298 



NATURE 



[July ?6, ^906 



It is well known that the relatively high price of 

 electric-lighting arises from the small fraction of the 

 twenty-four hours dunng which there is any great de- 

 mand for electric energy, so that it is necessary to fit 

 up in an electric-light central station engines and 

 dynamos which can develop something like ten times 

 as much horse-power as would be necessary to deliver 

 the same total amount of electric energy in the twenty- 

 four hours if the demand were a steady one. This is 

 expressed by saying that the " load factor " is lo per 

 cent. In one or two English towns the load factor is 

 actually as low as 6, and in very few cases is it higher 

 than 12 per cent. 



Now it was urged that if an electric generating station, 

 instead of supplying current simply for electrically light- 

 ing a single town, were to supply electric energy for all 

 sorts of purposes throughout a large district, the load 

 factor would be very much higher, and the cost of pro- 

 duction would, be proportionately diminished. For ex- 

 ample, with electric tramway work the load factor is 

 about 40 per cent., that is to say, about 40 per cent, as 

 much electric energy is used by the cars as could be pro- 

 duced by all the engines and dynamos in the tramway 

 station if they were working at full load continuously 

 day and night. With factories again, it was estimated 

 that a load factor of some 30 per cent, might be obtained. 

 Hence it was urged that one of these large electric 

 power stations might rely on a load factor of about 

 25 per cent. 



With this load factor of 25 per cent., it was estimated 

 by Mr. Ferranti, for example, that if a generating station 

 were erected in the coal-fields at a spot with a good 

 supply of water for condensing the steam, and if the 

 plant capacity were about 16,000 horse-power — of which 

 400P would be kept as a reserve — the entire cost of 

 generating a Board of Trade unit would be about o'^^d.^ 

 and the cost of transmitting it o'2d. So that it could be 

 sold to the consumer at lid., and a good business done, 

 as contrasted with the ^d. or 6d. per unit now charged 

 to private consumers in English towns. 



As opposed to this, it was urged by central station 

 engineers and others that this supposed great economy 

 to be obtained by erecting electric generating stations at 

 the pit's mouth and transmitting the energy electrically 

 through considerable lengths of buried conductors was 

 imaginary; that in towns like Manchester, Liverpool, 

 Southport, Bolton, Cardiff, Newport, &c., electric energy 

 for driving machinery was already offered to the public 

 at as low a price as the promoters of these Bills proposed 

 to offer it, that the fraction of the cost of delivering a 

 Board of Trade unit which could be debited to the coal 

 alone was small, and that the proportion arising from the 

 mere cost of carrying the coal was still smaller. 



As a matter of fact, although the average prices 

 obtained for private electric lighting are 349^?., 

 4"o4c/., 4-10^., 4'68(/., 4-6gd., y2()d. per Board of Trade 

 unit by the Corporations of Manchester, Bolton, South- 

 port, Cardiff, Liverpool and Newport respectively, any 

 person in Manchester who desires to run an electro- 

 motor, no matter how small it may be, during the whole 

 of the ordinary factory hours, only pays now i\d. a unit 

 to the Corporation. In Bolton he is charged V2,Sd. if he 

 takes his full demand for 640 out of the possible 2184 

 hours in a quarter. Southport charges the Tramway 

 Company ijd. per unit. Cardiff offers the unit at 2d. if 

 4C00 units are taken per annum — which means a single 

 motor of only i horse-power running for about eight 

 hours a day for 300 days in the year. The Liverpool 

 Tramway Company pays the Corporation only o'gd. per 

 unit ; while in Newport, i\,d. is the price charged if more 

 than 3000 units per quarter are taken. 



The sweeping accusations, therefore, that some of the 

 witnesses levelled against the local authorities of su- 

 pineness, indifference to the public needs, &c., were 



NO. 1604. VOL. 62] 



hardly borne out ; while such evidence as that of the 

 electrical engineer of Southport, that the carriage of coal 

 to that borough increased the cost of the unit by only 

 one-twelfth of a penny, and of the electrical engineer of 

 Manchester, that the charge for interest on the cost of 

 buried cables added o"49d. to the value of the Board of 

 Trade unit if it were transmitted twenty-five miles, 

 whereas the cost of conveying the equivalent amount 

 of fuel by railway over the same distance only increased 

 the value of a Board of Trade unit of energy by oo59<f., 

 that is by only about one-eighth of the former, combined 

 with the evidence that on the Continent and in America 

 cheap overhead vi'xxQ. transmission was allowed, and there- 

 fore was generally adopted, led the Committee to realise 

 the following, viz. :— that while the assent to the 

 new proposals might confer a great boon on collieries 

 and manufactories in scattered districts, a great wrong 

 might be inflicted if safeguards were not introduced to 

 prevent the introduction of the new electric schemes 

 crippling the natural development of those systems of 

 electric distribution which at present existed in this 

 country, and which had been brought to their present 

 condition by the expenditure of about 40 millions sterling 

 during the past ten years. 



In addition to the opposition to all the four Bills, made 

 by private companies who had already obtained provi- 

 sional orders to supply electrical energy, and by local 

 authorities, some of whom had, and some of whom had 

 not, obtained statutory powers to act as electrical sup- 

 pliers, two of the Bills, viz. the Durham and the Tyne- 

 side, opposed one another. For whereas in the Durham 

 Bill the district up to and including the south side of the 

 Tyne is scheduled, in the other Bill both sides of the 

 Tyne, from the mouth to Ryton, are included. 



The promoters of the Tyneside Bill maintained that 

 the two sides of the Tyne together naturally formed a 

 single supply district, and that a company which had 

 powers to supply the manufacturers on both sides with 

 electric energy could do so more economically than if it 

 was confined to the land along the north shore only. But 

 they added that they had no objection to competition on 

 the part of the proposed Durham Company or of any one 

 else. 



The Durham promoters urged that they were includ- 

 ing in their area a lean portion towards the south of the 

 county of Durham, which they could only undertake to 

 supply if they were given the possession of the south bank 

 of the Tyne undisturbed by competition on the part of 

 the proposed Tyneside Company. It was also alleged 

 that, although these various Bills passed their second 

 reading because the President of the Board of Trade had 

 stated that he had " an assurance from the promoters to 

 the effect that they will undertake to agree to an 

 amendment in Committee which would make it per- 

 fectly clear that they do not ask for the power to dis- 

 tribute even in bulk without the consent of the local 

 authority," the Tynesidfe scheme really aimed at obtain- 

 ing /)/-/7/<^/,? way-leaves, and by skipping about the district 

 by means of overhead wires to supply even private cus- , 

 tomers in retail without asking for the consent of any 

 local authority. And it was pointed out that the assent 

 to such a proposal would be manifestly unjust in view of 

 the fact that those who were already supplying under 

 " provisional orders," or who might obtain such orders, 

 were compelled under the terms of such an order to supply 

 every one within a certain "compulsory area" within a 

 limited time, as well as being subject to comply with 

 other obligations. 



Serious opposition to the Tyneside Bill was also raised 

 by the Newcastle Electric Supply Company. This is 

 the company which for some years has been supplying 

 electric current to the east of the district of Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, but which, by arrangement with various local 



