eventually being that the adoption of such a system of working would be
certain to result in so great an amount of economy as to put gas as an
illuminating agent on a more secure footing to compete successfully with
its modern and somewhat aggressive rival, the electric light. Of course,
it is now admitted that the mode of adapting the heat regenerative
principle at the Paris Gas Works was attended with a degree of
complexity in the structural arrangements that was so great and so
expensive as to place it practically beyond the reach of gas companies
and gas corporations generally, when the expense as well as the
scientific beauty and practical efficiency of the new mode of applying
and utilizing heat had to be considered. Fortunately, however, Dr.
Siemens was enabled two or three years ago to demonstrate that there was
no such thing as "finality" in that department of invention which he had
made almost exclusively his own. About the time mentioned he placed
his most advanced views on gas producers and on the regeneration and
utilization of heat before the world, and within that period a most
decided step in advance has been made, the structural arrangements
now required for gas producers and regenerator furnaces having been
immensely simplified and cheapened, while their practical utility has in
no way been interfered with.

Scarcely had Dr. Siemens announced his new form of gas producer and
regenerator than communication was opened with him by Mr. W. Foulis, the
general manager to the Glasgow Corporation Gas Trust, with the view of
entering into arrangements for its adoption on an experimental scale
at one of the stations under his charge. Encouraged by the hearty
co-operation of the gas committee, two or three of whose members were
well known engineers, Mr. Foulis very soon came to an understanding with
Dr. Siemens to have the regenerative system put to a thorough test at
the Dalmarnock Gas Works, situated in the extreme east end of the city,