Abstract
THE seventy-second annual general meeting of the Institution of Gas Engineers was held in London on June 4-7 under the presidency of Mr. C. Valon Bennett of Rochester. He reviewed the present position and general trends in the industry as a supplier of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. There is a movement for gas works to pass into the control of holding companies, a process which has led at times to increased efficiency and a reduction in prices to the consumer. Mr. Bennett indicated the dangers to be feared where undertakings were bought at inflated prices, owing to the availability of cheap money, and where the motive force was financial opportunism irrespective of public good. In some countries, organisations have been established for the official testing and certification of gas appliances. Mr. S. Lacey and Mr. C. A. Masterman contended that such a movement could bring no advantage in Great Britain, where the safety and efficiency of gas apparatus already exceeds that current in other countries. Mr. W. L. Boon described the rapid advance of gas coke in public favour for domestic purposes. The development of the gravity feed boiler has resulted in coke displacing oil firing of central heating installations. With these boilers, uniform conditions can be maintained automatically, with attendance once in 24 hours, at a very low fuel cost. Open coke grates are increasing in popularity and already some 70,000 have been installed in London alone.
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Progress in the Gas Industry. Nature 135, 987–988 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135987d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135987d0