ELECTRIC LIGHTING ACTS 



2846 



ELECTRIC POWER 



case, air currents may well suffice 

 to distribute electricity from the 

 polar regions through the rest of 

 the atmosphere. A. J. Liver sedge 

 Electric Lighting Acts. Acts 

 of Parliament regulating the sup- 

 ply of electric lighting. When it 

 became evident that electricity 

 might become a rival of gas as a 

 source of private and public light, 

 it became desirable to put its gene- 

 ration and supply for such pur- 

 poses under more or less legislative 

 control, on similar lines to that 

 governing gas and water. The first 

 Act was passed in 1882, and was 

 extremely severe in its conditions, 



one clause providing that a local 

 authority could take over an under- 

 taking supplying its people after 

 21 years upon paying the owners 

 of the undertaking the net value 

 of the works, land, etc., at the 

 time. This clause undoubtedly 

 delayed the development of elec- 

 trical services in Great Britain 

 to a serious extent. Another Act 

 passed in 1888 modified the for- 

 mer, while a third passed in 1909 

 still further encouraged enterprise, 

 and has led to considerable 

 development in works for the 

 supply of electricity "in bulk." 

 See Lighting, Electric. 



ELECTRIC POWER AND ITS USES 



A. J. Liverseclge, Associate Member, Institute of Civil Engineers 



The extent to which Electric Power is used may be deduced from this 

 article; also the various uses to which it is put. See Dynamo; 

 Energy; Fuel; Railways ; and the various articles on electrical subjects 



The dynamo may be classed loss of energy. The advantage of 



electricity lies in the extraordinary 

 facility with which it may be 



with the printing press, the 

 steam-engine, and the paper- 



making machine, as among the transmitted over long distances 



great epoch-making inventions of and then reconverted into any 



mankind. It has already revolu- form of industrial energy required, 



tionised industry, and it would It is this property which has led 



not be easy to set a limit to the to the utilisation all over the world 



ultimate developments in the eco- of elevated bodies of water as 



nomic and social life of the world 

 to which it may give rise. The 



sources of mechanical energy. 



Water from these elevated sources 



steam-engine concentrated indus- is led in pipes down to some con- 

 try in regions where coal abounds ; venient point, at anything from 

 electricity is diffusing it over 

 regions where, but for its remark- 



able power, manufactures would 

 be impossible. 

 At one time the power-mechani- 



100 to 3,000 ft. below, and there 

 drives hydraulic motors which, in 

 turn, drive electricity-generating 

 machines. Such hydro-electric 

 power stations are now in opera- 



cal energy required for industry tion in Great Britain (on a very 



had to be generated where it was small scale), in Scandinavia,France, 



needed. To-day, however, it may Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Germany 



be generated at one centre and (small), Czecho - Slovakia, India, 



utilised over an area of thousands Tasmania, New Zealand, S. Africa, 



of square miles. Formerly anyone most of the countries of S. America, 



who wanted power on any con- and on an immense scale in the 



siderable scale had to generate it United States and Canada. The 



himself, and a large portion of his greatest power stations are those, 



American and Canadian, which 



capital would be sunk in the power- 

 generating plant. To-day power 

 has become a common commodity 

 to be bought and sold, in all es- 

 sentials precisely like any other 

 commodity. And this development 

 has been brought about, like many 

 other industrial and social changes, 

 by improved means of transport electric power 

 which electricity has provided. w ith one or two 



utilise the Falls of Niagara ; the 

 total power now available at those 

 stations being about 500,000 kilo- 

 watt (666,000 h.p.). 



British Electric Power Stations 

 Coal, however, is probably still 

 the chief immediate source of 

 and in Britain 



trifling exceptions. 



The profound significance of this the sole source. In the United 

 revolution is perhaps not yet fully Kingdom there are now 276 elec- 

 appreciated. It may mean the dis- trio power stations, of which 190 

 ' placement of many of the great are municipal undertakings, the 

 1 industrial centres of the world. remainder being companies. The 

 Electricity does not create largest of these is that of Man- 

 power ; it is itself a product of cheater, which in 1919 delivered 

 mechanical or chemical energy, 184,675,000 units at an average 

 and not an original source. The price of l'15d. per unit. Sheffield 

 dynamo takes in power from some supplied 161,839,000 units at an 

 other agent, and gives it out again average of '99d. per unit ; Glas- 

 in the form of mechanical energy, gow, 144,930,000 units at 1*4 Id. ; 

 chemical action, heat or light ; and Birmingham, 140.908,000 at 

 the conversion always means some l'6d. per unit. The total units 



supplied by all these undertak- 

 ings in that year amounted to 

 2,840,000,000, of which about 

 600,000,000 were used on tram- 

 ways. The lowest average price 

 at which the electricity was sup- 

 plied by these undertakings, ac- 

 cording to public returns, was 

 *85d. per unit, at which rate Stock- 

 port supplied 23,000,000 units in 

 the year ended Dec. 31, 1919. The 

 supply of electric power by these 

 undertakings is under the control 

 of the Board of Trade, and the 

 highest rate permitted to be 

 charged is 8d. per unit ; average 

 prices of from 6d. to 7d. per unit 

 were, in 1919, charged in a con- 

 siderable number of instances. 

 Problem of Economic Transmission 

 Just before 1920, two Govern- 

 ment committees investigated the 

 whole question of the provision 

 and supply of electric power in 

 Great Britain, one having been 

 specially concerned with the pos- 

 sibilities in connexion with water- 

 power as the immediate source of 

 the energy, the other with the 

 possibilities in connexion with coal, 

 upon which it is recognized that the 

 country must still chiefly depend. 

 The direction in which improvement 

 is to be sought lies in concentrating 

 the development of the electric 

 energy in large stations situated 

 in the great coal-producing cen- 

 tres, and transmitting the energy 

 so developed to the power consum- 

 ing districts. In this way it is 

 believed great economies could be 

 effected in the cost of developing 

 electric power as compared with 

 the present costs in the many 

 power stations scattered over the 

 country. Such a concentration 

 would permit the use of large in- 

 dividual generating units with a 

 considerable economy in the first 

 cost of plant. Until recently the 

 largest units used in Great Britain 

 were the 6,000 kilowatt turbo- 

 generators (8,000 h.p.) at the Lots 

 Road Power Station. London, 

 which supply current to most of the 

 London electric underground rail- 

 ways. Units of 10,000 kilowatt 

 and 7,500 kilowatt are, however, 

 now running. A Parsons turbo- 

 generator of 25,000 kilowatt ca- 

 pacity was recently installed in the 

 central power station of Chicago, 

 U.S.A. 



Electric power is now being 

 rapidly extended to rlys., for 

 which service it has many advan- 

 tages over steam, more particu- 

 larly for suburban lines with their 

 numerous stations ; to the smelt- 

 ing and refining of metals, and 

 to many chemical manufacturing 

 processes. Among these latter 

 may be mentioned particularly the 

 production of aluminium which is 



