GAS (STANDARD OF CALORIFIC POWER) BILL.

HL Deb 12 July 1916 vol 22 c705

[SECOND READING.]

Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.

LORD STANMORE

My Lords, the immediate object of this Bill, which has been prepared, at the instance of the Ministry of Munitions, is to encourage and facilitate the production by gas undertakings of benzol and toluol for munitions of war and other national objects. The extraction of these constituents from the gas undoubtedly results in a considerable reduction of illuminating power, and it has been found that gas undertakers are frequently unwilling to incur the cost of erecting benzol recovery plants at their works with the prospect that the plant will be useless at the end of the war when statutory obligations in regard to illuminating value are restored. It is therefore proposed in this Bill that a standard of calorific power shall be substituted for the present standard of illuminating power.

Moved, That the Bill be now read 2^a.—(Lord Stanmore.)

On Question, Bill read 2^a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House to-morrow.