The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-29 00:00:00

PRICE and PURIFICATION of GAS.

Yesterday a special meeting of the Commissioners
of Sewers tor the city of London took place at the
Guildhall, upon the references to inquire into the
price of gas generally, and also for the purpose of
receiving important information from Mr. Leslie, one
of the members of the Metropolitan Sanitary Coln-
mhiSion, who had consented to attend the board in
order to communicate to them the nature of the
improvements which were taking place under his
superintendence in several of the departments of the
Government. Deputy Peacock in the chair.
In answer to a question from Mr. LESLIE,
Mr. DAW, the chief clerk to the Commissioners,
said the City consumption of gas in the public lamps
cost between 11,000/. and 12,0001. a year, and that
the gas supplied t o the prisons of Newgate, Giltspur-
street, Whitecross-street, and Bridewell, was not
included in that charge, the expenditure of the article
in these places being defrayed by the City under the
head of paving and lighting ; neither had the Com-
missioners anything to do with the supply of gas _to
any buildings whatever. There were -2,700 lamps
lighted with gas ander the authority of the Commis-
sioners. _ .
Mr. Liar said the effect of thesimproventaid...:—
which he recommended would be, to increase, in an
essential manner, the illumination, and to render the
gas innoxious to health, by taking out all its impuri-
ties. The first public experiment made by him as to
the illumination, had been effected under the authority
of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, in the
Queen's-walk, in the Green-park, where he had fixed
his burners to 18 of the lamps, which were 90 feet
apart, end consumed 4f feet per lamp per hour.
The contrast between these lamps and the others
lighted upon the usual plan, was most palpable. It
was only necessary for the Commissioners to trust to
their own eyes. The next experiment was made by
him at the Post-office, perhaps the largest affair of
the kind in the world. His burners were as yet but
partially in operation in that establishment, but they
would completely supersede the old system in a very
short time.

Mr. LAWRENCE asked whether the gas consumed
in the Post-office was purified, and what might be
the sanitary effect of the purification ? '
Mr. LESLIE said that nearly all the offices in the
establishment were lighted by his apparatus for
purifying as well as illuminating, and, as to sanitary
results, there was not the slightest smell in any of
them, as the Commissioners could easily ascertain.
The saving to be accomplished by the adoption of his
plan would amount, per week, to at least 54,000 feet,
and yet he found that throughout the various com-
partments there was too much gas. The illumination
was powerful, and there was no smell—two effects, of
which many persons who were capable of seeing and
smelling could adequately judge.
Mr. LAWRENCE—You consider that we could, bo
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be more likely to be 50 per cent. than 25 per cent.
A street lamp should burn 3,480 feet per annum, and
he would produce as good a light, by the application
of his burners to the public lamps, as those at present
exhibited, at less than three-fourths of the quantity of
gas. For the purification of the gas—which purifica-
tion would, there could not exist a doubt, be required
universally in a short time—he should require to fix
the apparatus in the company's preinL,es ; but as re-
garded the combustion, his burners alone would be
calculated to effect the necessary improvement in the
quality.
In answer to questions from Mr. Harrison and
other members of the board, Mr. LESLIE gave a
scientific description of his mode of accurately
the exact amount of light in which his process differed
from that. which we have been long accustomed.
For his burners his charge was seven shilling each,
the sum paid by the Government, the parish of St.
James's, and in fact by all parties who had determined
to adopt his process, after having seen the results of
the experiments which had been made.

Mr. LAwaENcE, asked what Mr. Leslie thought
the Commissioners of Sewers ought to be able, on an
average, to make and supply gas for to the public, if
they made it themselves?

Mr. LESLIE answered—Three shillings for every
1,000 cubic feet, and that charge would include
every cost of plant, roams, &c. The materials he
used in the process of purification absorbed all the
deleterious and offensive parts of the gas.
, A MEMBER OF THE BOARD—WouId the deposit
be valuable after the purification takes place ?
Mr. LESLlE—Certainty, to a considerable amount.
Mr. HARRISON—Can you, without purifying, lower
the price of illuminating ?
Mr. LESLIE—Yes. But purification must be
adopted. The benefits of purification are so great
that it is quite impossible to argue upon the confirm.
time of the impure state of the article in any case. If
you have 2,700 public lamps in the City, that number
would demand a supply of 13,500 feet per hour for
the whole. Your gasometers, two of which you
should hare, and that number would be sufficient for
you, should have in each of them six hours' stock of
gas. A space of forty feet diameter would be suffi-
cient to build them in. The purification would render
the glasses much less liable to damage. In fact, by-
and-by purification will be the indispensable attendant
of illumination by gas.
Ihe CHAIRMAN—Are the two companies, the
Chartered Gas and the City Gas Companies, who
supply us aware of these facts which you have stated
to us ?
Mr. LESLIE—Yes, as well as I am.
Mr. LAWRENCE—Are they aware of these effects
which you have stated to us ?
Mr. I,Esux—Certainly.
Mr. LAWRENCE—Which of them supplies the Post-
office ?
Air. LESLIE—The City Gas Company ; but they
will make it themselves at that establishment before
long. The whole interior of the building will be
lighted in the course of next week, according to the
improved process of illumination and purification
The gas lighting of the Post-office used to cost from
3,0001. to 4,0001. a year, and I have undertaken to
save them a thousand a year at least.
The CHAIRMAN and Board returned thanks to Mr.
Leslie, and the Commissioners adjourned.

AR EASY DEATH FOR PORlERS.—Judging from
the noise they make, pigs have no particular penchant
for the butcher's knife, and the loudness of their protest
is a nuisance to all concerned and to all the neighbour-
hood. It appears that henceforth the swinish multitude
may be enabled to die with more dignity and decorum,
and this by means of the new anaesthetic agent, chloro-
form. The Halifax Guardian thus decribes the first
instance on record of a pig's dying, more patrium without
making any fuss about it:—" Christmas is a fatal period
for pigs, and right glad no doubt would the majority of
the grunt creation' be to quit existence upon more
agreeable terms. Well, thanks to the invention of the
age, a more desirable transit into nonentity has been
effected, for the other day, Mr. Horace Watson, druggist,
of the respectable village of Laceby, near Grimsby,
wishing to give his 'greasiness as little uneasiness' as
possible, en route to the salting tub, caused our friend
the butcher to administer through piggy's monstrous
nostrils quantum sufficit of chloroform. natu-
rally fond of sleep, was soon in the land of forgetfulness,
when our hero in the 'blue frock' very conveniently
extracted the requisite portion of vital fluid from the
fountain of his existence,
apparently not a the
s
leaving the pig, after being
oalded, cut up, and salted, whit
wiser for what had passed."
REPEAL OF THE WINDOW TAX.—Yesterday by the various
Yesterday a
large metropolitanme ti
ngpoafritshheesdettgk place at at the Court-house,
Idarylebone, to confer upon the propriety of petitioning
the Government for a total and immediate repeal of the
window tax. Several gentlemen addressed the meeting,
and a resolution was unanimously adopted, " that a de-
putation be appointed to wait upon the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, at his earliest commie*, for the purpose
of pressing upon his attention the necessity of an imme-
diate repeal of the window duties." It was further re-
solved, " that the chairman (Mr. George Daniell) be re-
quested to draw up a memorial to the Government, that
communication be forwarded to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to knory when he will be pleased to 'receive
the deputation ; that three delegates be appointed from
each metropolitan parish to form a deputation, and that
all the metropolitan Members of Parliament be requested
to join it." _

CANNIE YORICSIIIRE.—A Yorksbireman meeting
with a friend in London, the following conversation took
place between them :—" Sad times," said the Yorkshire-
man, " how dun you come on here in Lunnon ?" " Very
bad," replied the other ; "an honest man has no chance
to live now-a-days." " Ay," says the Yorkshireman,
" but we mixes it a l?it in our country."

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