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68
The fact that the soil of many London streets is saturated with gas
and that they are liable to floods from breaks in water pipes, stoppages
in sewers, &c., were certainly within the cognizance of the engineers to
the Company long previous to these accidents.
Were the Company to maintain that they had taken all possible
precautions against these accidents it would be a matter for serious
consideration whether the approval of the Board of Trade should not at
once be withdrawn from a system of laying mains which has been
shown to contain elements of danger, and the Vestry of St. James submitted
this point for consideration.
I did not. however, gather from the representatives of the Company
that this was their contention, but their defence rather took the line of
admitting incomplete precautions and urging in extenuation that the
mains were laid originally under incomplete powers, that the demand
upon them for supply had rather overtaxed their resources, while the
difficulties in the way of executing street work in the district are very
considerable, and in consequence the precautionary measures had to some
extent fallen into arrears.
The Company had to my knowledge not been entirely indifferent to
their responsibilities in the matter of keeping their conduits free from
gas and water, as their representatives have on several occasions conferred
with me on the subject.
It was agreed informally between us that the Company should carry
out a system of providing at each street box and point of depression in
their culverts an inverted syphon. [Major Cardew annexed a sketch to
illustrate this suggestion.]
I consider that this system should be completely carried out without
further delay, and should be completed in three months' time at latest.
Another precaution I recommend in this case is that no great length
of conduit should be allowed to remain without a break of continuity
formed by substituting a short piece of cable mains for the conduit
mains.
This is already being done by the Company at road crossings for
other reasons, and I recommend that in the case of this Company's
conduits no greater length should be allowed without such a break of
continuity than 200 yards. It will, however, be necessary to allow the