Category
Gas meters
Subcategory
Vouchers
Year of manufacture/creation
the 1920s
Manufacturer/author
Kraków Gasworks
Place of manufacture/creation
Kraków, Poland
Size
Height: 2 cm
Width: 7.5 cm
Length: 11.5 cm
Weight: 0.2 kg
Material
wood, metal
Museum/Storage location
Gasworks Museum in Paczków
Date of admission to the museum
1992
Rights to the exhibit
Gasworks Museum in Paczków
Rights to digital images
public domain
Tags
Exhibit description
The cost of gas is an important element of a household budget. The price of this fuel is dependent on the global economic situation and sometimes also politics. Nonetheless, the differences in the price of gas seen on our bills today are nothing compared to the volatility of gas prices when that particular fuel was still generated from coal. The new technology was expensive, and the economy was damaged by inflation.
In these circumstances, every consumer was determined to have access to a stable price of gas for at least some time to come! This opportunity came in the form of a simple solution implemented by many different gasworks – a voucher. The purchase of a voucher at the gasworks was equivalent to a prepayment for a certain amount of gas and protected the consumer against price increases. One needed to make haste, however, as the sale of vouchers was limited.
This particular voucher was issued by the Kraków Municipal Gasworks and covered 1/2 m³ of gas.