1821.] oh Oil and Coal Gas. 47 



to the usual mode of calculating ; as on the shortest day it will 

 be from 4 to 10, = 6 hours; and on the longest day 9 to 10, = 1 

 hour; giving the average of d% hours. This, for 6 days in' the 

 week, or 312 in the year, will be 1092 hours, at 5 feet per 

 hour; and the quantity consumed will be 5460 cubic feet in the 

 year. For this he is charged, according to the table, 1/. 10s. 5d. 

 for the half-year, or 3/. 0s. lOd. the whole year, or at the rate of 

 something more than lis. Id. per 1000 cubic feet, instead of 7s. 

 6d. The above statement needs not the slightest comment • I 

 shall, therefore, make none. 



A statement of the Whitechapel-road gas light establishment 

 now erecting, and which, with the prospectus, is lyina- before 

 me, will be a sufficient answer to any observations that'may be 

 made on the amount of capital required for the erection of oil or 

 coal gas works. The company in question give a decided pre- 

 ference to oil gas ; they have engaged premises which, when 

 completed and made fire-proof, will stand them in a rent of 80/. 

 per annum ; they have contracted for laying down upwards of 

 five miles of mains, of various diameters ; they have also con- 

 tracted with the patentees for an oil gas apparatus, retorts, gaso- 

 meter, iron tanks, all complete ; and, allowing for contingencies, 

 the whole fixed capital required will be about 5000/. ; and 500/! 

 more will be wanted to carry on the works, and this, I under- 

 stand it is estimated, will produce about 1500-000 cube feet of 

 gas in the year, sufficient for from 800 to 1000 lights. I believe 

 it will be allowed that a somewhat larger capitil will be required 

 for a coal gas establishment of similar power. 



To the remarks made under the signature of "A Subscriber," in 

 the Attnah for last month, I have only to observe, that I cannot 

 undertake toftmswer individual objections on the part of parti- 

 cular coal gas companies. My observations on oil and coal gas 

 are made generally, and before I admit the Subscriber's asser- 

 tion, that the burners in Sheffield are superior to other burners 

 I must know whether other coal gas establishments are ready 

 to admit it. The Subscriber admires my ingenious mode of cal- 

 culating, but I think in that respect he very far exceeds me in 

 ingenuity. If Mahomet will not go to the mountain, he makes 

 the mountain come to Mahomet with a vengeance; and, instead 

 of admitting the usual mode of calculating the number of hours 

 of lighting, and the quantity of gas consumed, he has increased 

 the length of time of the one, and the quantity of the other, till 

 he has squared them exactly with his former statement, and 

 then seems to take credit to himself for his correctness; besides, 

 it his statement be correct, it speaks still more in favour of oil 

 gas. There are few, I believe, who will not admit the superior 

 brilliancy of its light; and yet, at the oldest established public 

 oil pis works, the average quantity consumed by argand burners, 

 and by street burners, does not exceed I4. cube feet each ; and 

 tins calculation is made from the whole quantity consumed, and 



