The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-22
EQUITABLE GAS
COMPANY IS IN
FULL OPERATION
Annual. Meeting of the
Directors.
REPORTS OF THE OFFICERS
RESULTS ACCOM-
PLIsHED DURING THE YEAR.
Company Organized, Plant Erected
and Manufacture of Cheap Light
and Fuel Already in
Progress.
REPORTS OF THE OFFICERS
SURPRISING RESULTS ACCOM-
PLISHED DURING THE YEAR.

The promise of genuine competition in
gaslight made by the Equitable Gasight
Company has been fulfilled. The first an
nual meeting of the stockholders was
held yesterday afternoon in the company $
new offices, SIC California street, formerly
occupied by the Spring Valley Water
Company. A large number of stockholo-
ers were In attendance, 10000 shares out
of total of 10000 being represented, and
much enthusiasm was displayed over the
fiattering prospects of the new company.
Charles L. Ackerman the president,
welcomed the stockholders to the hrst
annual meeting of the Equitable Gashght
Company, and said: Every promise
made to you has been fulfilled. One year
ago to-day this company was Incorporated
for the purpose of manufacturing gas by
a new and simple process. Our sincerity
of purpose was doubted by many, ana we
were bitterly antagonized by our rivals
from the first. But with a small PAID IN
capital to compete with the old estao-
nshed company having the confidence or
all, we have gone ahead until to-day we
are actively in the field, supplying Gus
toners with a better and cheaper illum-
inant than they have ever had before"
He spoke of the delays in getting GER
tain material from the East, as well as
the necessity of selecting a suitable site
for a plant, but Notwithstanding those
drawbacks, and with their limited capital,
in eight months time they We're ready to
begin the manufacture of gas. The stua-
ton of the plant at North Beach was
like the handle of fan, from which d.
verge the great lines of mains to every
part of the city. He continued:
The labor has been given to California in
dustry, with the exception or steel shells and
gas holders, which were procured from the
The nlaQt has bepn will
capacity larger than contemplated when start
ing, which was then believed would be 3,O0O-
coo cubic feet in twenty-four hours, but as
a matter of fact the plant has a capacity
fully one-third larger than that.
gas was made on December 13, 1885, to the
stockholders of the company, and on that day
gas was made and o. put into the holders at
feat never before accomplished, as by the
ordinary method Of manufacturing coal or
water gas it would take six times as long
to make as much gas with a similar sized
plant.
The principal purpose of the company is to
supply gas for fuel, and happily in addition to
that 1t makes the best Illuminating gas that
has ever been seen in San Francisco The
idea of having fuel in gaseous form for domes-
tic and for all purposes of manufacture
has been dominant in the minds of progressive
and although millions OF dollars have been
expended in the effort to make gas hot
enough to be used fuel and yet economical
enough to compete with COAL the efforts have
In every instance, been entire failures.
we DO not measure our business by what has
been done by the other gas companies of San
Francisco Our purpose is to displace the use
of coal fuel and make this gas take its
place for all purposes for which it (coal) and
other fuels have heretofore been used The
scope and extent of this business hardly
be conceived at the present time
1t stated that our plant would never
be built within the time contracted for it-but
1t is standing the old Selby smelling site,
a living reality. 1t also stated that If
the plant constructed gas would ever
be made by this process; but 1t made in
the presence of stockholders at the rate of
1000 cubic feet per minute. The charge was
further made that the gas would stratify and
not run 100 feet through the mains 1t
practically demonstrated that 1t runs 10000
feet from the works at North Beach to the
intersection of Market and Stockton streets
and it runs and furnishes light to 50 per cent
of all the storekeepers along the line of Stock
ton street to Market, and the 1s-inch mains
now being but into Grant will serve
TO supply the customers of the company along
that street and all intersecttng streets down to
the city front.
The last argument put forth by the enemies
Of this process is that it will consume twice
the quantity of the gas for the same amount
az light per hour. Such charge is hardly
worth of refutation, and repeated tests have
tsen made showing the mendacity Of this state
nent Two miles from the works and in the
Iresence of number of gas experts and board
cf directors a test made at a prominent
1Iace with four different Wesbach burners
the result being as follows: