The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1907-11-14
THE GAS PLANT
Bennington Plant Was Well and Cor
rectly Built.

torial OF the 18th. Inst. on THE Gas
Plant you state that nine out of ten
voters declare that the construction of
the plant was so poor that It's value
is no where near proportionate to the
cost The mains were not laid as
deep as they should have been, and the
numerous leaks show that the plant
was not built as it ought to have been
have heard remarks of this charac-
ter myself, and will say in reply, that
| believe them to be utterly unfounded,
and unjust.
The plant was constructed by an
engineer who is probably one OF the
best in this part of the country; he
has constructed several gas plants in
Vermont, giving understand, general
satisfaction. If others had done their
duty by the gas company in other
ways as well as J. X. d. son (the
engineer) did in his. the company
would not have been in the hands OF
receiver today.
Mr.. Dawson told us when building
the mains, that all new gas plants
were sure to show certain amount OF
leakage the year following construc-
ton. which leaks could be taken care
of as they appeared. and after that
there would be but little trouble.
This statement we have found to be
true, as but little bother in that way
is found now. The mains were con.
structed of the best heavy belled pipe,
and were | believe, well laid.
AS for laying the pipe below frost"
such. thing imagine, was never
heard of in the north, unless in large
cities where they have conduits for
all pipes, as the trouble arising In the
event of leakage at such depth would
be very serious. AT that depth in
case of leak the gas would follow
the pipe for a long distance before
coming to the surface, and would be
very difficult to locate, and after being
found the leak would cost five times
as much TO repair. The same might
be said II the pipes were five, or even
four feet below the surface of the
ground, as there would be just that
much extra trouble and expense in To-
eating, and repairing the leak, besides,
there would be the same trouble from
I; frost.
, cover at the outside is sufficient for
gas pipes where the soil is of heavy
nature, and less where the earth is
mixed with gravel or sand, as found in
most of our streets, The depth at
which the gas mains are put in here
will average about IL feet, being
placed deeply or otherwise in accor-
dance with the nature of soil at diff
ferent points.
The average leakage of gas plants
understand, is about > per cent al
though Mr.. iRtchie, the receiver tells
me that the loss in our plant Is only
| per cent. which il seems to ME dem
onstrates conclusively, that the con-
! struction instead of being poor, is
above the average. If twice the
amount of gas were being manufac-
| tured and sold, the leakage would be
no greater practically. thus reducing
the above PERCENTAGE over half, or
| nearly so.
On account of the companys early
! difficulties, il seems TO be assumed by
some that those difficulties extended
throughout construction and every
thing connected with the plant
| II is true that the construction cost
a large amount of money, but only
| the best material was used, and was
| expensive. Not dollar was expended
for the plant, however, by the execu-
tive committee, of which Mr.. Richie
was the head until voucher was
produced showing that the money had
| actually been expended, or material
was on the ground. Mr.. Richie
scrutinized every voucher very close
| ly, as did the other members of the
committee. Great care was taken In
this.
Upon investigation. it will be found
believe, that the plant is all it should
be, and quite equal in construction
to any other gas plant in the state, and
! vastly superior to some of them.
AS for swapping electricity for gas
| in lighting our streets ii we would
emulate nearly all, if not all the large
cities of the country, notably New
! York, Philadelphia Cincinnati, Cleve-
land, Omaha and many others, we
would light every residential street with
gas, lighting them infinitely better
than they are now. I do not believe
there is n residential street in the city
of New York that is not lighted with
gas. There must be a good reason for
! this. Even our business streets could
| be lighted by a gas arc light that is
used so extensively all over the coun-
try, giving much better satisfaction
to our citizens than what we have now
especially when they realize that the
municipality was saving over $4,000
per year by the change. This sum
would be vastly increased I believe
when the plant was properly de-
veloped This statement can be east
ly demonstrated, and to the salts
faction Of everyone.
also believe the plant need not
cost the village an extra dollar of tax.
alton, as it could be made to pay for
itself il the $4,000 we are now paying
! yearly were used say for two years to
! fully develop the plant, and after
wards made into a sinking fund with
which to pay for it. 1t looks as
| though the village may possibly have
an opportunity to buy the gas plant for
a comparatively low figure, and be-
lieve will make big mistake If it
! does not prepare to take advantage of
such a situation, such as has never
come to the corporation before, and
| probably never will again. Usually
| corporations pay the full cost price
for a public utility and generally much
more, while in this case the chances
are that 1t may purchase for a SUN
far below its actual cost and value,
this new and thoroughly equipped gas