36 CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SMALL GASWORKS. 



located on the premises of a tradesman, who is prepared to 

 give attention at all times in business hours, in the way of 

 booking orders or complaints, receiving accounts, etc. Of 

 course, it is preferable, for many reasons, that the whole 

 of the business should be concentrated on the works. 



The illustration given on next page, which appeared in 

 "The Gas World," illustrates the difficulties incidental to 

 location of the works at one extreme of the district, and 

 with a low level at the other. The gasworks are at one 

 corner of the district, one to two miles distant from the prin- 

 cipal centres of consumption, and the bulk of the gas has a 

 longer distance to travel than would be the case if the 

 works were situated in or close to the centre of the district. 



Over elaboration in the furnace and retort settings 

 should be avoided, not only because they are costly in 

 the first place, and the small percentage in fuel or in- 

 crease of yield, thereby secured is not sufficient to pay 

 interest on the outlay, but also for the reason previously 

 indicated. In some instances, the results of a drastic 

 change have been for the worse, and the working not 

 so good as with the old apparatus. A man who has 

 been used to alter his dampers to the extent of 3 inches 

 at a time finds it difficult to understand that J inch will 

 make a difference on a generator furnace. A stage floor 

 and full depth cellar is not only costly, but inconvenient in 

 working by a gang of one ; and if the furnace is melted 

 down or injured by ignorant working, the expense of re- 

 placement is serious. There are excellent designs, that are 

 both cheap and simple, on the market, and practically as 

 good results can be obtained with the shallow type of 

 regenerator and a cellar 3 feet or 4 feet deep, covered with 

 movable iron plates. This statement, of course, does not 

 apply to a large works, but to the conditions peculiar to 



