General Report on Testings of Gas supplied to the Wandsworth
Borough (i) by the Wandsworth and Putney
Gas Company; (2) by the Mitcham and Wimbledon Gas
Company during the Year ended 31ST March, 1912.
Wandsworth and Putney Qas Company.
In my last annual report (iqio-ii) I referred to the installation
Recent Legis'ation
and Calorific
Power.
of a new burner in the Photometer at Disraeli Road,
Putney, and to the circumstances which led to it.
This new burner is known as the Metropolitan
Argand Burner iNo. 2 and has the advantage of being in general use
at all the Metropolitan and many provincial gas-testing places.
All illuminating power tests during this year ended 31st March,
1912, have been made with the new burner, and the results obtained
are therefore entirely comparable with tests made at most gas-testing
places in England. At the time the new burner was introduced
I again urged the institution of tests of the calorific power of the
gas, and the Council having agreed to the suggestion, the Company
duly provided a calorimeter and other necessary apparatus, and the
tests have been made regularly since September, 1911.
I had frequently pointed out, not only in my report of 1910-11
but in many previous reports, that it was of great importance to
make these tests for information so as to be able to arrive at a
calorific standard applicable to the Wandsworth and Putney Gas
Company's gas, and so that, in the event of later legislation, a
standard calorific power, like the standard illuminating power,
might also be set up, or even substituted for this latter.
Among the many arguments in favour of this new departure,
which I have put forward from time to time in various reports to
the Council, I may briefly recapitulate the following:—(1) The
increasing use of gas for heating and cooking purposes, and also
for motor power, in addition to lighting; (2) further, its extended
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