lay their mains in and outside the borough.  The original Act was repealed in 1845, the company being remodelled and started afresh with a capital of L320,000, increased by following Acts to L670,000 (all called up by 1874), and borrowing powers to L100,000, of which, by the same year L23,000 had been raised.  The consumption of gas in 1874 was 1,462,000,000 cubic feet, but how much of this was burnt by the company’s 19,910 Birmingham customers, could not be told.  The two companies, though rivals for the public favour, did not undersell one another, both of them charging 10/-per 1,000 feet in the year 1839, while in 1873 large consumers were only charged 2/3 per 1,000 feet, the highest charge being 2/7.  The question of buying out both of the Gas Companies had been frequently mooted, but it was not until 1874 that any definite step was taken towards the desired end.  On April 17th, 1874, the burgesses recorded 1219 votes in favour of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain’s proposition to purchase the Gas [and the Water] Works, 683 voting against it.  On Jan. 18th, 1875, the necessary Bills were introduced into the House of Commons, and on July 15th and 19th, the two Acts were passed, though not without some little opposition from the outlying parishes and townships heretofore supplied by the Birmingham and Staffordshire Co., to satisfy whom a clause was inserted, under which Walsall, West Bromwich, &c., could purchase the several mains and works in their vicinity, if desirous to do so.  The Birmingham Gas Co. received from the Corporation L450,000, of which L136,890 was to be left on loan at 4%, as Debenture Stock, though L38,850 thereof has been kept in hand, as the whole was redeemable within ten years.  The balance of L313,000 was borrowed from the public at 4%, and in some cases a little less.  The Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas Co. were paid in Perpetual Annuities, amounting to L58,290 per year, being the maximum dividends then payable on the Co.’s shares, L10,906 was returned as capital not bearing interest, L15,000 for surplus profits, L30,000 the half-year’s dividend, and also L39,944 5s. 4d. the Co’s Reserve Fund.  The total cost was put down as L1,900,000.  The Annuities are redeemable by a Sinking Fund in 85 years.  For their portion of the mains, service pipes, works, &c. formerly belonging to the Birmingham and Staffordshire Company, the Walsall authorities pay the Corporation an amount equivalent to annuities valued at L1,300 per year; Oldbury paid L22,750, Tipton L34,700, and West Bromwich L70,750.

Gas Fittings.—­Curious notions appear to have been at first entertained as to the explosive powers of the new illuminator, nothing less than copper or brass being considered strong enough for the commonest piping, and it was thought a great innovation when a local manufacturer, in 1812, took out a patent for lead pipes copper-coated.  Even Murdoch himself seems to have been in dread of the burning element, for when, in after years, his house at Sycamore Hill