It is possible to make the gas only as and
when it is required, or it is possible in the space of an hour or so,
during the most convenient part of the day, to prepare sufficient to last
an entire evening, storing it in a gasholder till the moment arrives for
its combustion. It is clear that an apparatus needing human attention
throughout the whole period of activity would be intolerable in the case
of small installations, and would only be permissible in the case of
larger ones if the district supplied with gas was populous enough to
justify the regular employment of two men at least in or about the
generating station. But with the conditions obtaining in such a country
as Great Britain, and in other lands where coal is equally cheap and
accessible, if a neighbourhood was as thickly populated as has been
suggested, it would be preferable on various grounds to lay down a coal-
gas or electricity works; for, as has been shown in the first chapter,
unless a very material fall in the price of calcium carbide should take
place--a fall which at present is not to be expected--acetylene can only
be considered a suitable and economical illuminant and heating agent for
such places as cannot be provided cheaply with coal-gas or electric
current.
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