Holborn Viaduct power plant
| Holborn Viaduct Power Plant (Edison Electric Light Station) | |||
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| Coordinates | 51 ° 31 ′ 2 ″ N , 0 ° 6 ′ 18 ″ W | ||
| country | England | ||
| place | London | ||
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| Type | coal-fired power station | ||
| Primary energy | coal | ||
| power | 93/186 kW | ||
| operator | Edison Electric Light Company | ||
| Start of operations | 1882 | ||
| Shutdown | 1886 | ||
The Holborn Viaduct (also Edison Electric Light Station ) power plant was the first coal-fired power plant in the world to generate electricity for public use in 1882 . Located at 57 Holborn Viaduct in London , it was built by Thomas Edison and operated by the Edison Electric Light Company. Edison opened a second coal-fired power plant at Pearl Street Station in New York City in the United States in September 1882 .
prehistory
As early as 1878 the first attempt was made to illuminate the Holborn Viaduct electrically. The City of London commissioned Société Générale d'Electricité to install ten carbon arc lamps along the 430 meter long bridge. However, the lighting was poorly thought out, unreliable and proved to be more than seven times more expensive than the previous gas lighting . The system was discontinued in May 1879, less than six months after its inauguration, and gas lighting was restored.
The beginning of electrical engineering was subject to major changes around 1880. There were isolated solutions, with small generators generating the electricity directly on site, e.g. B. produced for the lighting of a theater. The idea of public power plants for electricity supply, i.e. systems that supply both public and private consumers with electrical energy or offer them electrical power for sale, was already born. The first implementation took place in 1881 with a small, hydro- powered system in Godalming in Surrey ( GB ), which jointly fed public and private lighting systems . From a technical point of view, however, this system was not a major innovation compared to other privately used generators .
In 1882 Edison planned a test and demonstration facility in New York and a European capital, which was designed for later, larger use of the technology. It was intended to demonstrate that the new incandescent lamp technology can be used for street lighting as well as for private use. The power supply to the consumers should be underground. The English Edison company under EH Johnson was able to come to an agreement with the authorities in London on January 2, 1882, as the first company to obtain a system permit and the rights to lay the cables. This was made possible in particular by the fact that large parts of the cable could be laid in shafts within the Holborn Viaduct without having to dig up the road, which at the time was a privilege of the gas companies . In return for approval, the operator undertook to illuminate the Holborn Viaduct and the neighboring thoroughfares with Edison lamps for three months free of charge.
technical description
The heart of the Holborn Viaduct power plant were two steam engines , each driving a large generator. The steam was generated in large water boilers from Babcock & Wilcox and converted into mechanical energy using high- speed horizontal steam engines from Porter-Allen.
Generators of the "Jumbo" type developed by Edison were used to generate the electricity. This type had already been successfully presented to the public in 1881 at the electricity exhibition in Paris. The generator, which was gigantic for the time, weighed around 27 tons. It got its name Jumbo from the very popular African elephant " Jumbo " in the London Zoo . A generator produced direct current with a voltage of 110 volts . Its output of 125 horsepower (93 kW ) was sufficient to operate around 1000 or 1200 light bulbs with an output of 16 candles .
The two copper conductors were fixed in insulating material and guided in wrought iron pipes. The electricity for street lamps and for private consumers was taken from them through insulated cables via distribution boxes. Every consumer had an electrolytic meter designed by Edison, with consumption measured by the weight gain of a copper cathode.
Power supply
The power plant produced electricity for the first time on January 12, 1882 with just one generator. In a first step, a total of 968 lamps were supplied with electricity. This included 164 street lamps from Holborn Circus along the viaduct and Newgate Street to the main post office, as well as numerous interior lighting in public buildings such as the railway station and the main post office. 321 lamps were installed in hotels, shops, restaurants and private buildings. The City Temple church building was the first church to be electrically lit with 161 lamps. 232 electric lamps were located in the power plant itself.
The station was officially opened with a tour on April 11, 1882. The agreed three-month trial period began on April 24, 1882, during which the lighting was free of charge. After that, the same prices were charged for lighting as for gas. The number of lamps increased by around 400 lamps with the supply of the telegraph office, but never reached the maximum output of around 2200 lamps for which the power station was designed. In November 1884, the operator reported that the system was operating with a severe annual loss, so the power station was closed in September 1886. The lighting of the Holborn Viaduct was switched to gas lighting again.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Jack Harris: The electricity of Holborn . In: New Scientist . tape 93 , no. 1288 . Reed Business Information, January 14, 1982, ISSN 0262-4079 , p. 88–90 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 24, 2019]).
- ^ Daniel Wolter, Egon Reuter: Price and trading concepts in the electricity industry: From the beginnings of the electricity industry to the establishment of an electricity exchange . Springer-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-3-8244-0765-1 , pp. 72 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 24, 2019]).
- ^ A b c d e The Electricity Council (Ed.): Electricity Supply in the United Kingdom . A Chronology — From the beginnings of the industry to December 31, 1985. 4th edition. Mackays of Chatham Ltd., 1987, ISSN 0144-0195 , p. 18 (English, ntmm.org [PDF; 1.1 MB ; accessed on August 25, 2019]).
- ^ Robert Monro Black: The History of Electric Wires and Cables . IET, 1983, ISBN 978-0-86341-001-7 , pp. 50 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 25, 2019]).