Johnson & Phillips Oil Insulator used ar Carlow

ELECTRIC LIGHTING OF CARLOW.

Messrs. J. E. H. Gordon and Co., of 11, Pall-mall, are lighting the town of Carlow by electricity, the motive force being water power. The conditions under which this town was lighted may be of some interest, as showing what prompt work can be done by modern electrical engineering firms.

On a recent Friday Messrs. Gordon's representative in Ireland telegraphed that the Carlow Town Commissioners desired the electric light at once, and on the following Friday the town was illuminated by some dozen Brockie-Pell arc lamps and some 50 incandescents, and some of the principal shops were also wired and connected, the current being supplied by a Siemens dynamo erected in a mill in the centre of the town and driven by a water-wheel.

A long lease was taken of the Milford Mills, about 4£ miles from Carlow. A 45-unit alternating-current dynamo of the Elwell-Parker type, giving 2,500 volts E.M.F., was ordered, and arrangements were made to drive it from Milford Mills either by the water-wheel or a turbine which is being erected, and at times of heavy load by a combination of both. The current for the permanent lighting will be conveyed by overhead cables of the Fowler Waring Company s make, insulated by the fluid insulators of Messrs. Johnson and Phillips. The transformers—of which, at present, there are eight 4 h.p. and four 2 h.p.—transform clown to 50 volts. The low-tension current is conveyed direct to 12 arc lamps, and to a ring of low-tension mains supported on the same posts. At the centre of the town is a small distributing station for connecting the various circuits, and for disconnecting the long cable for testing purposes. There will be telephonic communication between the mill and this distributing station.

It is expected that the permanent lighting will be started at the end of March.

It may be of interest as showing how soon electric lighting becomes a necessity that on Messrs. Gordon proposing to take down the temporary plant, which they had erected for exhibition purposes only, the Town Commissioners stated that they could not do without it after once having had the benefit of the light, and arranged to pay rental for the temporary plant until the completion of the permanent plant.