134 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



In thirty years from 1901 to 1931, the capacity of the stations of the 

 Newcastle Electric Supply Company has increased from 3,000 kw. to 

 311,000 kw., or more than a hundredfold. 



Power is generated and supplied to the grid at well under one halfpenny 

 per unit. In some districts (even rural districts) it is sold to the con- 

 sumers at reasonable prices, and the slogan ' Cheap electricity for the 

 people ' is well justified. But in other districts the middleman (that 

 curse of civilisation) steps in and sells the electricity at ten times the price 

 at which it is supplied to the grid. I know a farm where electricity is 

 being generated by means of a small plant at a cost of threepence per unit. 

 The owner would like to take 20,000 units per annum from the national 

 grid at three-halfpence or twopence per unit, and a neighbour is prepared 

 to take 50,000 units at a reasonable price ; but the authorised distributors 

 only offered to supply him at prices far above that at which he could 

 generate himself. If the owner were to put in a Diesel-electric plant for 

 himself and his neighbours and offer to light the village at twopence a 

 unit, the authorised distributors would prohibit him from poaching on 

 their concession, although they will not supply the villagers at less than 

 sixpence. Instead of ' Cheap electricity for the farmer ' the cry is ' Keep 

 off my profitable concession.' I mention this case to illustrate the differ- 

 ence between the work of the engineer and the work of the middleman. 

 The engineer tries to generate and supply at the lowest possible price. 

 That is his triumph. The middleman tries to sell at the highest price 

 he can get. That is his triumph. No wonder we have not enough 

 load on the national grid. There are hotels in the heart of the 

 system of distribution in Scotland generating their own electricity 

 at threepence-halfpenny per unit, and they will continue to do so, 

 because they cannot get power from the grid at less than eightpence per 

 unit. 



All through our ' civilisation ' vested interests block the way to im- 

 provement. Long after science has shown the way to make things better 

 for the people, uninteUigent control and stupid prejudice preserve the 

 old evils and refuse to be convinced. 



There are many things to be ashamed of in our great cities. Not the 

 least of these is the waste that goes on. There is waste of heat in domestic 

 fires, waste of by-products in the consumption of coal, thereby producing 

 dirt; waste of fresh air by pollution; waste of sunshine; and, above all, 

 the waste of labour that might be applied in stopping all the other desola- 

 tion and loss ; waste of money by paying dole while there are obvious 

 jobs for everybody. 



If engineers were in control, they would so order matters as to neutralise 

 this waste at the source. All soft coal should be treated by a low-tem- 

 perature carbonisation process or some similar process so as to extract the 

 gas, oil and other by-products from it. People should be prohibited by 

 law from burning soft coal, as they are in Paris. They would then be 

 compelled to burn carbon in a bright cheerful fire making no smoke, or 

 to use gas. Of course it requires labour to do this, but the labour is 

 available — -why not use it ? As things are at present in a district like 

 Manchester, more than one hundred thousand housewives are making a 



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