472 Our Coal Supply and our Prosperity, [ Oct., 
once become small-ware manufacturers, that “our work,” to quote 
Mr. Jevons, “will be that of the trinket and the watch rather 
than that of the herculanean engine, hand work rather than 
machine work.” Such writers really forget that the world is in a 
progressive state; that there are such undertakings as telegraph 
cables; such trades as spinning, weaving, paper-making, printing, 
engraving, photography, and hundreds of old or of nascent 
avocations, arising out of the wants of modern civilization, and 
requiring not only the hand of the skilful artificer but the brain of 
the experienced mechanician in the machinery needed for their 
prosecution. 
Turning now to another item in our coal consumption, that 
used in the gas manufacture, we find that one-eighth of our whole 
supply is employed to give light to our streets and houses; and to 
read the comments of some writers on this subject, one would 
imagine that it was a decree of Providence, that whilst every day 
new sources of illumination are discovered, vying with each other, 
and even with the sun himself in brilliancy, we should be con- 
demned for ever to live in the pale, sickly, partial light emitted by 
a foul-smelling, explosive gas; noxious and dangerous in its 
manufacture, and extremely troublesome in its application. What 
has mankind done to merit such a sentence at the hands of our 
coal alarmists ? 
It is easy to sneer at persons who believe that substitutes will 
be found for coal—in this case for coal-gas—and to call them 
chimerical and visionary; but was not the same language held 
when people burned tallow and wax candles? Is it not always 
repeated when some old custom is about to disappear? From what 
source do we already obtain our most brillant light? Our best 
lighthouses, few in number, are or are about to be lighted by magneto- 
electricity, and Mr. Wilde’s recent invention, described at length 
in another portion of this Number,* bids fair to take the electric 
spark into our houses, streets, and workshops. 
One of our ablest and most experienced electricians writes us as 
follows: —*“ My conclusions were that electricity could not be used at 
less than a hundred times the cost of coal. If Mr. Wilde proves 
his position, this view must be materially modified. The value of 
his machine for producing light, heat, or mechanical power, can 
only be determined by knowing the cost of the power by which it 
is driven.” 
The last-named inquiry will be answered presently. 
But we need not even have recourse to electricity as a substitute 
for gas, although we repeat the conviction that before long that 
and other bright illuminating sources, as magnesium, will take the 
place of gas, oil, and tallow. Petroleum itself, the supply of which 
* Where the past and future of magneto-electricity are fully treated. 
