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12
"Assuming then that the atmosphere acquired 0.2, or onefifth
of a per cent, of carbonic acid, by the combustion of gas,
and on our original basis, that the sulphurous acid produced
amounts to the 1,000th part of the carbonic acid, we should
have present in the air of the room, 1-000,000th—or a halfmillionth—part
of sulphurous acid: a proportion utterly
insignificant. Further, to produce a cubic foot of sulphurous
acid would require an hour's combustion of 300 burners
consuming 5 feet of gas apiece; while to have a cubic foot of
sulphurous acid existing at any moment in the air of any
room, of whatever size, would necessarily require a much
more abundant gas consumption, owing to the great change
of atmosphere taking place every moment, even in the worst
ventilated room."*
Mr. Thomas William Keates, Consulting Chemist to the
Metropolitan Board of Works, says:—
He has given great attention to the subject of gas and its
chemical compounds. Sulphur is one of these, and is the
most difficult of all to eliminate from the gas. He is aware
that under the Metropolis Gas Act, 1860, 20 grains per 100
cubic feet was the maximum Companies were permitted to
allow.
He does not consider that the public are practically any
sufferers by a certain excess of this limit; the following are
his reasons:—Twenty grains of sulphur produce when
burned 40 grains of sulphurous acid, which in bulk rather
equal more than 58 cubic inches; so that 100 cubic feet of
gas containing 20 grains of sulphur produce in burning 58
cubic inches of sulphurous acid gas. An ordinary fish-tail
gas burner consumes about 4 cubic feet of gas per hour,
* Note.—For the further part of Dr. Odling's Lectire immediately follow
ing the part extracted by the Company, see Appendix, p. 24; and at p. 25 of
the Appendix is given an Extract from the remarks made by Dr. Letheby
in the discussion which followed Dr. Odling's Lecture.