As I sit and read this wonderful old brochure, though, I can't help but think about those "competent authorities" that so believed in the "eye-resting benefits" of gas lighting. I wonder if those dudes changed their minds as electric lighting kicked their butts back into the Nineteenth Century. And you know what? It seems to me that no matter what the current technology or product offering is, there always will always be "competent authorities" who swear that this stuff is the best that will ever be. As a writer, I've been guilty of that myself. I like to think of myself a recovering competent authority nowadays.
Public Service was the Gas Company in 1917, and their main business was gaslight. They, and others like them, put the whale-oil folks out of business. They used gas made from coal to do this. Coal was King.
It was only the threat from Tom Edison that sent the Gas Company into the business of gas boilers and furnaces. In 1917, they were just putting their toe in the water. If it weren't for the trouble the United Mine Workers made for King Coal, Public Service might just have just kept on pushing those Solar Grand Fireplace Heaters. Who knows?
It's all about perspective. When you look at your own business, what do you see? Are the lights getting dimmer?
Dan Holohan
Dan Holohan
"Plumbers Protect The Health Of The World."
