The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1909-01-31

/ the manufacture of carbon mouoXide is
/ general. or what you call carbureted
. ODD This country, but i'm foreign countries,
7 so Tar as they have adopted illumiUauts
/ lneFer and that there is uu legislation.
except IN the one single instance winch
if-., 1--we tApialned' Jhat OF New Jersey.
iliItllHs the manufacture as proposed
hy JHls bill That is, 1 understand, what
You have stated. substutially2
Ar. tORSTALL-Yes sir.
Basis of the Bill.
Mr.. MOORE-The basis of this bill
seems TO be. SO far as have been able
10 gather, that one man in Washington
I lost MS life by reason of his inhalation
I or what rs known as carbon mOnOxide.
Mr.. tORSTAIL-TheTe We're three.
Mr.. TAYLOR-One man since then,
a man at the Willard Hotel, was found
dead In his bath tub.
Mr. MOORE would like TO have
your statistics showing the number of
. deaths IN other communities, ana what
steps other communities have taken to
. lessen the number of deaths
MI fOttSIALIr-I would like to lead
up 10 that along my own line L can
stop and go over to that. and then 90
BACK think, logically, 7 can do bet
ter pE following along. A great deal
on stress has been laid on this hearing
iu this report Of the departmental com
blahuiacture and Use of water gas and
vlueI gases containing a large proper
ton of carbon mOnoSide.
Inquiry Made in England.
When that committee was appointed.
IN lss& by the board of trade. which
was the central authority governing
such matters iu England, to inquire
INTO the danger connected with the use
of gases containing a large proportion
OF mCaoNide, Il was composed of Henry
Robert BeltoTtI Henry Harding. sam
uei Cunyughame, assistant under-sec-
rotary OF state FOR the home depart
ment, John Scott Haldane, who was
Qullt "a celebrated chemist, Franklin
Idl sons, esl., N. d., ass. tant medical
otitt et OF tle local government board
anu w liiiaHl ramsay ESQ., professor OF
sNtuANu-- university College London.
NoI practical man on the committee.
IL went into the subject. and DR.
iiaidauer Prof Haldaue. made quite
number OF experiments, under which he
turned coal gas urst only into certain
rooms. He knew the percentage of
carbon m0nOXide IN the coal gas. and
ne made experiments I'm different parts
Of the room during different lengths
OF time, during which this coal Gas h.H
been flowing into tho room, and from
those experiments he deduced or mace
up gtFJaln theories as TO how a person
would Doe killed by the admission of
coal gas into @ room aud of carbureted
water gas into a room. He dtd non try
d. He simply determined the percent
age Of coal gas that would be I'm a
room after certain amount of flow
into the room.
More Dangerous theoretically.
Mr.. SIMs-Do YOU controvert the fact
that carbreteu water gas is more dam
gerous than coal gas2
Mr. FORSTALL - Practically, J. do.
Theoretically 1T is Practically, so far
as 4 have gone into the statistics. iC is
not
AIR. SIMS just wanted TO under
stand your position.
Mir FORSTAII-Tlis committee made
it's report I'm 1893. one of the recon-
mendatlDns OF that report is that power
should be conferred upon central de
partmeut 90 make regulations, enforce
able by adequate penalties limiting the
proportion OF CaTbOniC oxide to y per
cent or such per cent as the department
might consider desirable They did not
say uat-fOotediy y per cent, but they
said IL per cent or such per cent as
the department might consider desirable.
That report has been before parAa-
meut and before the authorities IN
England for nearly ten years, and no
action has ever been taken upon u. That
is the point + wish 90 make about that
Mr.. SINS-Is that intended to be
against action heTet
Mr.. FORSTALI-It shows how much
Importance parliament attaches TO that
report.
Mr. sI1Ls-They perhaps were not
making any carbon mOnOXlde gast
AIr FDRSTALI-Ycsi the testimony
shows that Belfast was sending out gas
containing carbon WOuOEide up TO Is or
~ Err cent ct times
Mr. SIMS-Perhaps they aseertained
that your contention was right iHaL
practically IL was not any more dam
gerols.
Use Not Restricted.
Mr. F0RsTALL-I think that is what
they settled down 20. At any rate, they
took no action, and the use Of carbur-
etad water gus has been going on with
out restriction ever since this report
was made.
Mr. MURPHY-Tlere has been some
testimony before us here that would in-
Gicate that carbon m0uouae gas pro
duces almost instantaneous death.
take lt from what you give us as con
tanned iu that report that mat Wgulu
mot correspond with what Prof Hal
III F6RSTAII-Carb mouoxide
straight does act I'm that way. II you
20 into au atmosphere shat contains
80 per cent OF carbon moHoEdes YOU Will
never .et ont unless there is somebody
to pull YOU out / have seen that In my
own experience in the gas works.
FeIIed in Few Seconds.
f have seen a. man go over almost in-
side of two or three seconds, when me
got into a very small space, 10, or pos
slbIy % cubic feet, into which straight
carbure+ed water gas had flowed in
considerable volume. We got him out
and ne revived We brought him around
"a ri" L. 20