rosa: regulation of natural monopolies 211 



Technical specifications for gas companies. Among public 

 service utilities, none has been for so long a time and in so great 

 detail subject to legal requirements and restrictions as the gas 

 business. Such regulation is of course intended to insure good 

 service. Many elements go to determine good or poor service, 

 the principal of which (chemical purity, heating value, candle- 

 power, and condition as to pressure of the gas) are enumerated 

 and defined more or less completely in many of the gas ordinances 

 now in force, together with the tests that shall be made and the 

 penalties for failure to meet the requirements. These ordinances 

 are sometimes, therefore, very technical and contain detailed 

 specifications. In other cases the specifications are very meager. 

 In some cases old ordinances long since out of date, so far as their 

 technical specifications are concerned, are still in use; in other 

 cases, old ordinances have been extensively amended; in still 

 other cases entirely new ordinances have superseded old ones; 

 in many cases no regulatory ordinances have ever been adopted. 

 In some states possessing state commissions, the requirements 

 have been fixed by the commissions. But in most states (and in 

 all until recently) regulatory ordinances have been prepared and 

 passed by state legislatures or city councils. The process of 

 adopting such an ordinance is often long and painful. Suspicion, 

 antagonism, and often political considerations combine to make 

 the negotiations difficult, and sometimes it amounts to a long 

 drawn battle. The representatives of the city endeavor to get 

 all they can for the public, the company yields as little as possible. 

 The result is generally unsatisfactory to both. Because the stand- 

 ard of performance demanded of gas companies in different cities 

 and states was so different, and because so much difference of 

 opinion existed among experts as to what could fairly be required 

 of a gas company under given conditions, the Bureau of Standards 

 took up about three years ago a careful study of the subject of 

 state and municipal regulations of the quality, purity, and pres- 

 sure of illuminating gas supplied by gas companies. 



Investigation concerning regulation of gas companies. A com- 

 pilation of all the state laws and city ordinances in force in the 

 country was first made, and their technical requirements tabu- 



