Let us, however, carefully examine the subject, and see,
by the aid of actual figures, what the risk amounts to compared with
the risks of ordinary coal gas.
Many experiments have been made with the view of determining the
percentage of carbon monoxide in air which is fatal to human or,
rather, animal life, and the most reliable as well as the latest
results are those obtained by Dr. Stevenson, of Guy's Hospital, in
consequence of the two deaths which took place at the Leeds forge from
inhaling uncarbureted water gas containing 40 per cent. of carbon
monoxide. He found that one per cent. visibly affected a mouse in one
and a half minutes, and in one hour and three quarters killed it,
while one-tenth of a per cent. was highly injurious. Let us, for the
sake of argument, take this last figure 0.1 per cent. as being a fatal
quantity, so as to be well within the mark.
In ordinary carbureted water gas as supplied by the superheater
processes, such as the Lowe, Springer, etc., the usual percentage of
carbon monoxide is 26 per cent., but in the Van Steenbergh gas--for
certain chemical reasons to be discussed later on--it is generally
about 18 per cent.
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