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under equal conditions of ventilation, by a gas containing 17
and one containing 89 grains of sulphur impurity respectively.
These other conditions are high temperature, great and injurious
dryness of the air, and the products resulting from the
burning of other constituents of coal gas than sulphur impurity.
In a room with the ordinary means of ventilation and lighted by
gas, I find, for instance, that the atmosphere becomes in a
few hours of practically constant composition, and that
the air of the room exhibits three layers of different
character, viz.: (1.) a comparatively cool layer extending
from the floor to the level of the breast of the chimney-piece ;
(2.) a layer, somewhat warmer and dryer, extending from the
last to a little distance above the tops of the doors ; and (8.)
a hot and very dry layer, very disagreeable to the senses,
reaching from the last to the ceiling. Ordinarily the top of a
gas-lighted room will be from 12 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit
hotter than at the ordinary breathing height; and the difference
may be much greater than this if much gas be used. The carbonic
acid impurity will rise to ten or twelve times the amount
at the ceiling that exists in pure air, and to six times as much
as is found at lower levels in the gas-lighted room. Besides this,
Drs. Odling and Russell have determined that the actual
amount of sulphur in any form of combination in the air of
an ordinary gas-lighted room is very small, not forming more
than 1000th part of the other impurities formed when a gas is
burnt to the ordinary extent, containing 33 grains of sulphur
per 100 cubic feet, i.e., twice the amount of sulphur in the
gas supplied to this Parish. This amount of sulphur compounds
in the air is altogether trivial.
These facts, and the annoyance caused to the public by the
lime method of gas purification, induced the Gas Light and
Coke Company to apply to Parliament for a relaxation of
the present restriction on sulphur impurity, so as to enable
them to revert to the oxide system of purification; and I
was called upon to give evidence before a Committee of the
House of Commons as to the nuisance arising from the
lime system of purification as carried on in this Parish.
The result of the Company's application to Parliament
is not yet known. *
*Note.—The Committe rejected the Company's Bill on
June 7th, 1877.—T. S.