Carlow Electricity Switched on for 100 Years
- 1891 -1991 -
One Hundred Years Ago,
when Carlow Town
Commissioners contracted Gordon & Co., to install and run a town
lighting system using the new electricity, they were taking a step
into the darkness of the unknown. Public leaders from all over
Ireland were watching with keen interest to see if this newfangled
power would actually work, or would it turn out to be the 'white
elephant' that many predicted it would. After all, the first
generator had been made only ten years earlier (1880), and the first
arc and incandescent bulbs had been invented only in 1879. It was a
big risk which could prove the T.C. members to be men of foresight
and wisdom, or, on the other hand, to be foolish wasters of public
money. History has given the answer.
What
persuaded the T.C. of the merits of the new power was a test
demonstration which Gordon & Co. (an English company.) gave. They
installed a temporary generator on the mill wheel at Burrin bridge
and set up three arc lamps along Dublin St.; one at the Market
Cross, one at the Cigar Divan, and one near St. Brigid's.
Early Lighting Power
The
contract was for 12 arc lamps and 40 incandescent lamps to light
seven streets (4.75 miles), at a rent of £170 p.a. plus the right to
supply 1500 lights (of 8 or 16 candle-power) to private users. By
today's standards, the lighting was not all that powerful; 16
candlepower is the same as a 20 watt bulb of today; the 40
incandescent street lights were each of 16 candle-power (20 watts);
and since the total candle power of the system was 1200 candle
power, that left c.560 candle power for the 12 arc lights, or c.48
candle power (60watts) for each arc lamp. There was capacity to
increase to 2000 candle power, if necessary!
Construction
A Mr.
Meredith was the engineer in charge of construction for Gordon &
Co., and he chose the disused mill at Milford as the best place at
which to generate. A water wheel and generator were installed which
was capable of producing up to 120 horsepower. For a nominal rent to
the Barrow Navigation Co., permission was given to run the power
cables along the canal route (on 20 foot poles) to a premises at the
corner of Ballymanus terrace and the Barrow track, opposite John St.
Here the power was transformed down for the requirements of the town
system (200v a/c for house supply and 200v d/c for street lamps). To
satisfy increased demand, or when the water levels were too high or
too low to generate, two other turbines were also erected (one of
these originals has now been refurbished by Mr. John Alexander at
Milford), in the streets the lamps were mounted on poles with the
arc lamps on taller poles, to cover a greater area, and the
incandescent’s on the smaller streets and lanes.
Early Problems
An early
problem was the breakdown of insulators on the supply line (5OOOv)
from Milford, and to solve the problem of breakdown a steam engine
was installed in the transforming station in Carlow. This was
fuelled by coal and tar and was used in case of emergency. Another
early problem was that people and the Commissioners were unhappy
with the poles and the overhead wires, so the T.C. asked that the
cables be put underground. This was done by using rectangular blocks
of clay pipe, with six or four holes through which the cables were
run. Many of these blocks are still under the streets of Carlow.
First Test
The local
workforce, with Mr. Meredith as construction engineer and a Mr.
Watkins as foreman, completed the total installation in six months
and Mr. Tomlinson, the company engineer in charge of the works,
switched on the Carlow town street lighting on June 24th, 1891, a
proud day in the history of Carlow, and of Ireland.
First Town in Ireland
At a banquet
to mark the official switching on of the supply on July 13th, 1891,
dignitaries from the T.C., from Derry, from Portadown, from Kilkenny
and from the press attended (incl. Mr. P. J. Conlon of The
Nationalist). Mr. J. H. Gordon of Gordon & Co., presided and in the
course of his address made the proud claim that Carlow was "the
first town in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland to be lighted
throughout with electricity". Recently we have found that the town
of Godalming in Surrey, England would claim the same distinction; it
claims to have installed its supply as early as 1881. We shall see.
An interesting coincidence is that after the great storm of October
1987, when much of England was devastated, repair crews from the
E.S.B. helped to restore the crippled English electric network, and
three men from Carlow worked on the repair of that very same
Godalming! The men in question were Tom Fitzharris, Sean Love and
John Human.
Relevance for Today
Mr. Gordon
also made the point that it seemed to be a waste of money to be
buying coal abroad to make gas here for power, when so much water
power and so many old water mills were standing idle here. We wonder
have the words of this practical man, who was also an idealist,
relevance for the world of today, with its diminishing supplies of
fossil fuel?
Consumer Oriented
Mr. Gordon
also pointed out another innovation which was used in Carlow's
electricity supply. The practice elsewhere was to put a transformer
in the house of every user; this was wasteful and costly since at
that time each user might use only two or three lights, and the
transformer could light twenty lights. In Carlow, by putting the
transformers on the poles, each customer could acquire only as many
lights as was needed for the house.
Alexanders E.S.B.
In 1894, the
Alexander family bought the supply system from Gordon & Co. The
power house in Carlow came to be known as Alexanders Electric Works.
The Alexander family ran the works until 1928, when the E.S.B. took
over. In the 1920's, the works had 305 customers out of a population
of 7000 people; this was a larger proportion than most other towns.
Before the advent of the E.S.B., most towns (incl Athy and
Bagenalstown) had electricity available from small, private
producers, but few used electricity as much as Carlow.
E.S.B.
On August
11th, 1927 the E.S.B. came into being by virtue of the Electricity
Act passed by Dail Eireann. The duties given to the new body
included the generation, sale, distribution and promotion of
electricity. An early, major decision of the Board was to acquire
existing local operations (such as Alexanders) and to supply
directly to the customers, rather than sell electricity to the local
companies. In 1928 the Electricity Supply Board came to Carlow.
Early Decisions
One of the
early tasks was to link the towns into the national grid, and some
of the original poles used to link Carlow and Bagenalstown are still
standing and in use, 63 years later! The date of 1928 is stamped on
the poles. Another early decision was to set up a contract and
wiring dept., and to lay down minimum standards for private
electrical contractors.
The offices
were originally in Hay Market, where Mick Doyle has his repair shop
now, and where Brendan Duggan set up the Carlow Printing Company. In
1964 the E.S.B. bought the premises at 52 Dublin Street, (where the
bus stop used to be) from Bergins, and in Jan. 1984 moved to the
present premises on Green Lane.
Rural Electrification Scheme
During those
years, huge changes have taken place in Ireland, and the E.S.B. has
been at the heart of most changes. The early years saw the linking
of the towns into the national grid, and the building of the great
hydro electric schemes on the Shannon and at Blessington. But the
greatest change of all was yet to come, and it was the brainchild of
a Carlowman: Patrick Dowling of Linkardstown, was the man whose
vision and whose practicality brought rural Ireland into the
twentieth century with his plan for the electrification of rural
Ireland, the Rural Electrification Scheme.
Life Without "The Electric"
If you are
old enough, remember, if not, try to imagine what life was like in
rural Ireland 50 years ago. The towns had electricity; the
countryside did not. Cooking was done on an open fire, on a range or
on a paraffin cooker; in any case, the work was hot and laborious
with the cleaning and lighting of the fire often taking place before
first light. Water was heated in the same way; fuel was coal, turf
or timber. There was no T.V.; those who had radios powered them by
means of three batteries: a 2v. wet battery, which had to be
recharged about every two weeks, and 9v., and 120v., dry batteries.
Light came from oil lamps, candles and sometimes a tiny lamp. Water
was drawn from a well, in most houses, or a yard pump. The winter
nights were long indeed! Outside was even worse. The day's work
could only start with daylight, and had to finish at dark; the only
source of outside light came from storm lanterns, which were
ineffective for all but close up work and, in any case, blew out all
too easily. Turnips and Mangolds for fodder had to be ground by hand
in the grinder. The milking, by hand, of large dairy herds was
totally out of the question. Life on the land was tough.
Paddy
Dowling
Then came
Paddy Dowling of Linkardstown, Carlow, an engineer with the E.S.B.:
he saw the difficulties of life on the land; he saw the potential
value of electricity as a power source on the land; and, most
importantly, he saw how the dream could become a reality. The chain
of events of how the Scheme came into being is well documented
elsewhere; Paddy Dowling's connection is particularly well recorded
by Jimmie Parkes in Carloviana 1990-1991. The local connection has
nice little mementoes of its own.
Local
Connections
The E.S.B.
surveyed the Tinryland area to canvass possible customers for
connection in the Scheme; some of those survey forms of late 1946
are still in existence. Michael Lalor of Graiguenaspideogue signed
his application on 5-9-1946; Michael Fitzpatrick of Mortarstown
Lower on 31-10-1946; Mary Annie Byrne of Killerig (the pub) on
30-10-1946; and John and Elizabeth Lawler of Burton Hall applied
about the same time. In May, 1947 Jordan's house of Kilmeaney, in
Paddy Dowling's own parish of Tinryland was the first house in a
rural Irish parish to be officially switched on. Another proud first
for Carlow! However, there is a tale within the tale: we are
reliably informed that Jordans, although the first official
connections, was some two hours behind the actual first connection
which took place in the house of Mr. William Rose of Kilmeany,
where, under the glow of a 100 watt bulb, the occasion was marked by
another glowing, golden glass!
First
Group Water Scheme
After the
electrification came the first group water scheme, again one of the
first in Ireland. This took place again in Tinryland, and among
those who spearheaded this were Fr. Garry Doyle, Paddy Byrne, Andy
Murphy and Brendan Dowling (brother of Paddy). Work on this scheme
started in the winter of 1963 and the supply came on stream in March
1964.
E.S.B. Men
Among the men
who worked with the E.S.B. on the construction work in the spring of
1947, and who are still working, or finished their working lives
with the E.S.B. were Mick McCarthy (rural engineer), Paddy Costello
(supervisor), Jim Miley (snr. linesman), Paddy Phelan (linesman),
Sean Conroy (linesman), Ambrose Graham (area Clerk) who was later
replaced by Joe O'Sullivan, Toby Bannon (driver), Vincent Delaney
(relief driver), Richard O'Donovan (linesman), Jim McGuill, Jim
Fleming, Tom Kavanagh, Sean Hayes, Edward Ryan, Jack Stratton.
Michael Fender was the area electrician who switched on the
Tinryland system in 1947.
Proud and
Grateful
Huge changes
have taken place in those 100 years since electricity came to
Carlow. Just look around any home, factory or place of entertainment
and see how dependant we are on electricity. We take it for granted,
now: 50 years ago, it was a privilege for the urban dwellers; 100
years ago, it was a gamble. Carlovian’s can be grateful and proud
that our T.C. of those days were enlightened enough to switch on.
|
The main sources for electricity generation are water,
coal, peat, gas, and nuclear; what new sources will be
developed for the future? Could we see a world-wide
energy grid system, with many sources feeding into
a
world-wide g rid, and western USA switching on as
Ireland and Western Europe switches off? |
When the E.S.B. took over from Alexanders, the total
capacity output of the works was 88.2 kilowatts; an
average daily winter load for Carlow now is 16,000
kilowatts.
|
Thanks to Carloviana, Mr. John Alexander, and especially
to Mr. Jack Stratton of the E.S.B. for his invaluable
assistance and keen sense of detail in assembling this
report
|
All
photos supplied by Mr. John Alexander, Milford.
-
Early construction workers, laying cable, at
Burrin Street, Carlow
|
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Alexanders Electric Works, at Ballymanus
Terrace, Carlow (on left, Barrow Navigation
Stores - now Carlow Rowing Club)
|
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Early cable laying, at Burrin Street, Carlow
|
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First Generator, at Alexanders Electric Works,
Ballymanus Terrace
|
Workers - Rural
Electrification in/around Carlow
Source: Ursula Power Facebook |
Dad
with someone on his back! No Health and Safety issues in
those days!!
Source: Ursula Power Facebook |
Workers - Rural
Electrification in/around Carlow
Source: Ursula Power Facebook |
April 29
Rural
electrification workers, my dad, second from left. —
with Owen (Jack) King and Joe Hogan on the right.
Source: Ursula Power Facebook |
Previously published in the
‘CARLOW
Now and Then’ Spring / Summer 1997.
Page’s 16, 17 & 18.
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