introduction of gas as an illuminant, you will find that it took a
much longer time to establish it on a commercial basis than it has
taken to establish most firmly the electric lighting industry. All the
great improvements in gas, the introduction of water gas, the
economizing in consumption by the use of the Welsbach burner, have all
been made within the time of those before me, and yet, notwithstanding
that when these gas improvements started, the electric lighting
business was hardly conceived, and certainly had not advanced to a
point where you could claim that it had passed the experimental
stage--notwithstanding this, the cost of electrical energy has
decreased so rapidly that to-day there are many large central station
plants making handsome returns on their investments at a far lower
average income per unit of light than the income obtained by the gas
company in the same community. In making my calculations which have
led me to this conclusion, I have assumed that 10,000 watts are equal
to 1,000 feet of gas. This comparison holds good, provided an
incandescent lamp of high economy is used as against the ordinary gas
burner. To make a comparison between electric illumination and
incandescent gas burners, such as the Welsbach burner, you must figure
on the use of an arc lamp in the electric circuit instead of an
incandescent lamp, which is certainly fair when it is remembered that
incandescent gas burners are, as a rule, used in places where arc
lamps should be used if electric illumination is employed.

With such brilliant results obtained in the past, the prospects of the
central station industry are certainly most dazzling. While the growth
of the business has been phenomenal, more especially since 1890, I
think it can be conservatively stated that we have scarcely entered
upon the threshold of the development which may be expected in the
future. In very few cities in the United States can you find that