Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 4).djvu/484

 foreman, now receiving a good salary and enjoying the entire confidence of his employers, who, a few years ago, was an ordinary scoop-driver. The second case is that of a man who, some fifteen or sixteen years since, obtained a job at a provincial gasworks. He was in absolute want, and had walked the roads for many a weary day in search of work. He addressed the casual inquiry, which most pedestrians have heard, to a passing stranger: "Do you know of anyone who could give a man something to do?" He, fortunately, happened to be speaking to an employé of the gas-works, who secured him a post as stoker. He proved himself an efficient and reliable servant, and was ultimately promoted to be head foreman with a salary of £150 a year. He is now the proud possessor of several houses, and is credibly reported to have accumulated, by judicious investment of his savings, as much as £2,000.

Owing to causes into which we need not enter here, it has been found expedient in recent years to replace manual labour to a considerable extent by machinery in charging and drawing retorts. Two carriages work up and down the retort-house, one of which is made to perform the operation of raking out the coke, whilst the other contains a supply of coal from which the scoop is filled. The coal is deposited in the retort-house, is carried in elevator buckets to a hopper overhead, from which it is dropped into the charging machine. A couple of men with very little experience can with these machines do the work of several expert stokers.

As the gas leaves the retort it is very hot and very impure. Its temperature has therefore to be reduced and its impurities have to be removed. It passes into a pipe known as the "hydraulic main," the air in which is exhausted by means of engines, which may be seen at work in the engine-house. The main contains water through which the gas is forced. From the hydraulic main it enters the condensers, which are pipes running back-