The Metropolis Gas Act received the royal assent on the 28th August,
1860: it contains fifty-seven clauses, many of them most important for
the protection of public and private consumers. By the twenty-seventh
section of the act (23 & 24 Vic., cap. 125) the vestry are required to
provide apparatus for testing the illuminating power and purity of the
gas, and to appoint a competent person as examiner; and by the same
section the gas companies are required to erect, at a distance not less
than one thousand yards from their works, experimental meters with the
necessary apparatus for testing the illuminating power of the gas
supplied. In alleged compliance with this requirement the London Gas
light company have appointed a testing station at the house No. 73,
Besborough Street, Pimlico.