I
Of all labour-saving forces at present available, I think we must regard electricity and gas as the most important.
Often, however, it is not for us to choose which we will employ. We must needs use gas if electric current is not available, and we must count the cost of both before deciding whether or no we may employ either.
Counting the Cost.
Counting the cost is not so simple a matter as it seems, for it does not suffice to ascertain the price of gas per 1000 feet, and of electricity per unit, and of coal and coke per ton, and of wood per 100 bundles, because you have also to ascertain what you can save in labour and in other items before you can arrive at any just conclusion.
Let us suppose that you decide to build a house and warm it by hot water, to light it and to cook by gas or electricity. In that case you could save the cost of grates, chimneys, the kitchen range, fenders, fireirons, coal boxes, chimney sweeping, a considerable amount of cleaning, and the labour of the people who would be needed to handle the coal and do the cleaning.
So you must consider the matter carefully, not forgetting that it is further complicated by the fact that you may find it difficult to obtain servants, and that it might pay you to use gas or electricity even though coal was cheaper, because of the scarcity and high cost of labour. You have also to consider that the cost of coal, gas, and electricity depend to some extent on the people who use them. One cook, for example, will burn nearly double the coal burned by another and obtain no better result. It is the same with gas and electric current.
PLATE XXXIV
