Dave Smith wrote:
>
> FWIW, my mother used to complain about smelling gas in the house. She
> called the gas company but they couldn't smell it and detected no leaks.
> My father put some soapy water on all the joints and found that one was
> leaking. He cranked it tight with a pipe wrench and the leak stopped.

Ridiculous. Gas companies use very sophisticated and sensitive
electronic detection devises to pin point leaks. Were ther a leak
they would have detected it. I've called thinking I had a gas leak,
the tech attaches a device containing a tube of mercury to my main gas
inlet, zeros it out and waits ten minutes, it will indicate the most
minute leak... in my case there was no leak. They don't go about
checking pipe joints unless they first detect a leak. One should
report all suspected gas leaks. It was also explained to me that
sometimes the odor producing chemical in gas will chemically bind to
certain fabrics found in homes so that
the odor that often occurs for a brief moment from lighting an oven
lingers for days... and many folks, especialy the elderly will smell
the odor of gas when there is no gas in the house ... there are many
things that trigger the deja vous syndrome in the sense of smell that
involve no odor whatsoever, could just be a mood, or certain sounds or
color combinations, many times background music triggers one to smell
particular odors, like the perfume of a long ago love.