Arrangements for the thorough and successful manner in which they have striven to promote the comfort, the instruction and the entertainment of the members of the Association in their meeting in this historic city of Boston. Their labors have resulted in benefit both in and out of our sessions. That the thanks of the Association should be tendered to the President and his co-adjutor, the Secretary, for their able, impartial and businesslike conduct of the meetings. That the thanks of the Association are owing to those members who have so successfully endeavored to demonstrate the advantages of membership in this Association, and have thus secured the gratifying increase recorded at this meeting. That the Association owes its sincere thanks to those members who have prepared and presented the valuable papers read at this meeting, every one of which bears the stamp of hard work, and all of which are calculated to lighten the labors of gas managers. JAMES FERRIER, I. C. BAXTER, Committee. On motion of Mr. Walton Forstall, the report was adopted. MR. WALTON FORSTALL:-I move that the Association now take a recess until the return from the excursion on Friday afternoon, October 18th, and that the final adjournment be had at that time. Carried. OF THE American Gas Light Association. TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 1901. APPENDIX. PAPERS READ AT THE MEETING. Further Notes on Retort House Practice, E. H. Earnshaw... Retort Ovens as Producers of Illuminating Gas, T. Littlehales. What is the Business of a Gas Company? Frank D. Moses.. In Memoriam William G. Abel. Alfred C. Gandey. Harold Humphreys. William Stacey James Slade. George B. Neal.. Wm. E. Barrows Wm. Wallace Goodwin.. United States Patents Relating to Gas: Issued October 1st, 1900, to October 1st, 1901.. Expired October 1st, 1900, to October 1st, 1901. Current Gas Literature: Publications Referred to Organization. Finance Process Plant Material PAGE. i xxi xlvii lxx lxxvii xciii xcvii xcviii xcix ci cii civ CV cvii cxi cxlvi clviii clviii clxi clxij • clxiv clxvii Section of Underfeed Stoker used in Burning Coal and Coke Breeze ... lxxxvi Tar Burner and Position Occupied in Boiler Furnace.. lxxxviii PRACTICE. WRITTEN FOR THE TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN GAS LIGHT ASSOCIATION BY E. H. EARNSHAW, PHILADELPHIA. The last quarter of the nineteenth century has been a period of rapid development in all branches of industry, but perhaps in no case has time wrought more significant changes than in the art of producing illuminating gas. The commanding importance assumed by the rapid development of water gas methods and apparatus, for a long time diverted attention from coal gas affairs, but of late years there has been an awakened interest in improved methods of coal gas manufacture. The effect has been that in many instances the coal gas manufacturer of to-day finds that instead of plain settings he has now to do with regenerative benches and labor saving machinery. The change frequently means the re-education in the art, of the Superintendent himself as well as the foreman and employees under him. His workmen must now be selected with a view to their intelligence as well as their ability to do manual labor. The Company with which I am connected has in the last three years installed two retort houses, containing 540 retorts in full depth regenerative settings of 9's, and it was found necessary in changing from the older methods to the new to make many changes in our force of employees, training new foremen and workmen, and dropping others who were too old or otherwise unable to accommodate themselves to the new conditions. Our experience in developing a new force to handle regenerative benches intelligently has brought the thought to me that while several excellent papers have been read before this and |