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13
of combustion, or a free circulation of air to dilute them. It is possible
as we have seen, to supply gas free from carbonic acid, but it is not possible,
notwithstanding the pretensions of patent stove makers, to burn it without
creating that poison in volumes exactly proportioned to the extent of the
combustion. Besides carbonic acid, during the burning of gas, a great and
injurious quantity of sulphuric acid is also evolved. Many striking examples
of the destruction of books, furniture, and goods from this cause, are given in
Dr. Letheby's Report. It cannot be enforced too emphatically, that it is quite
as rational and dangerous to burn gas in a close inhabited room without
providing a vent for the vitiated air, and means for the supply of fresh air, as
it would be to burn a coal - fire in a room without a chimney. There are
invisible vapours far more poisonous than smoke.
Gas, it must be remembered, is an article subject to great and sudden
fluctuations in the quantity required. It may be expected, therefore, that
occasional variations will be observed in the quality. If it be further
remembered that some of the most pernicious contaminations are those necessarily
produced in the act of burning, it will be obvious that, as regards protective
measures, more rests with the consumer than with the manufacturer.
I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
Your faithful Servant,
ROBERT BARNES,
13, Devonshire Square,
17 th January, 1857.
andrew t. roberts, printer, opposite shoreditch church,