There are two gasometers at Nine Elms belonging to the
Lon- don Gaslight Company, each holding a million cubic feet of gas. Gas without oxygen will not explode, but it appears that it is the custom of some companies to increase their profits by adulterating their gas with 10 per cent. of atmospheric air. Whether this practice is pursued by the London Company we do not know, but at two o'clock on Tuesday one gasometer blew up with a terrible explosion, set fire to the other, destroyed the meter-house which stood between them, wounding some thirty persons, and killing nine. So terrible was the explosion that persons a mile off were thrown down, and it is calculated that a similar explosion in Westminster might destroy the Abbey. We trust strict inquiry may be made at the inquest about this adulteration, and that, if it occurred, justice will at last be done upon the directors of a gas company. They are legally permitted to choke us, but not to blow us up. A few years' imprisonment would be a beneficial though inadequate retribution for the way in which they have poisoned London with their sulphur-loaded vapour.
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