Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-02
Municipal Affairs
FAVORS CITY ENGINEER
CONTROLLING OIL Tests
Criticism of Petroleum Inspector
Causes Plan to ConSoIi-
date Departments

In a letter to the board of public
works w. H. Humphreys, inspector of
public works, suggests that it prob
ably would be advantageous if the de-
partment of oil inspection was placed
under the control of the city engineers
department. Mr.. Humphreys letter
is in response to some criticisms that
have been made concerning the depart
ment of oil inspection, and especially
C. A. Blackmar, the oil inspector.
When these criticisms were made
concerning Mr.. Blackmar he asked the
department of public works if his de-
partment had been of value to the
department of public works, and Mr..
Humphreys replied that 1T has. Mr..
Humphreys says:
IF it were not for the tests that are
made, foreign ingredients in excess
quantities would undoubtedly be fur
nished us on this work.
There is a certain phase of the oil
testing, however, which 1 feel we
should consider at this time.
I'm the department of oil inspection
we are maintaining a laboratory with
an inspector and his assistants, in
which laboratory, as l understand, lu-
bricating oil and the various petroleum
products are tested, and under which
department a certain police surveillance
is exercised over petroleum operations.
1.-THE city is also maintaining lab
oratory, with one assistant, under the
city engineering department The line
of work conducted by these two de-
partments is along such similar lines
that it appears they should be COM
bined into one department. The city
would undoubtedly save money in MAX
ing this consolidation, and there is no
reason why the efficiency of the serv-
ice could not be maintained.
WORK is NECESSARY
1--WE have, as yet, much to learn
about road building, particularly the
use of petroleum products In road con-
struction. This is made apparent to us
when men who are making life study
of this work differ so in their ideas of
construction and are responsible for
some very pronounced mistakes. To
that end, our engineering department
in making tests of the asphalts and oils
which go into the construction of our
streets and in watching the results ac-
complished is not only able to deter
mine the quality of the material FUR
nished, but also to make material
ton.
"You will recollect that a few years
ago our asphalt streets did not COM
pare with those which are being laid
at the present time. / believe we have
the best asphalt streets to be found
anywhere. This point, of being able to
watch and follow up the results OF
certain mixtures is of material value
to our city. Therefore, l feel that II
would be a mistake to take this in
yestigation out of the hands of the city
engineer and carry out the idea pre-
Viously suggested, that all oil inVesti-
CATION should be under one depart
ment, would recommend that the en-
gineerjng department be given full
charge Of the testing of all oil ana
petroleum products.
s.To this I would make one excep-
tion-that is, that some of the oils used
along the line of the aqueduct ana
which require only a simple test to de-
termine their values, which can and is
now being done at the cement plant at
Monolith, be placed under the en-
gineer's department only incidentally.
INVESTIGATE AT LABORATORY
Councilmen Betkouski, Whiffen and
Stewart visited the laboratory of Oh
inspector Blackmar yesterday morning
and investigated the books of the de-
partment During the investigation 1t
developed that one of Betkouski's COM
plants against the oil inspector is that
he does work for others than the city,
although drawin" a monthly salary OF
$175 from the city. Mr.. Blackmar him
self brought up the subject and stated
that he had prepared oil specifications
for every state in the country and mad
even worked for the japanese govern
ment, but he declared he was Justl1led
in doing work for others because he dld
IT outside regular office hours. He
declared that he did some of this out
side work in the citys laboratory, but
that he had a right to use the labora-
tory for personal purposes, as a large
part of the apparatus belonged to MN
personally and he used it for the cltys
Benefit