HOW TO MAKE GAS WORKS PAY,

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 5032, 8 November 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW TO MAKE GAS WORKS PAY,

At a recent meeting of the shareholders of the Melbourne Gas Company the following report was read: — "As illustrating the evils and loss attending small and inefficient plant, and the advantage and economy of having apparatus and connections of ample size and capacity, the item, " Purifying materials, &c," maybe taken. In the June balance-sheet for 1878, the cost under this heading was L 3273, since which time our manufacture of gas has increased 03 per cent. The corresponding increase in cost for purifying, &c, would have worked out to £5334 for the present half -year ; but, as a matter of fact, the cost under this head has only been £1914 as shown by the balance-sheet, or some 41 per cent less than in 187 S. In other words, a saving at the rate of £640 per annum, has been effected in this item alone. The additional plant ordered will enable a further improvement to be mace both in purity and economy. In 1878 the cost of purifying materials, &c, was £3273, while 309,881,000 feet of gas was made. In 1884 purifying materials cost £1914, and the gas made amounted to 505,038,000 feet. The expenditure in distribution is also bearing fruit, as more gas is now being sold and paid for per ton of coal — that is to say from every ton of coal used in manufacture nearly 2s more is obtained than in 1878 from gas rates. This on our consumption of coal for the half-year just closed is a gain at the rate of £10,000 per. annum. In 1878 the coal carbonised amounted to 30,107 tons, and the gas sold was 241,158,000 feet, or an average of 8000 feet per ton of coal ; while in 1884, 52,715 tons of coal were carbonised, and the gas sold was 437,687,000 feet, the average being 8300 feet per ton of coal."