18 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



examine and report upon the gas apparatus. The deputation strongly recom- 

 mended Government to oblige the Company to employ gasometers containing 

 not more than 6000 cubic feet, secured in strong buildings. As Sir Joseph 

 Banks and some of the other members of the deputation were conversing 

 upon the danger of a leak in the gasometer if a light happened to be near, 

 Mr. Clegg called to a man, desiring him to bring a pickaxe and candle ; he 

 then struck a hole in the side of the vessel, and applied the light to the is- 

 suing gas, to the no small alarm of all present, most of whom quickly re- 

 treated ; contrary to their expectation, no explosion resulted from this experi- 

 ment. This practical proof, however, did not serve to convince them of their 

 error, and the Chartered Gas Company was put to considerable expense in 

 making small gasometers, surrounded by strong buildings. 



From the first introduction of gas-lighting the use of large gasometers was 

 considered as highly dangerous. After Stonyhurst had been lighted (where 

 the capacity of the gasometer was 1000 cubic feet), Mr. Wright, the Superior 

 of the College, complimented Mr. Clegg upon his success in lighting the esta- 

 blishment with gas, but suggested as an improvement the alteration of the size 

 of the gasometer ; he thought that one of 1000 cubic feet was too unwieldy, 

 and advised that two should be erected to contain 500 feet each. At present 

 gasometers are made to contain 250,000 cubic feet. Telescope gasometers 

 were invented twenty years before they were brought into use ; and gasome- 

 ters without a house to protect them from the weather were thought absurd. 

 The gasometers erected by Mr. Clegg at Chester and Birmingham were 

 much disapproved of on account of their being exposed to the open air ; and 

 the Chartered Company for years pursued the plan of erecting buildings over 

 their gasometers. 



At the end of 1813, an explosion of a serious nature took place at the 

 Westminster station, owing to a volume of gas escaping from the purifier 

 contained in a vault beneath the retort-house ; the gas coming in contact with 

 the flues of the retorts was the cause of this frightful accident. The windows 

 of several houses in the neighbourhood were shattered, and Mr. Clegg was 

 severely injured. The recurrence of such an event was afterwards effectually 

 guarded against, by drawing the refuse lime-water through a bent pipe, always 

 containing sufficient water to seal it. The fear, however, of such an explo- 

 sion again occurring made the public timid for some time. 



On the 31st of December, 1813, Westminster Bridge was lighted with gas. 



