He will still maintain that there is not a company in the country making anything out of electric lighting, and that it is only a matter of time when some fellow slips into his town and, noting things, works up an arc light company, captures the street lighting and some of our friend's best consumers. The price of gas is lowered; all kinds of patent gas burners are invested in to recapture those lost consumers; a fight ensues, factions are made in the town, and the arc light company adds an incandescent plant to the arc light, and captures more of our friend's consumers. To cap the climax, another fellow comes along and proposes to supply fuel gas to the citizens, gets a franchise, puts in pipes and services, and our friend wakes up some fine morning to find that what the electric light fellow has left him in the shape of lighting has been captured by the fellow with the fuel gas plant, who puts in the incandescent gas burners. Evidence is cropping up all around us that tends to this change. We find manufacturers of fireclay goods now making carbons for electric lighting; we also find gas fixture manufacturers now making and selling electric wires of all kinds, besides other apparatus connected with the electrical field. Manufacturers of meters have not yet devised a meter for measuring electrical currents, but perhaps it would pay them to devote a portion of their time to studying one out. As far as the present meter business is concerned, I think, if this transformation of the gas business is brought about, the demand for gas meters would be quadrupled and the use of the larger sizes of meters would be made necessary; but if accuracy could be insured with a much smaller meter with quicker action, I think it would be better adapted for the purpose. Fuel gas, if it can be manufactured at a price at which it could be sold with profit at a lower or as low price as coal, would prove a larger field than all the kinds of lighting put together, and is certainly worth our while to investigate thoroughly. The owners of the smallest houses of our cities would become our patrons, and a small profit per thousand would represent a wide margin when taking into consideration the large amount that would be consumed. But is the fuel gas practical, and has there been sufficient progress made to date to warrant gas companies taking hold of it with any assurance of success? In the first place, what assurance do we require? Do we want some one to come along and guarantee us a profit of 20 per cent. on our investment if we enter the field? If so, the patentees of the different processes might just as well negotiate with the shoe maker as with the gas company. I think all the assurance we want in the premises is that with certain apparatus we can get certain results from a ton of coal (the kind of coal being specified), or that from a ton of coal we can get a certain amount of available deliverable heat units.