The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-02-01
FRAUD USED TO
INITIATE GAS BILLS
New York Companies Find
New Way to Fleece
Public
Public Service Commission
Is Investigating Dishon-
est Practice with w. A.
Baehr as Expert.

New York, Feb. LIN spite of the
Eighty-cent Gas law the Consolidated
Gas Company is making as much
money now as it did before the law
was passed and its full Endorsement
of the benefits of the regulation in
Gas Logic" a pamphlet issued by
the company every month, has start
ed the Public Service Commission to
investigate. 1t has been found that
by forcing air through the pipes at
certain hours enough gas is driven
through the meters to run up the
bills of the consumers to about what
they were before the .eighty-cent law
was passed. This scheme Of mani
pulation is practiced in the late after
noon hours, when consumers begin
to use gas generally. When the Jets
are first lit and for a long time after
the gas roars out of the burner and
is blown away into the atmosphere
faster than it can be burned by the
flame. This same practice is employ
ed in the late hours Of the night, Or
rather in the early hours Of the
morning, when thousands of consum-
ers keep lights burning all night in
stores and rooms. The air pressure
is applied and gas is blown out that
is not burned.
The Public Service Commission
made it known yesterday that q
scientific investigation of the dishon-
est practice of the Consolidated Gas
Company, and of the other companies
throughout the city, is under way.
The sudden conversion of the gas
companies to the view that the
eighty-cent law was good thing and
that they We're doing as well as for
merly, although they fought the law
for years through all Of the courts,
aroused the suspicious of the Public
Service Commission. Complaints
have been received for months that
gas bills were exorbitant.
Investigation of the meters brought
poor results. Occasionally meters
were found to be fast in other cases
where complaints about exorbitant
bills had been made the meters were
found to be slow. 1t was impossible
to get to the bottom of the mystery
through the ordinary methods and
the Public Service Commission decid-
ed to bring w. A. Baehr, a consulting
engineer of Chicago, and his staff of
assistants here to conduct scientific
investigation. Baehr and his men
have been at work for several days
and have discovered enough to show
that the Consolidated Gas company
is swindling the people. It is the first
dated since 1905, when former Gov
ernor Hughes. as counsel for the
Stevens Legislative committee, expos
ed the methods of the company, which
brought about the 80 cent law.
There were nc details given last
night by the Public Service Commits
sion as to the discoveries made by the
Baehr investigators, but II was said
that one result will be that the city
will be divided into small districts for
the purpose of keeping tab on the gas
companies. In each of these districts
there will be placed in some conven-
lent place in the street an indicator
trfct at all times. It is proposed that
the gas companies shall pay for these
indicators. By this means any man,
woman or child may read the rate of
pressure at which gas is passing
through the mains and service pipes.
There is no doubt that the Consol-
idated and the rest of the gas compa-
MES will fight the scheme It is ex-
pected they will even carry the fight
to the Supreme court of the United
States, as they did the 80 cent law.
In expectation of this the Public Ser
vice Commission is preparing the
facts.
To his end the expert, Baehr, has
been brought from Chiago. His rep
utation among gas experts is that he
stands first of all in that line of SCI
entific endeavor. The investigation
involves the question thrown out by
the Supreme court of the United
States in the fight against the 80 cent
law That law, as originally drawn,
required the companies to maintain
a pressure in the mains not to exceed
2h inches nor less than one inch,
the measure of pressure being the
height to which water could be driv-
en- in a tube by the same amount of
pressure It was the purpose Of this
provision of the law to prevent just
what the Consolidated and. in fact. all
of the companies. are now doing, fore
ing gas through the mains to create
undre consumption and initiate the
gas bills.
This. provision of the law, however,
the United states Supreme court held
to be void on the ground that it was
physically impossible to comply with
the requirement Of the law, and that,
therefore, the provision was uncon-
stitutional. in that it violated the
principle of the protection of property
rirhts against attack without due pro-
cess of law. The gas companies are