op in
which gas was used was that of Messrs. Poultney, at the corner of Moor
Street, in 1818, the pipes being laid from the works in Gas Street by a
private individual, whose interest therein was bought up by the
Birmingham Gaslight Company. The principal streets were first officially
lighted by gas-lamps on April 29, 1826, but it was not until March,
1843, that the Town Council resolved that that part of the borough
within the parish of Edgbaston should be similarly favoured.

~Gas Companies.~--The first, or Birmingham Gaslight Co. was formed in
1817, incorporated in 1819, and commenced business by buying up the
private adventurer who built the works in Gas Street. The Company was
limited to the borough of Birmingham, and its original capital was
L32,000, which, by an Act obtained in 1855, was increased to L300,000,
and borrowing powers to L90,000 more, the whole of which was raised or
paid up. In the year 1874 the company supplied gas through 17,000
meters, which consumed 798,000,000 cubic feet of gas. The Birmingham and
Staffordshire Gas Co. was established in 1825, and had powers to 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 The original Act was repealed in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 ins