Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 66, no. 1688: July 21, 1900

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74 RECORD AND GUIDE. July 21, 1900. likewise been for years an annual draining of the dregs, and even in New York proper itself we can not rely upon more than 290,- 000,000 gallons daily, an amount which will be positively inade¬ quate five years hence at the present rate of increase in con¬ sumption. Not even in Brooklyn does the situation seem to in¬ terest, much less to disturb the equiminity of the citizen, either in his role of consumer or taxpayer. The good fellow hears that matters are in a bad way, but goes about his business trusting to the politician for action and to the newspaper for grumbling when something happens. In the end, of course, he will get his water; but how? Through the pipes of some Ramapo scheme, which will supply quite as much water to his taxes as to his domicile. So long as we run our afEairs this way it is simply childish to complain about the increasing burden of taxation. The essential elements in economy are forethought and personal interest. We ail know that this is so in the house, the store or the office. The merchant who has neither the one nor the other in his affairs pays for his neglect; and the taxpayer, the real es¬ tate owner, who is really the merchant in city matters, must be prepared to do likewise if he acts similarly in relation to the management of the municipality. In New York to-day the in¬ difference of the citizen is the prime cause of high taxation and extravagance. --------------,4--------------- THEY have a good many things in Massachusetts that we haven't here. One of the institutions of the Common¬ wealth lacking in New York State is what is known as the State Gas and Electric Lighting Commission, The business of this body is to gather and prepare statistics concerning the opera¬ tions of municipal lighting plants. A recent report would fur¬ nish curious reading for the New York consumer of gas and the journalistic manufacturer of gas, who have been busy lately in an indescriminate indictment of gas corporations. Of course, a gas company is, naturally, a thief. To be a gas company you must be that, no matter what the price is at which you purvey to the public. Sell gas at ten cents and everybody will tell you that being a gas company you really could supply it, if you were not so voracious, for some lower sum. We all believe, in New York City, that the price of our gas is very high, and there are any number of people ready to prove to you with pencil and paper that gas can commercially be produced and sold for a very much lower price. In Massachusetts it appears, there are three towns that preferred to go into the gas business themselves, rather than trust to private corporations. The Commission of which we have spoken above has issued some figures regarding the doings of these gas towns last year, and if the figures can be in any way compared with those prevailing in New York, every consumer ofgas in themetropoliswho has ever anathematized his gas company should be compelled to sign an apologetic petition, begging the company henceforth to charge him a higher rate, which he could fix himself in accordance with the depth of his penitence. At Middleborough the manufacture of oil gas of 27^ candle power cost the citizens ?4.32 per thousand feet. It was sold at an average price of $2.61, At Wakefleld the gas cost ?2.11, and was sold for $1.75. The third city returned no account. Undoubtedly these figures are not entirely applicable to New York, We mention them only for the purpose of showing that oftentimes much of what we think the other fellow is unjustly taking from us we are not really loosing. Gas companies, of course, are not philanthropists. They are working for "all there is in it," and, let us admit there always has been a good deal in gas. We believe that a municipality should own its own gas, and thus obtain, from what is in the nature of a monopoly, profits that might with advantage be used for the benefit of the taxpayer. But this, we sorrowfully admit, is the theory of the matter. Middleborough, iu the State of Massachusetts, had an idea of the same sort, so did Wakefield, but the idea proved to have a "kink" in it somewhere, so that in practice to-day neither of these enterprising communities are obtaining their illumina¬ tion cheaper than similar towns who depend upon the hated cor-' poration. We rather fear that the "kink" is human nature, that the political official is neither as efiicient nor as economical a manager and worker as the gas corporation making selfishly for dividends. True, the company makes the big profits, but were, we to overthrow the company, which in this age we have no consciencious scruples about doing, would we obtain those profits for ourselves? full power to make rules and by-laws for the organization of a society to effect the proposed reform. The next meeting is to be held at Mr. Bargebuhr's offices on August 16th. All property- owners who are at all interested in the purposes of the new or¬ ganization are invited to be present. TO STOP FREE RESTS. On Wednesday evening, forty-seven property-owners of the 12th, 23d and 2-ith Wards, met at M. Bargebuhr's offlces, corner of 119th st and Madison av, for the purpose of devising means to do away with the allowance of free rental to tenants. A com¬ mittee of five, composed of Messrs. Francis Murphy, Elkin Kahn S, H. Greenbaum, Heath and M, Bargebuhr, was appointed with The Origin of a Great Industry. There are'chapters in the history of mechanical science which are as epoch-marking as the achievements of soldiers or poli¬ ticians in the history of a nation, and a bit of such history, re¬ lating to one of the industrial arts, is here briefly recorded. Linus, Tale, Jr., who was born in 1821, at Newport, N. T., In¬ vented the loch now so universally associated with his name about 1862, and his original patents expired long since. His invention, and its subse¬ quent development by his suc¬ cessors, have revolutionized the art of lock-making in America. In October, 1S68, Mr. Tale, then 47 years of age, and ap¬ parently in good health, united with Mr. Henry R. Towne in organizing the corporation now known as The Tale & Towne Manufacturing Com¬ pany, and in purchasing a site at Stamford, Conn., where the erection of a suitable fac¬ tory building was begun. On December 25, 1868, Mr. Tale died suddenly, of heart dis¬ ease, in the city of New Tork, leaving to the young enter¬ prise the heritage of his bril¬ liant inventions, the earlier and more numerous of which related to bank locks of many kinds, and the latest, and, as it subsequently proved, by far the most important, relating to the pin-tumbler lock with flat key, which, in Its almost endless variety of forms, is now known throughout the world as the "Tale" lock. In 1869 Mr. Towne succeeded to the Presidency of the Com¬ pany, and its growth and development since then have been under his management. During these years the plant at Stam¬ ford has grown from a small workshop, employing about thirty men, to a great industrial works, covering some twenty acres of ground, with which, in 1894, the company associated, by pur¬ chase, an additional plant at Branford, Conn., the employees in the two establishments numbering over fifteen hundred persons. The products of the Company have increased correspondingly, both in variety and volume, and now embrace the most exten- LINUS YALE, JR., InveDtor of the Yale Lock, Died iD 1868. THE STAMFORD WORKS. sive line of builders' hardware in the world (including goods of the highest, cheapest and all intermediate grades), cabinet and trunk locks, padlocks, door cheeks, bank locks, prison locks, post-offlce equipments and chain blocks. The Tale Lock Works, at Stamford, Conn, (see illustration), comprise a vast group of buildings, of the most substantial character, equipped with the most modern and expensive ma¬ chinery, and provided with every facility for the economical pro¬ duction of goods of the highest quality. Among the many de¬ partments are the executive offices, the drawing offlce, a model or experimental room, the tool and machine shop, the pattern and modeling shops, the foundries, the press shop, the rod shop, the lock department (embracing upwards of twenty rooms and floors), the cabinet and trunk lock shop, the door-check shop, the bank lock shop, the polisliing, buffing, plating and lacquering shops, and, finally, the packing and shipping department. There is also included a machine shop and chain shop for the production of chain blocks, a wood-working shop for post-offlce equipments,