THE MANAGER IN THE DISTRICT. 89 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE MANAGER IN THE DISTRICT. 



THE manufacture of gas and its purification may be 

 regarded as the primary operations, but the work of distri- 

 bution is not less important. The days when the gasworks 

 manager knew very "little more about his district than the 

 length and sizes of the mains have long gone by, and any- 

 one who shuts himself up in the gasworks may shortly 

 expect to be shut out of them, in favour of a more energetic 

 and up-to-date successor. The old idea that all the 

 manager had to do was to see the gas safely up to the 

 boundary of the consumer's premises, and that a gasfitter 

 would take care of the rest, is now obsolete, and it cannot 

 be too clearly understood that the only way to get a really 

 strong and vital business is to accept full responsibility up 

 to the burner. The cooker and the incandescent light 

 departments will not look after themselves, but call for 

 continual nursing. Even if circumstances do not admit of 

 a burner maintenance scheme, the manager must not only 

 understand all the details himself, but be prepared to 

 advise and instruct customers. Burners choked with dust 

 and dirt, and broken or tipsy mantles, are not a good 

 advertisement ; and gas stoves are frequently partially or 

 entirely discarded on account of some trifling defect that 

 could easily be explained or remedied. In larger works, 



