COMMENCING OPERATIONS. 71 



Sometimes the manager undertakes to find all extra 

 labour required for a fixed addition to the wage for his 

 personal services, but the plan has several objections. One 

 is, that it gives him a direct interest in keeping down the 

 output of gas, and, as such, is the antithesis of co-partnership 

 as above instanced. It certainly offers the advantage of 

 encouraging economy in the matter of additional help, but 

 whether the ultimate result is really an addition to the 

 profits of the concern is another thing. 



Contracts are usually entered into for the purchase of 

 coal and purifying material, and there is too commonly a 

 practice of regarding this question solely from the point of 

 view of price. It is a very simple matter to pick out 

 the lowest price, or to try to obtain a small cash discount. 

 But competent buying goes further than that. The 

 question " What value will be gained from the material in 

 working ? " is more important than the cost price. A simple 

 way of getting at the comparative values of two kinds of 

 coal is to compare the respective yields of gas and of coke. 

 Suppose the cost of gas in the holder, exclusive of capital 

 charges, to be 25. 6d. per thousand cubic feet, and the yard 

 price of coke Qd. per cwt. The two coals, respectively, yield 

 10,000 cubic feet of gas and 14 cwts. of coke and 9,000 

 cubic feet of gas and 12 cwts. of coke per ton. These 

 results, it is assumed, are not a laboratory analysis or 

 a working test on the large scale under totally different 

 conditions, but as obtained at the works in question, or 

 from one of similar size, and preferably from coal supplied 

 in the regular way of business, and not as a special sample 

 for testing. Suppose that the prices of the two samples, 

 respectively, delivered into coal store, are 153. and 145. per 

 ton. The value of the products divided by the cost of the 

 coal gives a factor that represents the value to the purchaser, 



