In 1892, Glasgow based Early Electrical Contractors ‘Anderson & Munro’ were involved in several major installations of new electric lighting to grand houses. However two stood out in being somewhat unusual, for the lighting was not to be powered by steam machines, but by the power of water.
In August 1892, they were working on these 2 elaborate projects, one at Duntreath Castle in Stirlingshire and the other at Crossbasket, High Blantyre.
Anderson and Munro formed in 1840 and initially made blinds for large houses. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, they started amassing inventors, engineers and businessmen, and eventually branched into emerging new technologies like telephones. Indeed they hung the first overhead phone cables in Glasgow in 1877. By the 1880s, fascinated by electric lighting, they moved from installing public displays into the lucrative market of installing electric lighting into grand mansion houses, which led them to Crossbasket in the early 1890s.
Mr George Nelson owner of Crossbasket (and Summerlee Iron Works) commissioned the firm to install lighting into his home. The installation was large, consisting of 175 lights each of 16 candle power (about 15 or 16 watts). What made this installation unusual though, was that the lights were entirely powered by the constant moving of the Calder River beside the castle!
Talk about sustainable! It’s a story that could be part of life today. Looking into this more, Anderson and Munro were installing their own dynamos, fitting them, actuated to existing turbines at the bottom of a deep shaft which had formerly powered an old meal mill. With cabling spanning overhead and into Crossbasket House, it meant that the property was illuminated by electrics for the first time before the arrival of Winter in 1892.
The dynamo was powerful, working up to 400 revolutions every minute, depending on the spate of the water. The current was enough at that pace to supply constant lighting to 70 of the lights by that direct feed and so needing to illuminate over another 100 lights, batteries were installed too. These storage batteries could store enough energy to call upon power for another 50 lamps each and could work even when the dynamo was at rest.
The installation of electric lighting was more than a novelty. It could easily be switched on and off, convenient to say the least as opposed to the faffing around with gas being lit. Additionally, it allowed lighting at bedside tables, reducing the fear of fire risk if nodding off, and for those inclined, allowed reading in bed, which people found difficult to do beforehand!
You can read about the interesting Glasgow History of Anderson and Munro here https://www.mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/name/?nid=AndMun
Pictured is the actual dynamo shaft at Crossbasket. A dangerously deep void, covered now to make safe against trespassers, the grounds private.
