2 Mr, Ricardo on Sir W, Congreve*s Report [July, 



fany, and the South London Company. When I first saw these, 

 expected to derive some valuable information from them, 

 which would enable me to come to more correct conclusions in 

 my inquiries relative to the comparison between oil and coal gas, 

 but I have been sadly disappointed. A slight examination soon 

 proved to me that the statements which they contain could not 

 be at all depended on, and I was, therefore, led to enter into a 

 more minute analysis of them. 1 endeavoured, if possible, to 

 account for the very different results which appeared in the dif- 

 ferent Companies, but with very little satisfaction, as I cannot 

 come to any conclusions that can be relied on. Although this 

 is a subject which I fear will not afford much entertainment 

 to your readers, nor do I think that tlie private transactions of 

 Companies are fit subjects for public investigation, yet 1 am 

 induced to send you the result of my inquiries in as concise 

 a form as possible, and chiefly so, as Sir W. Congreve has 

 founded his Reports on these statements, and no doubt relying 

 on their correctness, has thought it necessary to recommend 

 legislative enactments upon them. 



Jn imitation of Sir W. Congreve*s plan, I have also annexed a 

 table of the proceedings of the different Companies, part of 

 which is borrowed from his, and the remainder, the results of 

 my own calculations. In the progress of my examination, the 

 observations so accumulated upon me, that I v^^s anxious to 

 devise some mode for putting them in a concise but yet intelligible 

 form, and I saw no better method by which it could be effected 

 than the one I have adopted. Here the whole management 

 of the different works, together with the very different results, 

 may be seen at one view, and any of your readers who, like 

 myself, may be interested in the subject, will be able to form 

 their own judgment as to the probable correctness of the state- 

 ments. 



The information which I was chiefly desirous of obtaining, 

 was the quantity of gas that was consumed by a given number 

 ofhghts, the quantity that was wasted or lost, the capital that is 

 employed, the cost in labour, wear and tear, and management, 

 the profit, &c. but these will be found to vary so much that it 

 will be impossible to come to any correct conclusion. 



With regard to the quantity of gas consumed by the dif- 

 ferent Companies, the mode by which that is estimated in the 

 tables in the Report is so obviously incorrect, that I have 

 adopted another method in order to ascertain it, which, though 

 liable to error, is certainly a nearer approximation than the 

 other. The lights in the Report are divided into two sorts, pri- 

 vate lights and pubhc lights ; the private lights are stated to 

 burn upon an average throughout the year; that is, for 313 days, 

 excluding Sundays, one with another, four hours per night, con- 

 suming, by one Company, 4^ cubic feet ; another 6^, and an- 

 other 6 feet per hour : the public lights are stated to burn nine 

 hours per night for 365 nights, consuming the same quantity of 



