August 15, 1907] 



NA TURE 



H* 



ELECTKICITY IN BULK. 

 ■ OWEX'ER far we mav still be from a proper 

 understanding- of the actual nature of the 

 phenomena connected with the production of electrical 

 energy, the past twenty years has clearly shown that 

 in its' economic aspects ft follows certain well estab- 

 lished laws. Just as the great increase in the scale of 

 wholesale production and the invention of new and 

 more rapid means of distribution enables the big 

 manufacturer and stores to compete with the local 

 workshop, or shopkeeper, so the lower first cost of 

 producing electricity on a large scale, and the higher 

 electrical pressures used in its transmission, enable 

 the central authority to compete with the smaller local 

 source of production. 



The economy of concentration and bulk production 

 of electricity w'as recognised by Ferranti nearly twenty 

 years ago, and that his attempt to carry it out at 

 Oeptford in iSSq was unsuccessful was solely due to 

 the fact that there, as in the case of the " Great 

 Eastern," the idea was in advance of the state of 

 manufacturing knowledge. 



The size of units jjroposed for the Deptford 

 station in 18S9, 10,000 h.p., and the pressure used, 

 10,000 volts, have since been exceeded, and the latest 

 serious proposal for the supply of electricity wholesale 

 to London, was based upon 20,000 h.p. units, and 

 20,000 volts pressure. But although the premature 

 attempt to concentrate electricity production at Dept- 

 ford did not meet with the success it deserved, the 

 correctness of the principle was not lost sight of. 

 Another company, the Metropolitan Electric Supply 

 Company, in the succeeding ten years carried out a 

 policv of partial concentration in its own area, abolish- 

 ing a number of small stations in the West End, and 

 replacing them by a larger station at Willesden. But 

 nothing so radical has taken place in electricity as 

 has been the case in gas supply. The Ordnance Maps 

 of fortv vears ago recall the existence of some seven- 

 teen or eighteen gas works, scattered throughout the 

 Metropolitan area, nearly all of which have now been 

 dismantled. To-day, 90 per cent, of the gas used in 

 London is produced at Bt-ekton, on the Greenwich 

 Marshes, or at Nine Elms. 



There are still, however, more than seventy electric 

 generating stations in Greater London, and at present 

 little prospect of their number being reduced. For 

 Parliament has now rejected the third and last possible 

 alternative for solving this knotty but urgent problem. 

 The freedom with which the process of concentration 

 was carried out in the case of gas arose largely from 

 the fact that the undertakings were entirely in private 

 hands, and that no political questions were raised in 

 connection with their abolition. 



The need for improvement, and the technical sound- 

 ness of the methods suggested for improving e.xist- 

 ing electrical conditions, have now been generally 

 admitted, both by those who favour municipalisa- 

 tion and those who favour private enterprise under 

 municipal control. The fact that the existing stn- 

 tions, which have cost 45/. to ^ol. per kw., could 

 now be built for loL per kw., that the present cost 

 of production is more than id. per unit, and in a new 

 station need only be o'2d. per unit, that the consump- 

 tion of electricitv in London is only one-tenth of 

 that in other great cities, are no longer questions ol 

 discussion. 



During the past thre:' years three serious attempts 

 have been made to carrv out a similar concentration, 

 the first by private enterprise, and the second by the 

 London County Council. Although the first only 

 failed to become law bv a few days, neither of these 

 proposals succeeded in obtaining Parliamentary sanc- 

 tion. It was, therefore, hoped that the third and last 



NO. 1972, VOL. 761 



alternative, that of co-operation between municipal 

 and private enterprise, which was put before Parlia- 

 ment this year, would have been more successful. 

 The fact that it also shared the fate of the previous' 

 proposals, and has been rejected, is therefore the more 

 to be regretted, for it appears as though the scien- 

 tific solution of London's electricity supply difficulties 

 will now be indefinitely postponed. Private enterprise 

 cannot be expected perpetually to provide the money 

 for promoting schemes which are endorsed by Parlia- 

 mentarv Committees on their merits and rejected by 

 the House of Commons on political grounds. The 

 London Countv Council naturally does not feel justi- 

 fied in making further proposals for establishing a 

 wholesale supply of electricity at the ratepayers' ex- 

 pense, in view of the recent elections. The supporters 

 of complete municipalisation, however, have indicated 

 that they are unwilling to agree to any proposal 

 other than one for the complete municipalisation of 

 electricity supply, and hence the present deadlock. 



NOTES. 



We are glad to be able to notify that the honour of 

 a knighthood of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath 

 (Civil Division) has been conferred upon .Sir .Archibald 

 Geikie. 



The Times announces the death of Dr. \V. D. Miller, 

 professor of odontology at Michigan University, the author 

 of many treatises on the teeth, and until last year professor 

 of odontology in the University of Berlin. 



By the death of Angelo Heilprin on July 17, at the 

 age of fifty-four, science loses an enthusiastic naturalist, 

 geologist, and explorer. He was born in Hungary, but 

 at an early age emigrated with his parents to the United 

 States. His education was completed in England at the 

 Royal School of Mines during the years 1874-7, when he 

 showed especial aptitude for natural history and gained 

 the Edward Forbes medal. Returning to the United 

 States, he was in 1879 appointed professor of invertebrate 

 palaeontology and curator in charge of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, and for a time he was 

 professor of geology at the Wagner Free Institute of 

 Science in the same city. He was author of a handbook 

 on the local " town geology," of a memoir on the Tertiary 

 Jeology of the United States (1S84), as well as of works 

 ■n the Bermuda Islands and west coast of Florida. For 

 he International Scientific Series he wrote the " Geo- 

 graphical and Geological Distribution of Animals " (1887). 

 He was author of an essay on the .Arctic problem, and 

 n 1892 he led the Peary relief expedition to the Polar 

 regions. In later years he turned to volcanic phenomena, 

 n igo2 he visited Mont PeMe while it was still in erup- 

 ion. and wrote a work entitled " Mont Pelfe and the 

 Tragedy of Martinique " (ed. 2, 1903) ; while in a recent 

 article, published in Science (New York, 1906), he dis- 

 cussed the " Concurrence and Interrelation of Volcanic 

 and Seismic Phenomena." 



The first meeting of the Italian .Association for the 

 .Advancement of Science will take place at Parma from 

 September 23 to 29. .According to the Lancet, the medical 

 sciences will be strongly represented, particularly in 

 anatomy, human and comparative ; and the section devoted 

 to anthropology, ethnography, and pala;oethnology will 

 have special attractions because of its programme. It is 

 expected also that fresh light will be thrown at the meet- 

 ing upon the subjects of forest growth, rainfall, and 

 hygiene. 



