Pell's Patent Fluid Insulators used in Queensland

Electrical Engineering in Queensland.—A correspondent informs us that the central station of the Rockhampton Gas and Coke Company, Limited, which is the only gas company in Queensland that supplies both electric light and gas, was erected under an Act granted in November, 1889. The plant at the station, which was started in September of last year, consists of two 120-h.p. Roots boilers by Conrad Knap and Co., Lincoln; a 100-h.p. indicated horizontal engine, by Davey, Paxman, and Co. ; and a 6|in. by Gin. Westinghouse engine, a 280-ampere 110-volt Hookham patent dynamo with constant-lead brush gear, hand-regulated by resistance in field-magnet circuit, and an A7 Mordey Victoria alternator, the whole plant being thus capable at present of supplying 2,000 8-c.p. lamps, of which 914 are in use outside the works and 1,700 on order. The Fitzroy Bridge is lighted by alternate-current arcs, and the cathedral by eight arcs and 20 incandescents. The whole of the mains are laid underground on the Callender system, and the current is charged by meter or by contract as the case demands. Hookham's meters are used. The supply is from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m., and is maintained well. The company are also undertakers of isolated installations, their largest at the present time being the reestablishment of the electric light plant at the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company's Works, Mount Morgan. This new plant consists of 60-light and 25-light 10-ampere Kapp dynamos, with Brockie-Pell arc lamps in series, and a Crompton 100-light incandescent dynamo. The circuits are over eight miles in length, and are carried overhead on poles and Pell's patent fluid insulators. The engine is a 20in. coupled high-pressure, by Fowler, of Leeds. There are two Paxman Lancashire boilers. Over 50 arcs and 30 series Bernstein lamps are in use on the high-tension circuits, and 85 incandescents of 16 c.p. on the low-tension. These two installations are the largest in Queensland, and have been entirely planned out and erected under the immediate superintendence of Mr. A. E. Neal, the elec trical engineer to the gas and coke company.