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50
As regards sulphur impurity, the amount was in excess of the
permitted quantity (25 grains in 100 cubic feet of gas), on one
occasion only during the year, viz., 26.4 grains on 30th July.
Sulphuretted hydrogen was found on three occasions—in the months
of October and December respectively.
Ammonia was in excess on 19 occasions in the month of January,
put of a total of 25 testings: the average for the entire month
being 4.11 grains (maximum 7 5.) This excess above the maximum
allowance (2.5 grains in 100 feet of gas) was due to unavoidable
causes, in connection with alterations being then made in the
purifying machinery, which, having since been perfected, the
ammonia has sunk to an almost infinitesimal quantity.
In the Appendix I have given the quarterly returns of the chief
examiner, showing the results of the daily testings—for which I
am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Wakefield, the Clerk to the
Metropolitan Board of Works. These returns show in detail the
facts above stated, and prove that the gas has been up to the Parliamentary
standard, as estimated by the prescribed tests. Nevertheless,
complaints have been made by persons living in various
parts of the parish, of the deficient lighting power of the gas. It
must be assumed, therefore, that in some cases the burners in use
have been in fault. There can, indeed, be no doubt that many
consumers fail to obtain a proper light, owing to the habitual use
of bad burners, or to the neglect to cleanse good ones. Burners
that were of sufficient capacity for the cannel gas, with which the
parish was supplied during the first half of the year, are inadequate,
and are not adapted to burn common gas so as to produce a
good light. Some consumers who have reported the sufficiency
of the light when proper burners have been employed, have complained
of the great increase in the amount of their gas bills,
and in a few instances, I understand, the dissatisfaction has been
so great as to lead to a discontinuance of the use of gas. It is a
remarkable fact, often observed—a fact that makes us almost
despair of ever getting "cheap gas that the bills seem always to
increase when the price is lowered! How this is brought about
I do not pretend to explain; but, so far as my experience goes,
it would seem that gas bills never were lower than when the
price per thousand feet was at its highest. I do not think
that extravagance in consumption—as a result of decrease in
price—can be admitted to be a sufficient explanation of the
phenomenon. There are mysteries in gas manufacture and supply,
which may be revealed hereafter, and the discovery may
both enlighten us on the point now mentioned, and also explain the
occurrence of complaints of bad light, concurrently with the
satisfactory results of the nightly examinations of the gas at
the appointed testing station.
During some portion of the year the supply was scarce. The
Company, when applied to for an explanation, attributed the
scarcity to the refusal of a "sister Vestry" to allow the roads
in their parish to be broken up for the purpose of laying down