SAFETY FROM AIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 254, 27 October 1938, Page 20

SAFETY FROM AIR.

NEW POWER STATION. FIRST ATTEMPT IN BRITAIN. NOT PROOF AGAINST DIRECT HIT. LONDON*. October fi. I *i o iinport.tm oof safeguarding electricity supplies in time of win- ha.s boon reali-ed ;it \\ nt ton!. Hert fordshiro. whore Britain s liivt bomb ro-i-t ing power -t a I i<>ll has been built. I In 1 !iiii»o of tlio 1 nii I<li 11 cr i- -*ift below ground. I he walls of rejnfoicod concrete lire 2ft, fiiii thick. diiniiii-hing to • iiii Ht. tho top.

Tlio inferior is ,J i \ i.loil by f A,, walls fitted with fireproof door*. It calculated that if ono .IM-lion ~t' t|,o ,-tation were do.-t roved t lie otlior might continue to supply power. The power station would bo ohmotiflagod in an air raid pnd reinforced with .-andbags and steel platen.

1 lio building 00-t £2100 and shelter s appaiatus worth £1.>,000, It ia designed not to resist a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, hut to bo proof against blast and splinters from bombs bursting in the vicinity.

Mr. A. W. Barham. chief oleotricitvongineer to Watford Corporation, said this week: ''When I first conceived this idea I discovered that nothing like it had ever been done before. Inllermany Hitler ha« spent a fortune on making his vital source** of electricity supplv bombproof. Some of them are. ."iOt't underground, while one has been built into the side of a cliff."