A
Spring In Your Step?
We wish you all - a sunshine smile after the dullness of
Winter. Peter
Lamb
Annual General Meeting
Some 30 members and friends
attended the AGM of the Society held at Taunton
on 18th March. Chairman Roger
Hughes gave a summary of the activities over the last year and Clive Goodman
presents the Society’s accounts. The
following members were elected to the Committee:
Chairman : Roger Hughes
Vice-chairman : John Heath
Treasurer : Clive
Goodman
Secretary : Peter Lamb
Committee : Chris Buck, John Gale, David
Hutton,
David Peacock,
Marcus Palmen
South
Sub-Committee (SSC)
Chairman : David Hole (also on Main
Committee)
Committee : John Ferrier, Keith Morgan
Ted Luscombe, Geoff
Setter
Ex-officio
Membership Secretary : Paul Hulbert
We would like to thank Ted
Luscombe for leading the activities in Devon & Cornwall for the last 4
years and welcome David Hole to the task. We welcome Marcus Palmen, our
webmaster, to stand on the main committee, since it is apparent that the Web
Site is becoming a major part of the SWEHS archival activity (see below).
AGM Review continued overleaf
Web Site
Not only have the archival enquiries doubled this
year, but the level of hits is very high from 110 to 140 a month, which
illustrates the importance of the web site as an accessible address on
electricity history within the UK although it could be said to be international
in view of the many enquiries outside of the UK and the lack of similar web
sites globally. Are we unique? Certainly
the site is the largest, since Marcus has managed to compress so much
information onto the site. Most enquiries come from UK,
but recently one has come from Brazil
and another from Berlin.
Marcus Palmen has had to make some adjustments to the Web Site to enable a more
easily downloading of some of our articles, and in particular those on Tramways
in the South West are very popular.
Requests For Pictures
1.A
group in South Wales is building a Centre for remote generating stations using Rolls
Royce Proteus engine and are looking for pictures of Datafonic Control panels,
in order to rebuild similar panels.
2. Following the visit to Electricity House and our
provision of photographs from our Archive, the present owners are disappointed
that there are no internal photographs showing the front stairway and
corridors, which have all gone.
Is there anyone, who can help these two enquirers?
Please contact the Secretary.
Severn Barrage
This
subject is again in the Bristol papers,
following a lobbying activity in South Wales.
Bristol City Council has given it their full support. I bet they wouldn't put
any money up front however. It would appear that the main motivation may be to
prevent more Nuclear stations on the Severn Estuary.
Histelec News
Following the letter sent by
the Secretary to members in Devon & Cornwall asking for volunteers for the
South Sub-Committee, he was surprised to receive many letters saying sorry, but
praising the Newsletter. Everyone's comments were much appreciated – thank you.
To cap it all, member Bill Tincknell has offered to finance the binding of the
Histelec News.
Cairns Road Museum
We have received many new
items recently and it has been decided by a few loyal members to add an
additional shelf to the wall-mounted displays. This will increase the amount of
space for displaying items. Also following the gaining of adequate insurance,
we are proposing to invite groups to visit the Museum, which will probably
include giving them a talk. Any volunteers out there who would like to give a
talk on an electrical subject matter to entertain our visitors? Please contact
the Secretary.
Cragside Rewired
The National Trust is
embarking on a massive rewiring job at Cragside, the original home of Sir
William Armstrong. The house, in Northumberland, was the first domestic property
in the World to have a permanent electricity supply powered by a hydro-electric
generator.
Agm Review Continued
Following the AGM we had
another entertaining talk from Pat Hase entitled “When Weston was a
Village”.
Illustrated by slides of old
pictures and maps, Pat took us through the development of Weston from a small
fishing village in the early 1800s, when the population was 105, to the
beginning of the 1900s when the population had grown to 18,000. Weston was now a place to visit for a holiday. Originally it was only the rich, who could
afford to visit Weston and many retired there.
The Royal Hotel was built in 1811, the Knightstone Baths in 1830, the Royal Crescent in
1840, Birnbeck Pier in 1870 and the Grand Atlantic Hotel in 1888. Finally the Grand Pier was constructed in
1904. The railway arrived in 1841 and this allowed visitors from Bristol and afar to make
the journey and take advantage of the sea air. One advertisement for Weston
pointed out that the mortality rate was only 9.6/1,000, considerably lower than
other towns!
So how did Weston become
Weston super Mare? Well it turns out
that it was a way of distinguishing the various “Westons” in Somerset from each other and was suggested by
a Clerk to the Bishop of Bath & Wells.
After Pat’s talk, John
Coneybeare showed us two of the plaques that the Retired Engineers Club were
arranging to have erected at @ Bristol to commemorate famous Bristol
Engineers. One to Sir Archibald Russell
who designed Concorde, and the other to William Patterson, who built the Great
Western, the Great Britain
and the Demerara. David Hutton
Review Of Annual Luncheon
Annual
Luncheon At Torquay
To be truthful Saturday 28th
January was a day to enjoy an extra hour in bed, a day for hot drinks in a fireside
chair, a lukewarm pint in the local "snug" not a day to go venturing
out into the icy chill of Winter. However 47 members and friends did venture
out to attend our Annual Winter Luncheon in glorious, but cold, Devon and very worthwhile it was too.
We met at 10.30 in
Pengelly's Café, part of the Torquay
Museum, for coffee prior
to our prepaid visit. Coffee and conversation were equally enjoyed. Soon
conversation took precedence and there was a degree of reluctance to go into
the Museum. We were rewarded with a most interesting time. The initial exhibit
was a giant Kite capable of lifting off an armed warrior. Apart from the Kite
the other most unusual exhibit was the Agatha Christie Collection, which was of
particular interest due to her books and films and of course that she was born
in Torquay.
Some walked and some drove up to the Bishops Court Hotel
for the luncheon. We assembled at 12.30pm and enjoyed drinks and more
conversation (One does come across so many old colleagues and friends at these
events). Our meal was good, plentiful and in particular the roast potatoes were
the best I've tasted whilst eating out.It is usual for one to feel drowsy and to
adopt a position avoiding the speaker's eye! On this occasion this strategy was
not necessary. Richard Paine, ex-Financial Director of SWEB, proved to be
extremely entertaining and informative. He held the attention of his audience
with ease (Get him to tell you the one about the clever pig, if you missed it!)
His talk was entitled " The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of
Privatisation" was excellent – one of those occasions when I would have
liked to hear some more. We must thank Ted Luscombe and Peter
Lamb for organising such a good day, as those who came will
know – for those of you who missed it – well what a pity!! David Hole
West Gate Alias Electricity House
32 members took the opportunity to look around West
Gate on Thursday 16 February courtesy of Royal and Sun Alliance, the present
occupiers. To most of us, it will always be Electricity House – "the white
house".
The building has Grade 2 listing and was designed by
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935 for the Bristol Corporation Electricity
Department. Work on the ship shaped building reflecting that the city water
front once extended to this area started in 1937, but was slowed by the war. In
1941 the completed shell was taken over by the Bristol Aeroplane Company for
the manufacture of aero engines. After the war the building wasn't handed back
until 1948 and was then occupied by SWEB until the move to Aztec West in
1989.The building was then sold and refurbished by Royal Insurance (later Royal
and Sun Alliance).
Upon entering the front main entrance to the building,
the first thing you notice is that the lift on the right hand side has gone and
there is now a enquiry desk located between the main doors to what used to be
the shop and is now office space. Part of the area where the demonstration
theatre used to be is now a meeting area with display boards giving the history
of the building (courtesy of SWEHS). The building has been remodelled quite
extensively internally, gone are the corridors to create extra work-space. An
open plan layout has been adopted and
extra space created by building partly into the atrium on each floor using
cantilever construction whilst still retaining open aspect of the atrium as a
focal feature. The roof area is now used for building services plant and also
provides a cover to the atrium. The building is used as the Royal and Sun
Alliance main insurance centre with a high density of occupancy of between 850
– 1100 people, against around 350 in SWEB days.
It was an interesting visit to a unique building that
brought back many different and fond memories. Some of us recalled working in
different departments on several floors whilst others worked for their entire
time in the building on one floor. But, gone are the days of the shop (always
handy to get to), the friendly lift attendants, the tea ladies with their
trolleys and the daily climb to the top floor for lunch.
After thanking the very helpful Royal and Sun
Assurance staff we adjourned to the Commercial Rooms, built in 1811, in Corn
Street for lunch - a building that had the first central telegraph facility in
Bristol and is now a Weatherspoons pub and eating house with plenty of
historical atmosphere created by active gas lamps.
David Cousins
Water Mills In North Devon
Often we receive information
or get enquiries about water mills and we have little information in our
Archives since our material concentrates on public electricity supplies. David
Hood sent me some interesting material two years ago, which I have never
published, about Weare Gifford on the River Torridge in North
Devon near Bideford. There seems a greater interest in small
private supplies like this nowadays, due to many of them being re-equipped to
satisfy the enthusiasm for renewable energy.
The Fry family became owners
of the Weare Gifford Mill in the early part of the 19th Centenary and Thomas
Fry utilised the water power to turn a turbine driving a dynamo in 1889. The
supply had an output of 50 volts and was capable of supplying 55 lights, using
Ediswan lamps. It is claimed that this was the first electricity generation in North Devon, which I would support, since Lynmouth's
public supply commenced in 1890. The article from "Industries in North Devon" by H.W. Strong dated 1889, states that
Mr Fry used the Robotham System and the installation was affected by Mr Fox
working for the patentee. The prime mover is described as a 30 inch Victor
turbine running at 91 rpm and generating 30.1HP. It was a DC system involving
Electric Power Company storage cells (i.e. large battery) for "charging
and discharging". Intriguingly DC systems in
these early days were shutdown and thrown over to the battery at night, but
here with a continuous water supply that would not be necessary. The turbine
was replaced in 1910, but nevertheless the Mill was closed in 1940 and the
plant moved to Clapworthy Mill near South Molton.
It is a shame that this mill has not been involved in modern times with
re-establishing electricity generation.
LMS Generating Stations
Plasma Displays
In the last issue Marcus explained the detailed workings of the LCD
screens. Here he continues with an explanation of the Plasma displays.
Plasma displays work much in the same way as fluorescent and neon lights
- that is, they use electricity to illuminate a gas. In the case of the plasma
display, the gas is between two glass plates with transparent electrodes.
When voltage is applied to one of the electrodes, a surface electrical
discharge produces ultraviolet rays that excite the coloured phosphors coated
inside the opposite plate of glass, emitting light through the
glass plate to create an image. Because the
phosphors are red, green, and blue, the image produced is in colour.
A
plasma TV is sometimes called an "emissive" display — the panel is
actually self-lighting. The display consists of two transparent glass panels
with a thin layer of pixels sandwiched in between. Each pixel is composed of
three gas-filled cells or sub-pixels (one each for red, green and blue). A grid
of tiny electrodes applies an electric current to the individual cells, causing
the gas (a mix of neon and xenon) in the cells to ionize. This ionized gas
(plasma) emits
high-frequency UV rays, which stimulate the cells' phosphors, causing them to
glow the desired colour.
Because a plasma panel is
illuminated at the sub-pixel level, images are extremely accurate, and the
panel's light output is both high and consistent across the entire screen area. Plasma TVs
also provide very wide horizontal and vertical viewing angles. Picture quality looks
sharp and bright from virtually anywhere in the room. Because plasma TV screens
do use a phosphor coating (like CRT-based TVs), the potential for screen
burn-in exists. It's important to follow recommendations on everyday use.
Plasma –Advantages
1)
This provides large flat screens – mainly used for
television (80ins)
2)
Colour and brightness similar to CRT’s
3)
Sharp images on TV
4)
Excellent viewing angles
5)
Good life expectancy
Plasma – Disadvantages
1)
Though thin fairly heavy
2)
Fragile
3)
Susceptible to screen burn-in
4)
Cannot produce deep black
5)
Use a lot of power
6)
Small screens not available (42 ins)
7)
Expensive
Summarising – The future lies with LCDs.
CRTs and the stop-gap Plasma Displays are on the way out once larger
size LCD’s become available. We have not considered SEB’s
("Surface-conduction Electron emitter Display") which are nothing
more than CRT’s with a gun for each pixel and which can hence work with a short
path, lower voltage and a fixed beams and flat screen. Developed in the late
80’s by Canon with various interested parties it has never reached the
manufacturing stage and now with the growing popularity of the LCD it is not
likely to.
Power Cables
The IEE Review recently featured an article
about cable manufacturers, Prysiam (lately Pirelli), when it stated the EHV
cables, in the future, will be laid in tunnels or ducts as it is less
disruptive in Cities and enables easier access. This may happen at Stratford, London
to underground 132 & 400kV lines to
allow the Olympics development. Prysium is described as UK's largest cable manufacturer of
power cables – whatever was wrong with the original name, it sounds like
shooting oneself in the foot!!
New Museum Acquisitions
A 1930's medical device has been donated to the Museum
by a new member, Frank Whitehead. It is a Rogers Violet Ray High Frequency
Vitalator and 50 so called "electrodes" are illustrated, which are
vacuous glass tubes, which when plugged into the device give off high frequency
electrical discharges
and can be placed safely on the human body. We only have three such devices.
The handbook gives 27 pages of detailed cures from blindness, deafness,
intestinal diseases to beauty treatments.
Also we have acquired full sized CEGB flags from Glyn England, but
haven't decided any appropriate use yet.
John Heath has more or less completed an inventory of
the Museum artefacts, which is a splendid volume including photographs of
nearly every item. The listing is intended to be displayed on our web site.
Buckingham Palace
Did you know the Royals are going green? The Sunday
Times informs us that the Palace is installing a geo-thermal ground energy
project, involving coils beneath the ground's lake, which will provide central
heating for the State rooms. Also two hydro-electric power plants are envisaged
for Windsor and Balmoral Castles.
At the latter the plant will ensure that the Castle is energy self-sufficient
and will also provide power to 1000 local homes as well.
Ron's Confessional
Pete Collard's contribution in the recent issue of the
Histelec News refreshed memories on my part of earlier times in Dover also. Although I'd
discussed public lighting on occasions with his Dad, Chairman of a local Parish
Council, I hadn't realised until now that Pete himself was involved for a while
in Dover District of SEEB shortly after I had left there following a 4-year
spell in 1957.
Dover, like Bath, started its electrical background in
the 1890's with a 2kV system feeding a 200v network, and by the 1950's most of
that system remained but was beginning to develop its own style of problems.
The 2kV and LV
mains were drawn through cast iron pipes, and in the centre of town, as Pete
describes, the associated substations were frequently underground in the
pavement with large hinged covers giving ladder access to the chamber below. LV
services (4 at a time) were provided from the mains at compound-filled junction
boxes installed in small pits set out at intervals along the street and
equipped with individual fuse-wire connections on each service (ideal for easy
disconnection of bad debt customers!).
This therefore established an
interconnected pipe network over a wide area, and should even a modest amount
of leaking gas gain entry into any of the underground chambers, it would
gradually find its way everywhere. Then when Mrs.Smith's service fuse-wire -
originally adequate for her 4 - 60w lamps, but now subject to her new 6kW
cooker – blew!!
There were several such
recorded events. One involved a policeman on his lonely beat along the High St. in the
early hours of the morning. One can only try to imagine his confusion on
hearing a muffled explosion followed by the vision of every pavement cover in
sight flipping up and over in sequence!
Other memories start
returning from those times, such as shutting down the entire Kent Coalfield on
one occasion. Now that our pensions are secure (we trust!) is there scope for a
"confessional" column in the newsletter, where we might own up to our
individual "cock-ups" from the past? (Ed. You've started one!)
Ron Walker
Weekends Away Member's
Choice
Your Committee are confused!
A couple of years ago we had complaints that we were not organising Weekends
Away every year. We responded by organising one in Cornwall in between the "away from the
West ones" and immediately the attendances went down. So we decided to
give everyone a chance to help in the choice and disappointingly we have had
only 23 replies, particularly because many of you, who have attended in the
past, have not responded? Please send them, it is not too late!!
New Book
Edf Green Energy Fund
Did you know EDF has a Green
Energy Fund? Recently they awarded almost £25,000 to the Goblin Combe Visitor
Centre. Goblin Combe is a delightfully beautiful valley in the shadow of Bristol Airport. The money has been given to a
biomass wood chip boiler and a solar power plant to provide heating and hot
water for a 40 bedded dormitory. The Centre provides countryside experience for
groups of all ages.
Obituaries
which he bore with
incredibly good humour. They will be greatly missed.
Stop Press
Your Secretary was locked up
with 25 ladies at Timsbury. He had just given them a talk and when he went to
leave, the door lock had jammed in the closed position. Help he cries!! We were
rescued following the Chairman summoning help via mobile phone and exited via
the adjacent Chapel – phew!
Members News
Eric Edmonds
Eric tells
me his sight has worsened such that he cannot drive, which is very frustrating
for him with his many interests.
Careers In Engineering
Extract
from a 1997 document by K. Potter :-
Science degree
graduate asks - why does it work?
Engineering degree
graduate asks - How does it work?
The Boat Race
John Heath submitted the following :-
Many of you will recall the
frantic activity, which accompanied the efforts of the Area Boards, (by then
RECs.) to turn themselves into professional businesses. This is an account of
how it might have been.
This particular REC and the
Japanese decided to have a competitive boat race. Both teams practiced long and
hard to reach their peak performance and on the day they were as ready as could
be.
The
Japanese won by a mile!
Afterwards the REC team
became very discouraged by the result and morale sagged. Senior Management
decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found and a special
project team was set up to investigate the problem and recommend appropriate
action.
Their
conclusion: The problem was that the
Japanese had eight people rowing and one person steering and the REC had one
person rowing and eight people steering.
Senior Management
immediately hired an expensive consultancy company to do a study of the team
structure. Millions of pounds and several months later, the consultancy team
concluded:
Too many people were
steering and not enough rowing.
To prevent losing to the
Japanese again the following year, an Organisational Review was undertaken and
the team structure was changed to “Four Steering Managers”, Three Senior
Steering Managers” and “One Executive Steering Manager”. A new “Quality
Performance” system was also set up for the person rowing to be given more
incentive to work harder and become a “Key Performer”.
“We must give him
empowerment and enrichment. That ought to do it!”
The
following year, the Japanese won by two miles.
The REC laid off the rower
for poor performance, sold off the paddles, cancelled all the capital
investment for new equipment, halted the development of a new canoe, awarded
high performance awards to the consultants and distributed the money saved to
Senior Directors.
Rudyard Kipling
In the
Autumn Marcus visited Batemans, the original home of Rudyard Kipling in Sussex.
Members may be interested, since it includes its own hydro-generating station.
From A Get-Well-Card
Get
Better Electrically
