The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (July 1900)

88 The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. In too many instances, however, the actual invention was largely due to chance, in which case, even the inventor was quite unable to keep his system up-to-date, and there being no one connected with the management who knew much about the subject, the issue was not long in doubt. Not a few firms have actually sold carbide at cost price to purchasers and users of their generators, and what does that mean? Every business man knows that beyond the actual cost, there are several petty expenses that sum up to at least 24 per cent., or more frequently 5 per cent., besides maintenance and management charges; so that a permanent and constantly recurring loss is certain-to result from every apparatus sold and continued in use. Such a policy could have only one ending, for even if 50 per cent. profit were made on the generator in the first place, a very few years’ use would swallow that up, even supposing the company’s capital should last as long. , It will be gathered from the foregoing that a large number of imperfect and defective apparatus must, in the natural course of things, have got into the hands of the general public, and business men know only too well what happens in the case of such an article when it has not been paid for. Every acetylene company that has gone under has had a large number of useless second-hand machines in their yards that have been returned, and the writer knows of cases where both sides refused to pay even the return carriage, consequently the generator remained unpaid for in the hands of the would-be users; and after remaining for some time a monument of the failure of acetylene eventually found their way to the scrap heap. I have, of necessity briefly, but I believe fairly, summed up the most important reasons for the failure of acetylene companies. There are of course exceptions where firms, and in some instances limited companies, have done only legitimate business, and at least one is to-day in a sound financial condition, being able to show a steadily increasing profit for the last four years, but—and this proves what I have been advancing—everyone was’ surprised at the smallness of the turnover, especially when compared with the figures given by those companies which have been floated and submerged. The one has done a steadily increasing and legitimate business without inflation or risk but with a substantial profit; the others got a lot of accounts on the books and that was all, save logs on nearly everything done, but which was not revealed till the finish. There is no doubt that the use of acetylene, not only for general lighting, but also for Jantern work, is making substantial progress in England, and still more so in Scotland and Wales, and if those engaged in the industry would only handle it in a business-like manner and abstain from misleading exaggerations, a bright future lies almost immediately before it. We must not, however, be surprised to hear of still more concerns going under, some for the reasons already mentioned, but still more from want of capital. Many reliable and up-to-date generators are at present hanging fire for want of the small capital needed to bring them before the public, for strange to say the British investor would rather be swindled out of a large sum by the scheming financier, than venture a smaller atnount in a promising concern -but: which contained some elements of risk, honestly declared, besides which there is no doubt that owing to past failures a good deal of distrust exists which can only be removed by time. Hiatt Vote of Thanks. By E. HARLING. If we only knew the proper thing to say, And we only knew the proper thing to do, What a lot o’ fuss 'twould save us, If we knew how to behave us, And prevent the world from dubbing us a foo’, H! that’s just it. What are the pros and cons of the lecturer’s curriculum tbat apply to the course he should pursue atthe whether he should march off, and his presence vanish into thin air as quickly as he can make it convenient; or whether: he should flop himself into the nearest seat on the platform, and there wait until the chairman— when there is a:chairman—or other official comes forward to preach a bit of a sermon, saying something he would probably rather have left unsaid, in the form of a vote of thanks for the very-able lecture, and so on and so on, right through theusual. Now, the writer of this grumble—for grumble it is—asks the reader to recall a joke and a reality familiar to most of us. The joke being culled from the pages of our old friend. Punch, «Ne completion of his oration. Nobody COC wore to be quite decided as to