Edward Salmon

“ Beckton looks a jumble of huge plain brick buildings, of gasholders, of pipes, of railways, and of heaps of coal, coke, and a dust known as breeze. For the concentrated essence of the ugly and unprepossessing, commend us to an extensive gas-works. However, we are here to seek not fine effects but information, and the initial question that we have to put to our kindly guide is inspired by the sight of a small engine, dragging a train of trucks on an elevated railway. ”

“ Each man picks up a rake, that is, an iron rod ten feet long with some six inches turned at the end at right angles. To lift this rake by one end requires no simple effort, but experience is everything. Grasping the handle firmly with both hands, the stoker places the other end in the mouth of the retort, runs it a little way in, and withdraws a quantity of red-hot coke. This falls through an opening in the floor into trucks below, and is destined either to be used again for furnace purposes or to be sold to outside consumers. ”

“ In many places natural gas forced itself up through fissures in the earth, became ignited and burned incessantly, to the terror, no doubt, of some good people, who thought the flame came from Hades itself. ”

“ Landed safely on the raft, the man in charge, whom we immediately dub our gondolier, pulls us round about through a perfect maze of scaffolding which runs from the bottom to the top like a monster umbrella frame. ”

“ By-and-by the water will be continued right up to the roof, and it will surprise some people to learn that the gas, when it enters the holder, rests on the water and forces the holder up, so that when the holder is full its top is on a level with that of the upright girders which guide its actions, and its bottom only a foot or so beneath the surface of the water, the latter being in a giant stone tank. Water, it should be understood, is an absolute seal for gas, and it is a practical impossibility that a gasholder could, as many imagine, blow up. ”

“ Some of the gas will be sent along miles of mains to London, there to be placed in holders; some will be stored in holders on the spot. We are fortunate in finding a holder in the course of construction at Beckton. To the passer-by it is complete, but a walk over its top discovers a hole a yard square, down which we gaze cautiously. Thirty feet below is a body of water, and we see that the entire structure is supported by scaffold poles. A man on a raft is pulling himself from point to point by means of a hooked stick. ”

“ Comparatively few people, even among gas-workers, have been inside a gasholder, and it at once strikes us that a novel experience may be had if we choose to risk the consequences of a climb down the swaying rope ladder. ”

“ Two carriages work up and down the retort-house, one of which is made to perform the operation of raking out the coke, whilst the other contains a supply of coal from which the scoop is filled. The coal is deposited in the retort-house, is carried in elevator buckets to a hopper overhead, from which it is dropped into the charging machine. A couple of men with very little experience can with these machines do the work of several expert stokers.
As the gas leaves the retort it is very hot and very impure. ”

“ Each furnace heats nine retorts. These when shut are air-tight, so that the gas can escape only by the pipe provided for it. In some retort-houses, as, for instance, one at the South Metropolitan Works in the Old Kent Road, the doors of the retorts are not of the patent perfectly air-tight order. They have consequently to be luted or clayed over. At Beckton all the men have to do is to close and fasten the retort door to render any escape impossible. ”

“ But to return to the retorts at Beckton. In a few minutes the greater portion of the charge has been withdrawn, and one can look—always at a respectful distance—along the retort. The men's work has grown hotter and hotter the farther the rake has been shoved into the retort, and great streams of perspiration run down their faces and backs. In the midst of it all comes along our artist. He is armed with the camera, and suggests that the men should stand still for a while in the act of withdrawing, in order to let him take a shot at them. ”

“ One man takes the handle, hoists it slightly, the other two place a bent bar, called a bridle, underneath and about the middle of the scoop, it is lifted to the height required, the nose is thrust into the mouth of the retort with a dexterity which comes of daily practice, the two men with the bridle find themselves perilously near the flame which bursts forth from the retort, the man at the handle rams the scoop well home, turns it upside down and rushes back with it ”

“ A ship is just in from Newcastle, and in both of her great holds eight or ten men are at work shovelling the coal into giant skips, which when full are hoisted by a steam crane over our heads and emptied into trucks. ”

“ Strenuously opposed as gas lighting was at first, its advantages were too palpable to be withstood for long. Of the many companies in London alone to-day, the first started has attained such dimensions that its directors and officers are called on to deal with administrative matters equal to those of a small state. The Gas Light and Coke Company's authorized capital is nearly £12,000,000; its revenue account shows an annual expenditure of £2,899,000, and income of £3,673,100, leaving about three-quarters of a million net profit; it employs 11,000 men ”

“ The proposal strikes one as cool even in this hot house, but the men seem perfectly willing to be roasted alive in order to give him an opportunity of conveying to the British public a truthful impression of the way "it is done." ”

“ The men work in eight-hour shifts, earn good money (the average being £2 a week) , and, wearing as their occupation seems to be, enjoy excellent health and opportunities of improving their position. It will generally be found that the foremen in immediate responsibility over the men have risen from the ranks. Two instances of success may be cited. The first is that of a head foreman, now receiving a good salary and enjoying the entire confidence of his employers, who, a few years ago, was an ordinary scoop-driver. ”

“ The information that a man was recently drowned in such a place only makes us screw our courage more up to the sticking point, and another minute sees us on the ladder. Friendly hands below do what they can to steady it, but only a monkey or an acrobat would make a respectable show on such a contrivance. ”

“ Fire has no terror for him when he is safely out of its way, and he stands, for what seems to his less exacting colleague an interminable time, counting by his watch the seconds necessary to obtain the negative he wants. ”

“ It was said that whale fishing would become extinct as an industry if oil were no longer burnt, and that as whale fishing was England's naval nursery, Britannia would soon find it impossible to rule the waves, owing to the want of training on the part of her sons. ”

“ On the ground is a heap of coal running the length of the house, deposited by one of the trains running above, and from this two scoops ten feet in length, containing one hundredweight each, have been filled. ”