The age-herald., 1897-11-25
This Amount Made Per Annum on Invest
 ment of $i4O,OOO.
IT IS OVER 45 PER CENT PROFIT
The Nearest Correct Answers Sent in Were by Miss Maud Davis, Miss Rosa Davis, fal- com Shaver and Miss Comelia
 Street-Circus Tickets to All

Not one of the boys or gils who att tempted The Age-Herald's gas problem got it absolutely correct to the frac- tion, but some of them came so near that the promised prizes. will be given out and divided among Whose nearest.
 They have shown an annual profit to the gas company based upon the figures presented, of $6S, ,OO5OO, which is exceed ing 45 per cent. on the amount originally invested.
 They have shown it to be a profitable business. They haven't shown, but every body knows, that this tremendous profit is taken from tine pockets of people who havenio heretofore been able to help themselves They are now calling upon their representatives in the board of al- dermen to help them.
 THE PROBLEM.
 Last Sunday The Age+Herald made the following proposition:
 The Age-Herald will give four tickets to the coming circus to any school boy or girl in Birmingham who sends the correct answer to the following problem. No answer will be received after o'clock next Tuesday afternoon. Answers must be enclosed in an envelope, addressed to the Problem Editor of The Age Herald. The name of the boy sending 1t must not be exhibited on the outside of the envel- opes. The envelopes will be placed in a basket, shaken up, and a blind-fobdeo boy will draw the envelopes from the 1Aa order drawn, and opened in fthe order numbered. The sender of the first cor rect answer opened will receive four clr- GUS tickets; the second correct answer opened, two circus tickets; the third, one circus ticket
 The problem is as follows:
 "Coal sells for S5 cenlts a tou1- It costs 30 cents a ton to convent this coal unto gas. One ton of coal makes 10000 cuplc feet of gas. It also makes ten-seVeIi- teeths tons of coke, and 20 cents Woruh of coal tar. Coke sells for $S per ton. The gas company makes and sells 52,OOO,- 900 cubic feet of gas annually FTroeen per cent. of this escapes in the mains and is a complete loss. It sells the re- mainder of this gas at $1.65 per thousand cubic feet. It gives a discount Of lo per cent. on bills paid before the 10th Of the month. Seyenty-n.ne per cent. of it's bills are paid before that date. The reniain- ing 21 per cent are paid after that date and att the full rate Now, suppose the plant of the gas company originally cost SAC, GOO, upon which 6 per cent. inter est must be paid. After per cent. on inc Investment has been deducted from the earnings of the company, figure what profit in dollars the company makes per annum from the above statement, and what percentage net it makes upon us investment"
 Yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock was the time set for the drawing to take place. Long before the hour named the enthusiastic youngsters began to file into The Age-Hera office, all sure they had the correct answer and only waiting to get their tickets
 The drawing took place as announced. All of the twenty envelopes were placed in A large basket, we'll shaken up, and then a boy who was not interested in the result d,s.w them out. They we're num- bered as they were drawn and opened as they were numbered.
 The correct answer, as certified to by
 
 Birmingham public schools, is $63,- 005000576 net profit in dollars per anrpum, and this is 45.0035 per c:nt on the orlgi- nal investment of $140,000.
 Not single One of the contestants got this exactly, but several came so near the correct answer that 1t was decided 10 award some prizes according t0 the near ness of the solutions to the correct an- SWer.
 THE PRIZE WINNERS.
 The tenth envelope opened was within a small fraction of being correct. It was from
 OWEN GILLESPY, of the High efto
 His figures were sS3,005.005. represent ing the earnings in dollars, being 45 1-2S0 Ter cent.
 H. will get the first prize of four clr- GUS tickets.
 The second nearest was Fa1colm Sha- yer, and his envelope was numbered