GAS V. ELECTRICITY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1021, 10 January 1911, Page 6

GAS V. ELECTRICITY.

HOSPITAL LIGHTING. TTo the Editor.] Sir,—ln?, your issue of tho 7th instant appeared a letter from Jlr. William i''crliuson, managing director'of tiie Gas Company, purporting to deal with tiic subject matter ot an interview- which was published relative to the . lighting ot tlie Hospital. As .A Ir. Lauchmn, the City l.igliting Kupei'intenilont, has been entrusted with this matter, I have requested him to reply. I may lurther add that all the correspondence has been perused by'the City Electrical .Engineer, and tho figures ami statements put forward. by Mr. Lauchian have 'received thc endorsement of Mr. Kichardsou—l am, etc., J. E. FITZGERALD. January 9. JIB., LAUCHLAX'S . EEPLY. in reply to the sta'lements made by Mr. Ferguson in his letter to the Wellington papers, which is intended to be a reply to the press interview of Councillor Fitzgerald and myself, which took place oil December 22, i regret that he should find it necessary to make assertions which will not stand tho light of day. This Is an old battle—gas v. electricity—that has bten going oil for years, and is now approaching an end. Gas , interests havo fought hard, but it lias been a hopeless struggle, and since the advent of the metallic filament lamp their doom has been hastened, as far as lighting is concerned. "What a hopeless case they must havo when a statement is put forth that from a health point-of view .gas is preferable to electricity. Docs Mr. Ferguson honestly believe this? For my part, 1 consider a statement of this, description is an insult to tho intelligence of the people. Jlr. Ferguson further states that doctors dill'er. Well, perhaps they do on some things, but. this is a question on which they appear fairly unanimous, if c.ne may judge by Wellington experience. Out of a -list of 49 doctors practising in Wellington, -fG use electric light. ' .The most elementary principles of hygiene require that at all times a plentiful supply of pure air shall be available. Dr. Parlies, F.R.S., savs: "Air is the prime supporter of life;, health, even life itself, is dependent upon its purity. . . . Health is only possible when to other conditions is added that of a proper Supply of pure air." In this connection I wilb quote'from the medical journal, the "Lancet": "In considering the systems of artificial lighting that are in vogue at the present time, ths incandescent system cu electric lighting, must, of course, rank first from the point of view of health." Professor Irving Fisher, of Yale University, United States of America, in dealing with the white scourge, rays: "Before any progress can bo made, however, our change of habits must bo radical; we must substitute electric lights for all other illuminanls. We must iearn what pure 3l r if'- V iusist on hav.ing it." . 1 V lln J; I have shown enough to answer the heaith point of view argument, and w.iU iiow proceed to deal with Jlr. Ferguson s statement that we wilfully read in the word "gas" in reference to the heating, appliances, whereas it was steamheated appliances that were referred to. . I s , n " icre as tho letter states', tho vessels now in use for heating water are iiieiEeient." ■ For the information, of the public I may stats that the vessels now in use and referred to aw gas-heated, and . tlie Trustees are so satisfied of their inefficiency that they nave decided to replace them with steamheated appliances, and tho committco winch was set up to deal with' tho mat. ter reported as follows:— fcuch reports justify the tco in saying that two-thirds of the gas consumed by ■ the hoard is used lor heating purposes, and not for lighting. ' _ ' ; "The gas so- used ! is., mostly consumed in gas-burners for heating .' water continually for use in tho ' wards, and for sterilising appliances, and tho expenditure under this head cannot be less than per j-ear. As soon as it ascertained the enormous expenditure for wafer-lieatiii? by gas, the committee conferred witS the medical superintendent and house . steward, and- upon their recommendation have installed sterilisers heated"from our main boilers. ' Tluso steam sterilisers are' no doubt effecting a considerable savins in gas. To further economise, the committee has instructed the house steward to have made and fitted lip epppers, which will provide hot, water for all the hours during which the boilers are under steam.

Will Jlr. Ferguson,' in face of the above, now state that tho word "gas" was. read in wrongly. I can with eafety leave tho matter in tho hands of an intelligent public to form their" own opinion. ...

Tho next statement made by.Mr. F.erguson is- in relation to the comparison made regarding tho heat units generated by gas and electricity. I' complained that no account was taken of the relative efficiency of the respective apparatus. Jlr. Ferguson admits the accuracy of my contention. The only point on which lie with me is the percentage of efficiency. Why not be frank, then, and refrain from publishing comparisons such as the following, which-was sent to the Kub-committeo-of .the Hospital Board:— "So the gas at 13s. 3d. per 100(1 cubic feet would bo equivalent in thermal effect to electric current at Id. per Board of Trade unit."

. A statement of this description is so absurd that it carries its own condemnation oil the face of- it; the law of economics demands that - the relative prices should be approximately close. Jlr. Ferguson: then goes on to ridicule the figures given- as to tlio amount of water which could have been boiled, and imputes either,ignorance or wilful misrepresentation in leaving out of my calculation the question of latent heat. I have yet to learn . that ■ any appreciable allowance: has to he- , made for latent heat until wo reach boiling point, and tho calculation referred to dealt with raising water to boiling point,- not to the generation of steam.' It is ' worthy o! notice that Jlr. Ferguson passes over tho comparison of the Anglican churches in a light and' airy by suggesting that the gas-lighting of- St. Peter's Church is old-fashioued; -all gas-lighting is old-fashioned, and I think my friend will have a pretty stiff contract on hand to convince tho parish authorities that lie can fix up tho gas in such a manner as to make a favourable comparison with tiic other electric-lit churches. In this connection I might mention that tho authorities of one of the leading Newtown churches have just decided to replace gas with electric light It would be interesting to find tho reason for the change. Perhaps it w.-vs. old-fashioned!. The next question I have to deal with is the cost of generating electricity by means of a gas. engine, and Mr. Ferguson, in his letter says that- I impugned his statements. I now do more. I givo them a flat contradiction, as since then I have had the privilege of seeing- the chart in question, also a .letter written by Sir. Ferguson, dated March 22. IMO, in which ho states: "Yon will see that in this case the electric current cost only , 1.43 d. per unit, being much less than the rates now bein" charged by the City Council." I will now ask Jlr. Ferguson to withdraw that' statement, and admit that no account has been taken of attendance, interest, depreciation, etc., which charges would bring the cost up to over 4WI. per unit, as slated by mo at the interview. Mr. Ferguson further states that experience shows that gas lighting in one or other of the modern forms is replacing electric lighting for public purposes, and proceeds to quoto tho City of London, Westminster, and other places, as having gone back to gas, hut ho does not give the reason for the change. Ho does not state that in most cases it has been a question of vested interests versus electric light. Why, the Gas Light and Coke Company, to secure the lighting of Westminster," had to cut their price down to an equivalent of Is. 3d. per thousand cubic feet, and then had to rely on a technicality to secure the contract. For what reason? So that the gas interests throughout the world could point with pride to one isolated case where the gas had replaced electricity, never mind at what cost. It may interest the public to know that London is governed by twentynino local bodies, and Westminster is only one of them. Taking the whole of London, the net result of tho past, eighteen months has been the erection of 13,340 electric lamps in the streets, nearly

every ono of which, replaced a gas lamp. What is the extent or the great victory at Westminster? Why, tno.gas replaced Uli electric lamps. Another instance rtuoioa by Mr. Ferguson is the lighting of l-'insbury. Here again the metnods adopted are iuexplicaole, and whilst it is .slated that the borough council have decided ou gas nicer making exhaustive tests with the latest samples of gas and electric light, wc have tnc authority of .Ur. KenwicK, general imuiager of the County of London lillectric Supply Company, for stating that his company offered to submit examples of electric lighting free ol expense to the council, but tins oiler was declined. As regards the ijuestjon of relative costs, his company submitted a tender for jighting wmcn gave an illuminating power three times as greai as the existing gas lighting, and, • moreover, showed a saving 111 running costs,.as compared with gas, of over li per cent.; in spite of this, however, the otter was declined. This is claimed'as another victory for gas! I could go on quoting iustauces of the above character, but wiJi retrain from doing so, as 1 have shown enough to prove my case. ■' • Against the alleged victories claimed by iMr. Ferguson, I might mention' a tew of the many places in the old coun-. try that are busy converting gas lamps electric: Sunderland, iiampstead, loplar, Ashtead, Kawenstall, Lianelly, etc. <' An interesting census was recently taken of the. shop lighting iu some of the principal thoroughfares of London, includ- \ n o. Cheapside, Oxford Street, .Holburn, Ludgavo ilill, etc., with tlio result that out of a total of 2514 shops there were 2309 lit' by electricity, and "205 by gas, or on a percentage basis 91.8 per cent have electric light and 8;2 per cent have - gas, £ind as the "Electric Times" remarks, it is a monument to the commercial ability of tho gas officials that they .should have been able to retain 8.2 per cent of the shops. * i\fr. Ferguson in his letter goes into a lot of figures regarding the wonderful candle power which niny bo obtained from gas mantles under test conditions. I do not propose to waste' time in going further into this question, as laboratory tests of gas are valueless from a commercial standpoint. I still adhere to my authorities, .and would ask Mr. Ferguson why is it that in face of the wonderful results to he obtained from gas we are at the present time practically. securing a monopoly cf the lighting? Only the other day one of my assistants went out to Hataitai to inquire-into the lighting arrangements of 25 new lioufcs, with the result-that he found 23 were installing the electric light—not a bad percentage. ■ Tho latter part of v Mr. Ferguson's, letter seems to shew great anxiety as to tho welfare cf the lighting department • from .the point of view of a ratepayer, and as Mr. Ferguson represents a large ratepayer I can assure him there is no cause for anxiety, as' during the past year wo have made over 900 connections, and it may further interest him to know that during the past, three months .we have replaced gas with electric light in fifty-one places, amongst the number being p.- public hall and a church. At present we have in hand a hotel and a post office building, and I hope soon , to report having added the hospital.— I am, etc.; GEO. LATTCHLAN,, . Lighting Superintendent. Wellington City Council, January 9.