The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-13 00:00:00

THE LIGHTING or THE PUBLIC LAMPS.

Deputy Lorr laid before the Court a letter he had received
from an inhabitant of the wad represented by him, com-
plaining of the lighting of the public lamps in the City.
The worthy deputy expressed great dissatisfaction at the
application of the carburetting process to the lamps, and he
said, seeing the strong feeling there was on the part of the
public against it, he thought the Commission should make
some other arrangements. They as the representatives of
the public must not allow any crotchet of their own, which
they might Entertain with regard to the process in clues.
tion, to lead them to do anything contrary to the wishes of
the citizens. (Hear, hear.) He moved that the matter be
referred to the General Purposes Committee, to consider
and report.
The motion was at once put and agreed to.

Mr. JOSEPH DNIV, the principal clerk to the Commission,
read a communication he had received from the Chartered
Gas Company, forwarding a return of gas shown to have
been consumed in the metered public lamps which had been
agreed to by the officers of the Commissioners of Sewers and
the company's
chief inspector. The secretary in the letter
expressed a hope, that as hitherto no opportunity had been
lost of cavilling at the manner in which the company was
supposed to fulfil its duties to tae public, it would now have
the credit which the experiments of the commissioners
showed it to merit. The directors regretted to observe that
notwithstanding their anxiety on the subject, and the con-
stant measures used, the quantity of sulphur in the gas ap-
peared from Dr. Letheby's test to be still slightly in excess
of the Parliamentary maximum, but the attention of the
directors would not be relaxed, and they earnestly trusted
that before long a plan might be devised which would re-
ceive the approval of the commissioners, and obviate fur-
ther complaints.

The CUAIRMIN could not understand the language used
in the first part of the letter, anl he said ho thought it was
not of a character that one public body should use towards
another. The commissioners were the representatives of
thepublic, and they had the
company to supply gas of the requisite illuminating power.
(Hear, hear,)
, _ greatest difficulty in getting the

The Engineer to the Comae ; (Mr, Ta TT
--ed.on k.,...r, ~"3,t......AYW00D)
said he had no doubt of the coirectness of the company's
return as to the consumption of gas where there had been
meters, and the commissioners might be quite sare that
wherever meters wore affixed tho full quantity of gas would
be given. (Hear, hear.) It alpeared from investigation
made by Dr. Letheby and himself that the light was not so
good at the lamps where there Ncere no meters. With regard
to the carburetting process, upon investigation they found
that where the carburetors were affixed the light given,
with 3 cubic feet of gas per hou., was equal to that 5 cubic
feet in the other lamps. He atzted further,that where there
was imperfect light it was attributable either to defect in
the naphtha or in the gas suppled by the companies.
Mr. FARLOW said the gas lamps in some parts of the City
were more like rushlights thananything else.
(Hear.)
Deputy FA ItIt.A.R said the liga,f 8 at the present time were
nothing like so good as they us3el to be. How it was that
the illuminating power and qufticy of the gas were found to
be so satisfactory by the officer: of the Commission, and the
lights in the public and indeed the private gas lamps so de-
fective he could not understand. He should like to have
some information upon the sutject.
The Medical Officer
(Dr. LEMEBY) stated that there were
y
two or. three testings regularly every night with regard to
the quality of the gas that was supplied by the companies,
and there could be no doubt that the illuminating power of
Indeed,present time was considerably better
the gas supplied at the
in former times, while the illumi-
nating power was not
More than 10 or 11 sperm candles, they
had now an average
power of 14 candles, which was consi-
derably in access of the
than formerly.
standard of the act of Parliament.
If, therefore, there
was an deficiency deficiency of light, it must be
that thequantity
supplied was insufficient. The quantity
was becoming less year
pipes an
year, owing to the deposition of
, n
matter in the gas
and fittings, which obstructed the
to a pamphlet by Alr.
Lotheby) would call attention
(Dr.
Pa'sage of the gas in the burners. Whilst this matter was
under consideration, ho
Brighton, upon the
in principle and inequitable subject of the supply of gas to the street
proper method for supplying Rutter, of the Black Rock Works,
lamps. Ile did so with-great pleasure, because that gentle-
man was en authority upon- the subject. He expresses his
use of meters exclusivel
special obstacles aro removed'
opinion as follows :-1. That the contract system is wrong
in practice. 2. That the only
iniat be advantageously gas to street lamps is by meter,
!vents for lig,htincr
a separate meter to each lamP• 3. That preparatory to the
~ and until various local or other
a system of meter averages
streets sdopted. 4. That all the arrange-
s suould be under the control of
local authorities. 5. That the only means by which the
lighting of streets will be rendered in a satisfactory and
economical manner is by establishing
and maintaining
friendly feelings between the respective representatives of
gas companies and local authorities. 6, That improvements
in coltftnn lamps, adjusting taps, burne:s, regulators, meters,
the means of lighting and putting out gas, and of fixing and
protecting meters, should be sought for, encouraged, and
subjected to impartial examinations and experiments.
The matter then dropped.
The Principal Clerk laid before the Court a precept from the
Metropolitan Board of Worlc.e calling for the sum of X 14,268
15s, 4d., being the p mount of the charge upon the City to-

wards the general expenses of the board for the year. This
amount is greatly in excess of the charge made last year.
The subject was referred to the general purposes commit-
tee to consider and report.