THE GAS FATALITY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2472, 27 May 1915, Page 9

THE GAS FATALITY

ABNORMAL PRESSURE j ( ( THROUGH A DEFECTIVE CONTROL VALVE | i ! t COMPANY ADMITS THE CAUSE. [ The inquest into the death of five perI sous who were asphyxiated or poisonei , L by coal gas in dwellings iu tlie Thorndon s end of the City on April 29 was resumed ; by the Coroner, Mr, AV. G. Riddeli, \es- 1 terday morning. 5 Mr. P. S. Iv. Macassoy appeared for tno > Crown, Mr. T. Neave ior the W ellington , t Gas Company, and Mr. J. 0. I for tho relatives of James liobeit buutn, - one of tho victims. . , > Archibald Dougall, engineer to the \\ ei- - lington Gas Company for five years past, indicated to the Court upon plans tho situation of the pipe lines leading gas [ from the worfca at Miramar into t" 0 i City and. of the chief distribution mams in the City. The supply of gas 11 1» , kori Road and Alulgrave Street would be . controlled first of all by the two station "governors" at the works m the t^ty, , and also by tho district "governors ill j different parts of the City. J Admitted Facts. 1 Mr. T. Neave, on behalf of the Gas - Company, made & statement to the tourt of the iaote as far as .the company liatf. - been able to ascertain them. He was ae- . sired by the company, he said, to express on behalf of the directors &.nd the company the profound regret the directors felt concerning this most regrettable * occurrence. The company had recognisl ed that the situation called for searching ® investigation, and upon its own initiative 5 had token every available means to be 0 'able to place before the Court a full ana independent statement of the causes that * had contributed to this fatality. lhe principal witness, apart from, the enginr eer for the company, who would be call- ■ ed to explain matters to the Court, was o Mr. Ford, a gas engineer of wido expen- ® ence who had been commissioned by the f company to make an t independent *pv€sd ligation and to place tho results of his d investigation before the Court. Mr. Ford s had come to a conclusion about the mat- •- ter. The explanation given by him, 0 which would be supported by the evip donee of Mr. Dougall and Mr. Ferguson, was that one of the company's governors —mechanical contrivances which were relied upon to regulate the pressure of gas >n —had been found to be at fault, rhnti in the opinion of Mr. Ford and of the engineers of the company, would account , under the circumstances which would be j narrated for the accumulation of gas in what was known as the low-pressure retioulation, leading directly to an escape J of gas in certain houses, causing tne „ death of the unfortunate people. j All the gas supplied by the company 1 was manufactured at Miramar. There was no manufacture in the City at all. j e ' The gas was brought into town by mains, 13 principally by a 12-inch main from the 1! j works at Miramar Tight into the City, t The ivhole of the reticulation was con- ' nected, every part with every other part. As soon as pressure got into what nnght 14 be called the service pipes that pressure '£ would communicate itself throughout the whole system. The pressure of course [ e was greatest near to the Miramar works. The pressure in the big main was pre--111 vented from getting into the service pipes or the low-pressure reticulation by tho is action of automatic governors, of which to there were eleven in existence at various in [Mints in the City, two at the company's '° works in tho City, and nine at various id other points. w The Cause Discovered. ~ In tho opinion of the engineers thero j™ were two possible theories whidh would !r account for the increased pressure in the service pipes. One was that some stoppage or defect had occurred in tho L° works at Courtenay Place or Tory Street; the other was the failure of one or more of the automatic governors. Evidence !§ would be given that every possible search had been made for a defect in the works in tho City, and that everything had been found to be perfectly correct. Ex- ** animation of the governors proved them to be correct, with the exception of the ? governor at Onepu Road. This governor 1 had been found to bo defective, and this a .~ was the first governor on the line from lt: ' the Miramar works into the City, where r ' the pressure communicated from the Miramar works would first exert -itself. The failure of this governor would, in 113 the opinion of the engineers, account for P' the increased pressure in certain parts ■1" of the City. se The Increase of Pressure. n, He related certain occurrences at the at works on the night of the disaster. The ill company employed a man at tho works at Courtenay Waco, a night watchman, one of whose duties was to watch the _ position, of the gas-holders in the City, T and to keep the Miramar works advised of the need or otherwise for more gas. If the holder fell it showed that there was a consumption of gas greater than tho supply, and it was the duty of the night-watchman to communicate this fact 3 <r to the Miramar works, where it would be ,•£ the duty of the engineer to increase the r t supply of gas by increasing the pressure id at which gas forced into the mains. t l_ On the night of the fatality the nighter watchman came on duty about 9 o'clock, if. His inspection of the 'lory Street holder 0 ~ indicated the necessity for more gas, and he communicated to the engineer at Mirai. mar a request for more gas. The engineer 0 | increased the pressure to 38 or 10 inches, ;f an unusual increase for that time of night, when consumption should be dirn- .>(. inishing. It was not, however, a pressure that would under ordinary circuml. stances give rise to any appreciable inorease in pressure in the consumers" pipes. The fact remained, however, that j" the increase to 38 or 40 inches at that time of night, when there was a diminjj ishing consumption, was a greater prcs_T sure than was actually required. The orK dinary working pressure at that time of It night appeared, to be about 28 inches. A ]Z pressure of W inches had been attained . at other times when there vtas a rnaxils * inurn consumption, but that increased pressure should have no appreciable effect providing the governors installed discharged their function of reducing autoig matically the excessive pressure in the or big mains to a uniform low pressure of th four to four and a half inches on what 3y might be called the consumers' side of , m the governor. Tho governors were guaranteed to control a pressure in the mains of 43 inches. 3 -> Immediately gas passed through any one 'to of these governors it was freed, and it 111 could flow in all directions in all parts '"j.® of the city. The pressure wouid be a J- diminishing quantity at points further ;l1 ' from the works at Miramar. °* The governor used by the Gas Company was manufactured by Peebles, Limited, r ®> of Edinburgh. It was guaranteed to do the work he had described, and Mr. Ford lc " would say that it was one of tho best availoblo contrivances for the purposes for which the company used it, and that it was widely used for this purpose in various parts of the w'orld. jjj Blowing Out of Meters. C- A pressure of more than inches comES nvunicated into the son-ice pipes was likely .to blow the water out of the meters. The water acted as a. seal for the gas of under ordinajy circumstances, but if the nt water was blown out gas escaped. This ;le had occurred in a number of meters, ec- If, of course, the very high pressure had mi uot been put on at "Miramar at a time when consumption was diminishing, the 3," abnormal pressure would not have been (," communicated to the service pipes. 'to :in The Evidence. This statement of counsel was borne out j in every detail by the principal witnesses named, Mr. M'Dougall and Mr. Ford. 110 Continuing his evidence under esamination by counsel for the cnipany, iL'Dou- „ gall said that a pressure of 55 iuches in the reticulation pipes would blow the ie _ water out of the meters of the smallest size, lie considered the pressure of 40 ' inches put on at Miramar on tho night t,. of tho disaster vory unusual at su';h a l, s time of night, but if ho had been at n 'n Miramar in charge, and if a demand had been made from tho City for gas, he would nd have had no hesitation iu using 40 incnes ipt pressure had he deemed it necessary H to do bo. , ts.' To Mr, Pwcooki, Swh ,« rrew.yrs I never to Hia. knowledge b&en put pn at

that hour of night. The governor at fault had not been tested prior to tho accident, and the night of April 29 was the first occasion after the installation of tho governor at Onepu Eoad that such a high pressure as 40 iuches was tried. Tho day following the occurrence the company received from GOO to 700 complaints from consumers about escapes of gas and failure of meters'. To Mr. Maeassey: It was not the practice of the company to examine governors at any regular periods. J To Mr. Neave; It was the custom to j examine the pressure in the servico pipes at six different points iu the City every day. This daily record had not shown ' pleasures to indicate that any governor < was defective. The meters used were all 1 made in England, and were all stamped by i the Board of Trade. They were not ] adapted by design for periodical overhaul. It was not customary iu the gas business to overhaul meters to be sure of their safety. It was always taken for granted that any meter which had been stamped by the Board of Trade was safe, as, m j fact, it was. The safety or otherwise of the meters was never considered as . being at all doubtful. Haas Hcnricksen, Thomas Ingerton, . Georgw William Sparks, and Samuel Thomas Eeid, Gas Company employees, also gave evidence. The last-named was the engineman on duty at Miramar at tho timo of tho accident on April 29Albert Ford, gas engineer, said he be- ' lieved he was the ouly independent gas engineer in New Zealand. At the request of the managing director of the \volliugton Gas Company he had conducted an investigation into the cause of ithe occurrence of April 29. . That investigation had oocupicd his time, from May 4 until Tuesday last, lhe company's plant and its men had been at his disposal in every way, and he haa been at liberty to make any test M desired. His further evidence was in confirmation of the admissions made by Mr. Neave in opening. The defective governor was, declared tho witness, of stanadard make and of a class commonly used throughout the world. To the Coroner: It was quite unusual to test a governor before installing it. It was purchased by a gas company as a standard article, and accepted as sucn. To Mr. Peacock: If tho governor had been all right 60 inches pressure could have been turned on ojt Miramar on the night of April 29, and it would have made no difference in the City. the pressure was unusual for that particular iime or not did not afiect 'the q At 4.30 p.m. the Coroner intimated that he would oe usable to continue the hearing further, and the inquest was adjourned until half-past eleven o clock tomorrow morning, when brief evidence is to be given by one witness. There uvul be no addresses.