The service-pipes employed
varied in diameter from three inches to three-quarters of an inch, and
measured, in a straight line, about three-quarters of a mile, being
united by more than two thousand sockets. Separate mains conducted the
gas to the western elevation, the tower, the dome, the cupola, and
cross; the latter standing 8 ft. above the ordinary cross of the church,
and being inclosed in a frame of ruby-coloured glass. These mains were
connected with a ten-inch main from a heavily-weighed gasometer at the
Windsor Street works of the Birmingham Gas Company, which was reserved
for the sole use of the illumination. It took forty men three days to
put up the scaffolding, but the whole work was finished and the
scaffolding removed in a week. It was estimated that the consumption of
gas during the period of illumination reached very nearly three-quarters
of a million of cubic feet; and the entire expense of the illumination,
including the gas-fittings, was somewhat over six hundred pounds. The
illumination was seen for miles round in every direction. From the top
of Barr Beacon, about eight miles distant, a singular effect was
produced by means of a fog cloud which hung over the town, and concealed
the dome and tower from view--a blood-red cross appearing to shine in
the heavens and rest upon Birmingham.
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