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And then there was light

8th May 2015

By: Jade Davenport

Creamer Media Correspondent

  

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There is no doubt that South Africa is in the midst of a social, political and economic crisis of unparalleled proportions, at least as far as the last 21 years of nonracial democracy is concerned.

At the helm of South Africa’s plight, specifically from the economic perspective, is the electricity crisis. Late last month, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown was compelled to implement emergency measures to stabilise the State-owned electricity utility’s floundering leadership while the country was subjected to a fresh wave of load-shedding.

Given the barrage of worrisome press surrounding the electricity crisis, I thought this would be an opportune moment to offer a little respite to the current media trend by providing a historical glimpse into where, when and how electricity was introduced in South Africa.

As is the case with many pioneering industrial developments in South Africa’s modern history, the first implementation of electricity was the indirect result of the mineral revolution, with the first application of the revolutionary form of energy being in Kimberley, South Africa’s first major mining and industrial town.

Within a decade of the discovery of diamonds in what is today known as the De Beers and Kimberley mines, the mining camp of Kimberley had mushroomed into the most industrially progressive and thriving town in South Africa.

Such was the advancement of the town and buccaneering nature of its residents that, towards the end of 1881, a lobby was formed to introduce electric lighting to illuminate Kimberley’s dark and often dangerous streets. Now, in an age where electric streetlighting is taken for granted (although less so in South Africa in periods of rolling blackouts), it is easy to underestimate the significance of introducing such a novel scheme. However, it should be emphasised that, when such a scheme was mooted, there were only two other cities in the world that could boast such a pioneering scheme as electric arc lamps, the first being Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in northern England, and the second being Cleveland, in Ohio, US.

So insistent was the lobby that it was soon agreed that the matter should be decided by popular vote. The result of the poll, taken on Saturday, December 17, 1881, showed an overwhelming majority in favour of the scheme, and the Kimberley town council was subsequently instructed to negotiate a lighting system.

Within a matter of weeks, a contract was negotiated with a company called Cape Electric Light & Telephone Company, which undertook to maintain 32 street lamps of 2 000 candle power at a cost of £7 000 (the equivalent of R6-million in today’s value) a year.

The first trial, which was held on municipal grounds on February 15, 1882, amid much fanfare, was a dismal failure. The trial revealed that most of the ‘Brush’ arc lamps had been damaged on the long and bumpy journey from the coast so, instead of the anticipated flood of light, all that resulted was a mere spluttering sparkle above the heads of the hundreds of spectators.

Not surprisingly, public confidence in the scheme was shaken and, at a series of public meetings held subsequently, protests were loud and vehement. A vote taken at one such meeting revealed that 162 were in favour and 133 against continuing with the streetlighting scheme. In fact, such was the public’s agitation over the scheme that accusations were made against certain town councillors, who were said to have an interest in Cape Electric Light Company. (All that needs to be said is that, as much as things change, they certainly stay the same.)

Meanwhile, the contractor repaired the damaged bulbs, conducted further experiments and, within a few months, managed to illuminate two public buildings in the town.

However, despite such progress, public opinion remained firmly negative and in July an unsuccessful attempt was made to test the validity of the scheme in court. Not surprisingly, the town council became extremely wary and decided to cut the original plan by half. Thus, in August 1882, it instructed Cape Electric Light Company to limit the project to just 16 electric lights. Four of the new lamps were installed in the Market Square, while the rest were dotted about the town. With all preparations complete, the lights were switched on with absolutely no pomp and ceremony on September 1,1882.

Despite the unceremonious nature of the event, which is not surprising, given the drama of the preceding months, Kimberley had achieved a major and pioneering milestone – being the first town in the southern hemisphere to install electric streetlights. Further, Kimberley pioneered such a scheme before London, the capital of the mighty British Empire, which, at the time, still relied on gas lamps for streetlighting.

However, Kimberley’s energy revolution was not limited to the streets as, within five years, incandescent electric lights were trailed underground at the Kimberley mine. The results were highly satisfactory and Kimberley’s diamond mines became some of the first in the world to use electricity for lighting underground.

The second town in South Africa to benefit from the energy revolution was the gold mining town of Pilgrim’s Rest, in the then Eastern Transvaal. In fact, the country’s first hydroelectric power station was built in 1884 to supply electricity to the Brown Hill’s mine, one of the many mines dotted across the Pilgrim’s Rest valley.

When the river was high, the power station supplied enough power to run a small mill, but in winter production came to a standstill. However, an engineer in the employ of the Transvaal Gold Mining Estates company solved this problem by enlarging the power plant and building a water race, which ran from a point higher up the river to Brown’s Hill. The electricity was generated from two Escher Wyss Girrard impulse turbines coupled to 160 kW, 300 V, three-phase Siemens alternators generating 170 hp. Unfortunately, that pioneering power station on Brown’s Hill was destroyed by a fire in 1912.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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