IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020 - 77

dynamoelectric generators. However, there are several patents predating 1878 that propose the use of hydropower to drive electric generators for the purpose
of transmitting electric power to locations distant from
the generator: French patent 12,524 of 1855, British
patent 1,386 of 1864, and Italian patents granted in
1866 and 1874.

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1878: The Private Hydroelectric
System of Sir William Armstrong
At a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on 26 August 1864, Sir William
Armstrong (1810-1900), the newly elected president,
delivered an address in which he stated,
Alpine regions abound in falls which, with the
aid of artificial works to impound the surplus
water and equalize the supply, would yield
thousands of horse-power; and there is at least
one great river in the world which in a single
plunge developes sufficient power to carry on
all the manufacturing operations of mankind
concentrated in its neighbourhood.
Armstrong, one of the most successful industrialists of his generation, had the wealth and the
expertise to construct, on his property in Northumberland, what is thought to be the first hydroelectric power plant. The Engineer (London) of
22 November 1878 described Armstrong's pioneering use of hydroelectric power to light an arc
lamp at his mansion, named Cragside (Figure 3),
about 2.5 km from the generator:
A very important application of the electric
current is now being carried out by Sir William
Armstrong on his estate, about eighteen miles
from Newcastle-on-Tyne. The power existing
in a volume of water descending at the outfall
of a Northumberland lake has been utilised
by the interposition of a turbine, by means of
which the requisite revolutions are given to a
dynamo-electric machine. The electric current
thus generated is conveyed through a stout copper wire to the private residence of Sir William
at Cragside - a distance of about a mile and
a-half. The current is there conducted through a
lamp devised on the Siemens plan.
Figure 4 shows Armstrong's modest hydroelectric station. Near the end of 1880, incandescent light bulbs were installed at Cragside. These
bulbs were invented by Armstrong's friend Joseph
Swan, and were the first installation, other than
the installation at Swan's house. In the 1880-1894
period, at least 50 private mansions in Great Britain installed hydroelectric power, but there were
far fewer such installations for public lighting and
for consumer use.

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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020

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