slight cost, and will prove useful for other purposes, such as sawing
wood or even operating the sewing-machines. Owing to the many inventions
for isolated lighting plants by acetylene and other kinds of gas,
dwellers in the country have virtually as free a choice of illumination
as the people in towns and cities.

Great caution is necessary in the use of any form of illuminating gas,
since all produce asphyxiation. Accordingly, all gas fixtures of the
house should be regularly inspected to see that there is no escape of
the subtile, destructive fluid. The odor of escaping gas which is so
unpleasant is really a blessing, in that it informs the householder of
his danger. A cock that turns completely around and, after extinguishing
the light, permits the escape of the gas, is more dangerous than a
poisonous serpent. Yet there may be nothing radically wrong with this
fixture, and the use of the screwdriver may make it as good as new.
Gas should never be turned low when there is a draught in the room,
nor allowed to burn near hanging draperies. Care should always be taken
in turning out a gas-stove or a drop-light to do so at the fixture and
not at the burner. This is not alone safer, but it keeps the rubber tube
from acquiring a disagreeable odor from the gas that has been left in it.

Great economy in the consumption of gas may be secured by the use of
Welsbach and other incandescent burners. Where these are not employed,
care should be taken to select the most economical kind of gas tips,
and to see that when these become impaired by use they are replaced.

In the large cities there is constant complaint of defective gas-meters,
so much so that inspectors have been appointed to correct this abuse.
It has been found, however, that many complaints have been unfounded
because the housewives were not able properly to read the meter.