The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-16
HERE ID INSPECT BIRMINGHAM GAS Quantity and Quality Found Up
 te Standard PRESSURE FAIRLY CODE New York Man Says Where Pressure Is Low It Is Generally Due To
 Local causes-Plans
 to Perfect.

A. E. Forsta1l one of the greatest gas experts in this country and some time chief advisor of the public ser vice commission of New fork. has been in Birmingham for some days past inspecting the gas properties of the Birmingham Railway, Light and tow- CT company Mr Forsta1l talks inter estingly of the result of his visit and it's objects. He said yesterday after noon:
 "The object of my visit is to in- vestigate the conditions as to the dis tribution of the gas throughout the district and to plan ahead in order that the distribution may be kept in good shape.
 T have been to Birmingham several times before. first in 1905s and l note a remarkable improvement in all lines particularly in the gas furnished by this company. Birmingham has con siderably better pressure as far as sufficiency is concerned than almost any city with which I am familiar and the uniformity of the pressure Is as good here as the average.
 "We have been making charts for several days of the pressure in all parts of the district and these charts show the facts I have just mentioned. The requirements of a gas company are a sufficient quantity with small a variation in the pressure as possible. We have found some. places where a drop in pressure Is recorded at certain hours and we will try to fix up those places and reduce the variations. The ideal gas service Is that without any variation in the pressure, but such is IL. large territory. But we hope to make the pressure here more uniform all over and therefore increase the eff ficiency of the service.
 "The law here in Birmingham in re- gard to quality is about the same as that of Massachusetts and New York, requiring 15-candle power gas with a luminous flame burner. The standard testing burner in New York state Is the Argand, which gives from two to three candle power more light than the flat flame If an Argand were used in Birmingham to make tests, your gas would give at least IT candle power, or two more than Is required by your law and one candle power more than in New York.
 This fact answers the statement sometimes heard in Birmingham that 
 for lighting purposes. You are, as a matter of fact getting two candle power better lighting gas than the law requires and the law is strict enough.
 "As to the pressure in Birmin gham. I can say without hesitation that 1t Is considerably above the average. In New York and many other cities 2h inches pressure is considered the max mum required. It frequently runs lower than that and is perfectly satis- factory while in Birmingham we have not found the pressure lower than 21k inches and it averages considerably over that.
 Many complaints of the pressure comes from the lack of adjustment of the burners on the gas stove and I understand from the officers of the company that they nov have men go- ing from house to house to adjust the stoves. When this Is done there will be much less complaint of pressure. The pressure is here and the cause for complaints is practically always local. People of today are accustomed To the patented lights such as the Wells bach, and the old flat flame looks mighty dim by comparison But really the gas furnished now Is a great i'm proVement over that furnlSned ID or 15 years ago In Birmingham. If you could compare the gas of 10 years ago and the gas of today, the people would readily appreciate the truth of my statement that there has been a great improvement.
 "Of course Birmingham has grown | faster indeed than many of us sup posed. I never thought that three | years would bring about the changes l that have been accomplished since my l first visit here"