GASOMETERS9 NEW BEAUTY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 25

GASOMETERS 9 NEW BEAUTY

"How do you like our gas-holder!" That may be a query which a proud native may put to the stranger visiting an English town of the future. Heretofore, the. average gasholder has been a thing to keep out of the tourist's itinerary, but it is just possible that a time is coming when one may say "good-bye to all that," says the "San Francisco Chronicle." Sir Michael Sadler, master of University College, Oxford, said recently: "In the course of a long drive through many beautiful places, I saw nothing more impressive or more finely proportioned than, seen from the west towering over the red houses of a post-war suburb, the gas receiver at New Swindon.'' Tlio placing of gns-hulders underground has been urged and the idea is well supported. Concerning this method of construction J. E. AY. Alexander, secretary of the Institution of Gas Engineers, says there are probably, few

technical objections on the engineering side, but the cost of excavating would be enormous and underground gas-hold-ers would be difficult to maintain and inspect. • According to the secretary of the British Commercial Gas Association moro artistic effects in painting are being sought in connection with the appearance of gas-holders. He contends that red or brown is being discarded and colouring effects aro being studied more carefully with a view to fitting into environments. In Manchester controversy has been aroused by the suggestion that the municipal. gas department's huge new gas-holder shall be painted green and used for. advertising purposes; While many of the cultural leaders of tho city are up in arms against the proposal, (here are some who think that a gas-holder itself is so ugly that any disguise of its function or change (if its appearance would be preferable.