per 1000 cubic feet, if only
reasonable attention is given to the gas-burners, and at least a quarter
of them are on the incandescent system. If, on the other hand, coal-gas
is misused and wasted through the employment only of interior or worn-out
flat-flame burners, while the best types of burner are used for
acetylene, the latter gas may prove as cheap for lighting as coal-gas at,
say, 2s. 6d. per 1000 cubic feet (and be far better hygienically);
whereas, contrariwise, if coal-gas is used only with good and properly
maintained incandescent burners, it may cost over 10s. per 1000 cubic
feet, and be cheaper than acetylene burned in good burners (and as good
from the hygienic standpoint). More precise figures on the relative costs
of coal-gas lighting and acetylene lighting are given in the tabular
statement at the close of this chapter.
With regard to electric lighting it is somewhat difficult to lay down a
fair basis of comparison, owing to the wide variations in the cost of
current, and in the efficiency of lamps, and to the undoubted hygienic
and aesthetic claims of electric lighting to precedence. But in towns in
this country where there is a public electricity supply, electric
lighting will be used rather than acetylene for the same reasons that it
is preferred to coal-gas.
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