THE MANAGER IN THE DISTRICT. 91 



necessary a subsequent appointment can be arranged. 

 Notes or memoranda should never be made on the meter 

 index sheets. They are liable to be overlooked or, if not 

 rubbed off, to lead to confusion and mistakes in subsequent 

 quarters. A separate note-book should be carried for 

 entering changes, possible new customers, or extensions 

 for old ones, complaints of all kinds, etc. A diligent man 

 will be on the look out for and pick up a large amount 

 of useful information of all kinds; and he should direct 

 his attention towards keeping existing business, as being 

 even more important than looking out for new. Fre- 

 quently it happens that if as much attention was given to 

 the existing customers as to soliciting new ones, as good 

 an increase of sales could be shown, and that with no 

 additional expense for services and meters. Particular 

 attention should be given to all cases of discontinued 

 or diminished consumption of gas, and the manager should 

 be fully satisfied that such have arisen from unavoidable 

 causes, or that they do not admit of remedy. 



In the absence of an intimate knowledge of the district, 

 the manager is at a great disadvantage in respect to the 

 most important duty of regulating the supply pressure 

 according to the requirements. We have already noticed 

 that the old idea of regulating the pressure according to the 

 expected consumption is going out of date. The tendency 

 is towards maximum pressure right away from 6 a.m. to 

 ii p.m. ; so the works governor tends to become a super- 

 fluity, except as a means of reducing the supply during the 

 small hours of the night. In the case of a new and 

 strange district, much useful information can be obtained 

 by taking the hourly output, as shown by the height of the 

 gasholder in use. With the aid of previous remarks on the 

 elementary principles concerned in the supply pressure, 



