The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-07 00:00:00

CITY COMMISSION OF SEIVEI?S.

Yesterday, at the 'weekly meeting of the Commis-
sioners of Sewers, held at Guildhall, Mr. De Jersey
in the chair, Dr. Letheby, the medical officer, in a
special report, directed attention to the fact that
complaints had been made to him of the storing of
American petroleum in the ground floor of the
house No. 8, St. Mary Axe. He reported that
he had visited the premises, and had found that
they were used in the way mentioned. Some of the
American oils, he said, were exceedingly inflam-
mable, and would take fire on exposure to flame
at a considerable distance from the vessels
containing them ; and seeing how carelessly the
oils were treated, not merely in the storage, but
also in the general commercial management of
them, he was of opinion that they ought to be sub-
ject to some stringent regulations, as well for the
public health as for the public safety. Already
such regulations were in operation in respect of the
storage of other inflammable commodities, as gun-
powder, phosphorus matches, and methylated
spirit. He added, in reply to Dr. Abraham, that
except with reference to the public health, he did
not think the Commissioners had any power to
make such regulations, but the Court of Aldermen
were empowered to deal with the matter as a dan-
gerous public nuisance. On the motion of Dr.
Abraham, the report was referred to the Court of
Aldermen for consideration.. The Improvement
Committee reported that the Court of Common
Pleas had recently delivered judgment on the joint
ease submitted to them by the Commissioners and
the Metropolitan Board of Works on the question
whether the powers conferred by their Act of 1855
on that Board for naming the streets and number-
ing the houses within the metropolis overrode simi-
lar powers given by the:Act of 1848 to the Commis-
sioners of Sewers within the city of London. The
Court, after argument, had decided that the Act of
1855 did in that respect override the Commissioners'
Act of 1848. Mr. H. Lowman Taylor, a member
of the Commission, and also of the Metropolitan
Board, said, now that the question of right was
determined, probably that Board would waive the
exercise of it within the city to the Commission-
ers. Deputy Lott then moved that it be referred
to the engineer and the medical officer to examine
and report whether the light from the gas-lamps in
the public streets was increased or diminished by
the carburetting process recently applied to them,
and whether the light thrown on the footways was
not, as he submitted it was, obscured by the sha-
dow of the boxes containing the material used in
the process. In the course of a discussion on this
subject Mr. Haywood, engineer to the Commission,
read a letter addressed to him by Mr. Massey,
secretary to the Great Central Gas Company, com-
plaining that the Carburetting Company, in apply-
ing their process to public lamps within the city,
were picking out a lamp here and there for the pur-
pose, to the inconvenience of the company. Mr.
Massey also stated that a few days ago, as the Car-
buretting Company's men were fitting ono of their
naphtha boxes to a lamp in Queenhithe, it ex-
ploded. This, he added, was the third accident of
the kind that had occurred within the last three
weeks. The directors of the Great Central had di-
rected him to c•al1 the most serious attention of the
Court to an instance of explosion in a bracket lamp
in Harrow-alley. Had, he said, one of the nume-
rous lamps fixed in the rear of the same premises
ignited instead of the lamp in question, the great
probability was that, occurring as it did late in the'
night, the whole block of houses and buildings used
as cattle sheds would have been burnt down. The
owner of the property had made a communication
as to the risk she was incurring, end expressing
great fear and anxiety for the future. Dr. Abraham
said probably the accidents referred to, which were
exceptional, were due to mismanagement, and there-
fore preventible. At all events, they were not of a
nature to induce the Commissioners to abandon the
carburetting process, by which a great saving of
money was being effected in the public lighting,
and which he believed would be eventually adopted
over the entire metropolis. Mr. H. Lowman Taylor
held that the saving of money was at the expense
of light, for he had observed on a recent occasion
late at night a sort of twilight gloom in places
where the process was in use. Besides, it was ob-
vious that the boxes containing the naphtha attached
to the public lamps threw shadows on the ground.
Dr. Abraham said it was welt known, long before
the carburetting process was adopted, that at ad-
vanced hours of the night there was always a pau-
city of gas, consequent upon the companies relaxing
their pressure. The subject, on the motion of
Deputy Harrison, was eventually referred to the
General Purposes Committee for deliberate inquiry
,r,nd report. Dr. Letheby reported on the state of
185 houses that had been inspected during the
week, and he submitted a list of 39 places for sani-
tary improvement. He likewise reported that the
markets and slaughterhouses had been duly in-
spected, and that the officers had seized 3,8791 b. of
meat and 755 head of game as unfit for food. The
mortality returns for the week were a little above
the average for the season.