The gas question : economic and sanitary / by James Adams, M.D.
- James Maxwell Adams
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The gas question : economic and sanitary / by James Adams, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![is often exppeted, becomes afterwards more insufficient because of the unskilful bends at right angles which flatten and diminish the calibre of the tube, and because of clumsy workmanship at couplings and other connections, whereby lumps Of solder or grease still farther obstruct the gas channels. If such arrangements are com- pleted by the selection haphazard of some burner that under the pressure existing at the moment of trial may give a desir- able flame, the consumer is thereafter the plaything of the public delivery—at one hour grieved by a feeble, smoky, waste- ful flame; at another by a flaring, wasteful flame, and rarely enjoying the comfort of a bright, full and steady light. These details may be to many somewhat tedious, but I think them relevant and necessary, because they meet and correet the ignorant ex]iectations, and the vague, plausible, but altogether non-respon- sible, suggestions of those who may be reconciled to, or who are advocating the proposed change. And to such individuals these details should suggest the consideration that, whatever the excellence in q\tality of a coal gas, there must always be dis- counted from it a loss of possible value through causes which the masses are unable to remedy. Obviously, therefore the larger the margin of excellence that remains after this unavoidable loss the smaller is the deprivation on those who cannot obtain their full value, and the greater is the gain in comfort and usefulness to those wlio do obtain the fullest value. T cannot leave this question of pressure without reference to one of the specious but hollow arguments with which this gas question is being obscured. Among other debatable, and to my mind easily controvertible, matter with which the report abounds that is now under consideration of the Town Council, it is stated “ that wdth a high quality it is necessary to deliver the gas at the burner under a high pressure to prevent smoking, while ■with a lower quality a low pressure is more advantageous.” So far as I have proceeded I liave furnished, as I trust, sufficient material to enable any per- son, however little pre'sdously informed, to put aside this very feebel, .altogether inapplicable, but dangerously intended -suggestion. For what is here meant by “high pressure!” In the light of explanations I have given it is evidently a very intangible phrase, vague and shifty in the extreme. The nearest analogy it suggests is that indicated in the answer given to a frequently-pressed question by a much badgered witness, who replied that the size of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24919792_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
