The manual, published in 1926 for teachers of labor schools and schools, was based on a course of lectures on public utilities, read by historian and local historian Pyotr Vasilyevich Sytin (1885-1968) in the early 20s. XX century at the Academy of Public Utilities College. The author's goal was to popularize knowledge of utilities on the basis of a variety of literary material, so that the teacher could draw from one book his history, theory and practice in the main cities of Western Europe, the United States and the RSFSR. Particular attention was paid to the production and familiarization with the Moscow communal services as the most developed of the USSR farms at that time. P.V. Sytin considered erudition in this area an additional source of knowledge on local history.