270 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OE 
however, thoughtlessness or want of knowledge frequently causes this 
very fact to lead to the opposite result. Escapes of ga's in comparatively 
small quantities often occur at the point of union (generally by a ball- 
and-socket joint) of a hanging burner or chandelier with the gas-pipe, 
or at the telescope-joint of such gas-fittings; the column of water 
required in the joints to confine the gas becoming very gradually 
reduced by evaporation. In such instances an explosive mixture will 
accumulate in the upper part of an apartment of which windows and 
doors are closed, while the air in the lower part, will continue.for a 
long time free from any dangerous admixture of gas. Instances are 
continually recorded in the public prints of the deliberate ignition of 
such explosive mixtures by persons who, observing the smell of coal-gas 
upon entering the room, proceed forthwith to search for the point of 
escape by means of a flame. It need scarcely be stated that such a test 
is a perfectly safe one in itself, and that if the acceptance of the warning 
given by the odour of gas in the lower part of the room were promptly 
followed by the simple precautionary operation of leaving open for some 
time all windows and doors, so as to afford ready ingress of fresh air, 
and thus speedily expel, or very largely dilute, the gas-mixture, the 
leakage could be looked for with no risk of accident. 
Gas explosions, generally of a serious nature, do occasionally occur 
through no fault of those who are the direct agents in bringing them 
about—as by a person entering with a light a closed apartment in which 
there has been a very considerable escape of gas for some time, or a 
building into which gas has been entering from a leakage in the supply- 
pipe or the main. A very sad accident of the latter kind occurred in 
January last at Durham, resulting in the death of two persons. The 
occupants of a house had noticed on a Saturday afternoon a smell of gas, 
which was traced to a leakage in the main-pipe by the gas company^ 
servants, who stated that it could not be repaired until the following 
Monday. The man, being satisfied that the gas-escape did not occur 
in his house, lighted a candle some time afterwards, with the result 
that a terrific explosion nearly wrecked the house, which had become to 
a very considerable extent filled with explosive gas-mixture. In another 
recent instance, the accidental ignition of an explosive coal-gas mixture 
issuing from a drain-pipe communicating to the sewer in which gas had 
leaked from the main, caused the demolition of one house and the 
partial destruction of another, the inmates, in both instances, escaping 
fortunately, though with bad injuries. The first of these accidents, at 
any rate, would not have occurred if prompt means had been taken for 
stopping the leakage when its source was discovered; and it may be 
confidently affirmed that a very large majority of the accidents resulting 
from coal-gas explosions might be avoided by the exercise of ordinary 
care and intelligence. 
The employment of illuminating agents closely allied to coal-gas— 
namely, liquid carbo-hydrogen compounds obtained by the distillation 
of coal or shale, or derived as natural products from coal-bearing strata, 
gradually extended during the earlier part of the last quarter of a 
century until they became formidable rivals of mineral and vegitable 
