THE A N A L Y S T . PUKE OIt IMPURE GAS. WE publish this month the reports of two cases in which gas companies supplying the metropolis have been procccded against by the local authoritics, and they differ so essentially in their fcatures that they form t very practical commentary upon the present state of gas legislation in London. I n the firat case the Commercial Gas Company were sum- moned before &.Bannay, the stipendiary magistrate, at Worship Street Police Court, for having on eight different days supplied gas to the consumers containing more ammonia, and therefore being of less purity, than is allowed by the Company’s ,4ct. The case appears to hare been fought out with a fair amount of energy, but in the end the magistrate considered the case proPed, and ordered a warrant to issue for the full amount of penalties claimed, viz., $50 per day, or a total of $400.I n tbe other case, which was a far more important one, the West Ham Local Authority moved, before Mr. Justice Fry, for an injunction to prevent the Gas Light and Coke Com- pany from carrying on business at their works in Canning Town in such a way as to cause a public nuisance.I n the earlier part of the hearing the evidence was devoted to prove that a nuisance really did exist, and after one day of that kind of evidence the Company decided not to dispute this part of the qneetion any further but to acknowledge the nuisance, and Mr. Justice Fry, in reply, said that the West Ham Board had not only proved a nuisance, but an intolerdle one. The next step was for the Company to proceed to justify the nuisance on the ground that it was impossible to comply with the restrictions of the gas referees and supply gas containing less than 20 grains of sulphur per 100 cubic feet, unless they did create a nuisance.Mr. Vernan Harcourt, one of the gas referees, having been called, succeeded in entirely dissipating this myth, and satisfled the judge that it was quite possible for su3h manufacture t o be carried on without any nuisance whatever to anyone outside the works.Unfortunately, too, for the succesa of the Gas Company’s case their own witnesscs proved facts which had not previously been brought out in evidence, for they &homed that a considerable part of the nuisance com- plained of had been caused by foul lime, i.c.sulphide of calcium saturated with bisulphide of carbtjn, which had been brought from other works and deposited on the ground at Canning Town in order to raise its level and make foundations for new buildings. The result was that on this point alone the judge held that the Compauy had no right to moderate a nuisance in one district by transferring it into another, and that therefore they were liable to an injunction even if they had taken reasonable precautions t o prevent a nuisance, which, howcver, he considcrcd they had not done.The reports of the two cases, when viewed in connection with the decision of the Parliamentary Committee, which we reported in our July number+;, have a much more important bearing than might at first sight appear.The Company have now fought the matter in every way They have gone to Parliament for permission to increase the amount of impurity which they may send out to the public, in other words to form sulphuric acid in our own rooms instead of eliminating the sulphur at their works. In one of these cases they hare exceeded their Parliamentary maximum of impurity and hare fought the matter to the utmost before the magistrate, with the result that they have been * p.67.154 THE ANALYST. fined in the maximum penalty, and in the other case they hme created a nuisance at their works by the process of elimination of sulphur, and after being driven, so to speak, into R corner they have acknowledged the nuisance and pleaded that they could not help it, and this plea has been disallowed by the judge.The whole thing therefore comes to this, the London gas companies, and we regret to say some of the provincial companies as well, must cow work up to the standard of purity which some of their competitors in other places have without any compulsion already succeeded in attaining. We confess we cannot see why if it is possible t o purify gas without nuisance at a score of places we could name, what difficulty there can be in carrying out the same process in London or other provincial towns. The size of the worke is not in any degree an element in the matter, but the fault must lie in imperfect management or carelessness in the necessary precautions. These decisions are of immense importance. Parliament has said the public shall not be poisoned in their own rooms, and Mr. Justice Fry has decided that the public shall not be poisoned by the emanations from gas works.