[Illustration: Main pipe, leading from the Gas-light station or apparatus, situated in Brick Lane, near Old St.[34]
Main pipe, leading from the gaslight apparatus, or station, at Norton Falgate.[35]
Main pipe, leading from the gaslight apparatus, or station, in Westminster.[36]]
[34] _The gasometer at this place is equal in capacity to 22000 cubic feet._
[35] _The capacity of the gasometer here is equal to 15928 cubic feet._
[36] _At this station the gasometer is equal in capacity to 14808 cubic feet._
The black lines represent the gas-light mains, or largest pipes, from which the smaller pipes branch off: they are connected with each other at the places marked A B C; and the dotted lines represent the smaller mains, or collateral branches before-mentioned. The main pipes are all furnished with valves, or cocks, placed at about 100 feet distant from each other. Now let us suppose that a main pipe, in any part of the street marked in the sketch, _Pall Mall_, should break, it is evident, on mere inspection, that the gas which is passing through the main in the _Strand_, and which is also connected with the main in the _Haymarket_, _Piccadilly_, and _Coventry Street_, would continue to supply the broken pipe, and the valve nearest to the fracture being shut, would prevent the loss of any considerable quantity of gas, and the few lamps situated between the two valves and the fracture would therefore only become extinguished.
Further, let us suppose a main pipe should break in _Piccadilly_; in that case, the valve being shut on each side of the fracture, the gas would be supplied from the mains in the _Haymarket_ and _St. James’s Street_. And the same effect would be produced in any part of the town, supplied with gas-pipes. Besides all this, in the statement thus far given, we have assumed that all the gas-light mains are supplied with gas from one manufacturing station only, but which in reality is not the case. The range of pipes that convey the gas is connected with three gas-light establishments, situated at different parts of the town; and the gas which is supplied from these stations is connected with the whole system of pipes in the streets.[37] If, therefore, one of the manufactories should be annihilated, it would make no difference, because the lights would be amply supplied from the other two manufacturing stations. Hence it is obvious, that the fracture of any of the gas-light mains, or even the total destruction of one or more of the manufactories themselves, would be attended with no serious consequence; and as the system of lighting with gas becomes more extended, the manufactories, or stations for supplying it, will also be multiplied, to give effect and security to the whole.