Punch,  47 (1864), 241.

An Anti-Gas League

Punch

Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Commerce, Industry, Imposture, Light, Heat, Invention


    Addressed to 'Englishmen, and Englishwomen', the writer asks his audience to recall how they have been cheated by tradesmen with a range of adulterated goods, and then asks them to 'be unto gas as it was unto sugar and butter, and again we shall triumph'. Calls on them to resort to such temporary alternatives to gas lighting as 'the sanatory Photogenic Generator', in the attempt to 'defeat the extortionate vendors of bad gas', which causes such problems as poisoning the air. Anticipates the use of 'Magnesium, the loveliest light in the world', although 'as yet this is too dear'. Puffing himself as spearheading the fight, he illustrates his earnestness by boasting that he recently 'blew up a gas collector'.



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