The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-04-29 00:00:00

able—alouut which would be required to
.he uisd et

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interest to supply the township of Stourbridge only.
Cutting off those parts Oldswinford, Wordsley, The Lye,
and Wollaston, which together probably COrtatlele
14,000,000 cubic feet of Ran per year, we bare the remain-
ing quantity to be manufactured by the suggested new
works. For the present consideration we will suppose
that 34,000,000 cubic feet are made by the present con,
pany in one year, and the calculation 1:10,000, as given
above, is capable of producing that amount of gas; then
it follows that the coat 44 erecting a work to supply
20,000,000 cubic feet may be taken at about .£5,882. W.
should theu need information as to the annual cost of
manufacturing 20,000,000 feet. To supply such infor-
mation it has been calculated that to make 6,000 cubic
feet requiree an outlay of 12s. 'L'o produce 20,000.000
cubic feet upon the mune proportion of expense woulo
require a emu of £2,000. This amount, added to the is.
treed of 1 per cent. upon £5,882 spent in the erection
of works would give £2,235, the total annual liability in
producing 20,000,000 cubic feet of gas. To meet this
requirement gas might be sold to consumers at something
like 2s 64 per 1,000 cubic feet. Thia would realize a sum
of £2,500. To this amount of revenue must be added
say tow tor the sale of coke, £3l for reface lime, and
£126 for tar and other products arising from the mann.
lecture. These different items of revenue when added
would make a total of £3,517, which would leave afte,
.o,Bv-doing £2,235 for working expouses and interest on
mosey, a balance for the benefit of the ratepayers to the
ame,r"aa.f 1,282 annually, after soiling the gins at the
above reduced price.
Elie lien poil.l in the letter of the Gas Company which
needs to lie !tithed is the loss which the company asserts
at sastatim iti lighting the public lamps. The directors
unite in their tabulated report that 3s 414 le the average
price paid tor gas in Stourbridge. If this calculation be
correct, we may asaurae that all computations based upon
this assumption will meet with general acceptance. With
this data your Committee has considered carefully the
7th paragraph of the oaB Company'a letter, which states
" that the public lamps are lighted at a loss to the com-
pany, and CO sets as a barrier in the way of future reduc-
tion." To the former of these aesertions your Commit-
tee would submit the following calculation as an answer.
The public lamps are lighted for nine months in the year
at £2 per lump; to remain unlighted for three nights
before the full moon, on the night of the full moon, and
on the night following, making five nights in each month
on which the lamps are not lighted at all. Taking these
five nights out of each of tho sine months will give 45
nighta to be deducted from three-fourths of 365 days.
'Ws result wall leave '223 nights on which the public
lea-pa are lighted. It has been proved that a burner
similar to those supplied to the public lamps will con•
same on au average about 4i cubic feet of gas per hour.
After some enquiry upon the subject it has been calcula-
ted that 10 hours' burning is a fair average to ta'so be-
tween the summer and winter months. This, lien mut.
tiplied, will give 22e0 hours' burning in the nine months
of the year, which at 4,1 cubic feet per heur will produce
i 0,305 cubic feet. This quantity at the stated average
price Oa 4/c1) gives a surplus to the company of Is 3d
upon each lamp por year. This 5,1 31 is exclusive of the
profit arising from the difference between the real cost of
making gas sod their average selling price. It ha. been
calculated that Is is the average cost of miumfactaring
1,000 cubic feet of gas. The difference between this and
the coinpanj 's average selling price per 1,01/0 multiplied
In, the number of thousands of cubic feet consumed by
each public lamp would give 138 9d. This emn, if added
to the Os 3d already obtained will Rive 19s as • surplus
after the company bee vela for the prodnetion of gas
e,,11,14eta by each lamp. he number of Infiqin within