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6
sulphur to which the term " sulphur impurity " is now exclusively
applied. On the average about 33 grains of sulphur
is left in this form in each hundred cubic feet of gas after
purification by means of oxide. It having been found that
by treating the gas thus purified in a special manner a corrosive
fluid, oil of vitriol, could be extracted from the gas, it
was, too hastily as I believe, assumed that oil of vitriol
would be found in injurious amount during the burning of
gas containing this sulphur impurity. Hence there have
been various legislative enactments requiring the sulphur
impurity to be kept beneath certain prescribed amounts. Up
to the year 1872 all the enactments proved abortive, for
no means were known of reducing the sulphur impurity with
any degree of certainty. Since 1872, owing to the discovery
of the conditions under which the lime might be made to
remove the sulphur impurity from gas, a great revolution has
taken place in the mode of purification. The oxide process has
given way almost entirely in the Metropolis to the lime process,
and the gas now supplied to this parish does not contain, when
tested by the same process, more than half the sulphur impurity
that it contained six years ago ; indeed, the restriction now
placed upon the gas companies by the gas referees, to whom
is entrusted the duty of prescribing from time to time the
amount of allowable impurities, is so onerous that the companies
are obliged to rely upon the lime process of purification.
So far as the removal of sulphur impurity from the gas is
concerned the results are admirable; but a new difficulty
presented itself, and one which from a health point of view is
of great importance. The stench arising from the use of lime
is abominable, and towards the end of the year 1875 and the
beginning of 1876, the complaints respecting the King's Cross
Gas Works—the only gas works in this Parish—were bitter
and frequent. The complaints were renewed during the past
winter, the nuisance being of course greatest in the winter
months, when the make of gas is greatest. The nuisance
arises from the apparently necessary exposure of the spent
lime during its removal from the purifiers. The disgusting
odour evolved could at times be felt six hundred yards away
from the Works. I have given great attention to the subject,
and suggested various modifications of the then plan of
emptying the purifiers, so as to get rid of the nuisance. The
Officials of the Company have always displayed the utmost
readiness to carry out my suggestions some of which put the
Company to great expense. Unhappily the most promising