Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-25
Of London, and make short work of your
Not Afraid Of the Electricians.


! dividends?"
Not Afraid Of the Electricians
"Fear the electricians! Rob us of oul
| customers! Ooh! We are not afraid. I'll
tell you by and by who our most serious
4 rival isl dare say 1t will amuse you. But
as for the electric light, it hasn't touched us
in the least; and it won't. You will be sur
| prised at the real facts of the case. You
know that Sir Coutts Lindsay some eight
| years back introduced distributive electric
lighting into London. He made his start
in Bond street. Well, two or three years
ago, as was walking down Bond street,
was struck with the prevalence of electric
lighting in the shops. We had Gas we still
have) great many valuable customers in
Bond street. So it occurred to me to CON-
| pare our receipts from Bond street before
Sir Coutts, Lindsay put up his electric ma
chimes with our receipts four years after. l
found that at the earlier period our re-
ceipts from Bond street were 97, 200, and at
the later period 81, 7,sO0
II do not deny that we have lost customers
| in Bond street. What say is that our re-
ceipts from Bond street have rIsen in spite
| of the competition from electricity. The
| fact is, that great many business people IN
Bond street, and everywhere. put up their
electric lights as an advertisement. Smith
starts it; Jones next door thinks he must do
it, too; and Brown over the way won't
stand having the shine taken out of him by
his rivals That's one point. Here's Sec
ond-the back parts of those shops whose
fronts are so brilliantly lighted by glow
lamps are lighted by gas-don't forget what
l have said about advertisement The cleo
trio light throws strong shadows, and these
are bad for workers; therefore, in the back
premises where work is done, gas Is still
used.
Coke Men Are Guing to Rule the Day.
So far Mr.. Phillips. 1 reproduce his
statement as faithfully as can. I do not
agree with it fully. might have said a
great deal in illustration of the enormous
benefits of the electric light. But my bust
ness was to hear what Mr. Phillips had to
say about gas.
"Yes, and here's another point for you
You are told about the great number of
West End mansions which are fitted up for
electric lighting But bear in mind that
gas never was used in those mansions. Wax
candles were burned, not gas. So that, as
far as these mansions are concerned, we
have not lost any customers
'T have heard all you have said, Mr..
Phillips. But the new light is making way.
What the electric men annex, you cannot
have. But see you are coming to most
interesting point Like the moon, and more
satisfactory than the lesser stars, you coke
kings of Horseferry Road have ruled the
night. Now you are going to rule the day
NOT only in the vile season of fog, but also
when the sun is up. You are going to rev.
olutionize our grates and you are going
to-"
''Going to.-why we are doing it; we have
done it. How many cooking stoves-gas
cooking stoves-have we planted through
out London, do you think?''
'T haven't the slightest notion. One feels
shy of making guesses in Horseferry Road.
You have told me that you propose to speud
9225, 900 upon three gas holders for one, of
your stations; as much money, at one swoop,
for those three misunderstanding objects
as the city companies spend in a year on
salaries and fees and management, and
more salaries and fees and charities, poly
technics and turtle. After that it seems
useless to guess. But let me try. Say
6, 900 cooking stoves? You shake your head
/ en- thousand? You are smiling consum-
edly. Fifteen thousand? No! Well, I
give it up"
'tFifty thousand-in one class of estab-
lishments, such, for example, as large places
of business which dine their own clerks, as
sistants and work-people generally. 1t is
nowadays the custom for the great estab-
lishments of London, almost without an ex-
ception, to provide dinners for their hands
on the premises. It means economy in
money, time and trouble; economy all
round"