The Blackpool Herald. — 1886-09-03 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

FAILURE IN BUSINESS. progress is chiefly doe, thati Blackpool should be so I Some have started in business without having th i popular with them as t unquestionably is. . . . capacity to manage it, and have lost the hard earnings Given an atmosphere so bracing as to have earned of many years, all their careful savings, and even money to struggle and scrape, for the town the appellation of "hr .esy Blackpo,d," , belonging to others. For many years to come they will excellent boating an bathing facilities, a magnificent !lay.° and save, in order to clear promenade, about three mass in lergth. two piers, Tn eirHere is a young person who has wasted his health and r inning jar into the sea, indoor and outdoor enter- strength; who has consulted quack doctors and become tainments ring the day and night, the daily oppor- a yielding victim to their devices; now on the verge of tunity of Ling strip to Wales, Liv-rpoal, the Isle the grave, and constantly tempted to commit suicide of Man—given all these things, and how much more Why should this misery exist? Is there no remedy? does a holidav-niaker need to make him happy The answer is plain and easily understood. Everyone ? • possesses talents and has a nussion to fulfil; and it is It was in 1850 that powers to construct gasworks only by obtaining a knowledge of and by endeavouring and to borrow the requisite money were first obtained to complete this mission that life can be made either by the Local Board, which was then responsible for happy or successful. Blackpeol's municipal government. Plans of the I It is not in accordance with natural laws that people proposed works were pre, ared by Mr. John Hofe, . should be constantly suffering. It was never intended then engineer to the Preston Gas C .mpany, under !psaetasmeasnanshdoauilldinseulerarseo et ueoreu.slyN;vLet whose superintendence the works were afterwar ts is the remedy? Shun and abjure quack medicines, pills, erected. They were built on the ground on the drugs, dec., ; rind out the simplest and most natural South Shore, on which the present works tand, and methods of restoring health by consulting Herr Cohen, consisting, as they did, of only nine retorts and a whose continued success merits your confidence, and holder to contain 15,000 cube feet of gas, they can- ! who may be relied upon as able to give satisfaction to all. Herr Cohen may be consulted &lly at the Phreno not be said to have been on too extensive a scale. In logical Institute, Central Beach, from 10 a.m. 1860 the number of retorts was increased to 19, and I • hAder. with a capacity for holding 40,000 cubic ' feet. was added to the Want. Unfortunately, the profits derived from the sale of the gas did not keep pace with the increasing demand for the commodity. Although, in the year 1863, the gas was beingsold at 58.10 d. per thousand cubic feet,the capital of £B,OOO, which had up till that time been invested in the works, had not yielded any profit. To meet the loss—for there was an actual loss—which the maintenance of the undertaking entailed, the Local Board had repeatedly to levy rates ranging in amount from focepence to a shilling lik the pound. Of this sort of thing the members of the Board began to tire, and in 1863 they decided to see whether the works could not be carried on more successfully by private enterprise. The works were accordingly advertised to be let for a period of years. Mr. William Crip a coal merchant of Manchester, offered to take them at a rental of £5OO a year, and 8 per cent, on any additional capital with which the Board provided him, and his tender being the highest it was accepted. Mr. Crippin was fortunate enough to secure as his manager Mr. John Chew, who was at that time engaged at the Rochdale Road works of the Manchester Corporation. In Mr. Chew, as events proved, he got a man whose practical experience of all matters pertaining to the manufacture and distribution of gas enabled him to make a profit where previously only loss had been incurred. At the time of Mr. Chew's appointment 35 pet cent. of the gas was being lost by leakage, It was to the reformation of this state of matters that much of Mr. Chew's energy was devoted, and to the success of his efforts in this direction—and also, it mu.t be admitted, to the starving of the works —it is to be attribute I in large measure the circumstance that Mr. Crippin's lea e proved remunerative, particularly in the latter years 'during which it ran. Encouraged by Mr. Drippi!,'s success, the Local Board took over the works at the expiration of the lease, and also took. over Mr. Chew, who has since continued to act as engineer and manager. The works, as we have indicated. were not in the beat condition when Mr. Crippin left them. His object had been to make as much money out of them as he could, and to spend as little as he could on renewals and repairs. Consequently, the Local Board, acting on their engineer's advice,immediately decided to have everything overhauled, reconstructed, and extended. This work was attended with one rather awkward incident. During the re-construction of one of the gasholders, when the tank had been about three-parts made, the sea overflowed its banks. The tank was completely filled with salt water, the retort fires were put out, and the purifying apparatus was brought to a standstilL In this way, at the very height of the "season," Blackpool was almost thrown into darkness for a while. This and other difficulties were