MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE.

Evening Star, Issue 10399, 21 August 1897, Page 4

MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE.

In a recent issue we made brief reference to the experiment of the Shoreditch Vestry in undertaking the electric lighting of tho populous part of London and treating the disposal of its scavengering by moans of electricity. Tho boldness of the scheme is exceeded only by the beneficent results that are expected to flow from it, and it forms a fitting illustration of the progress of municipilisation that has taken place in the United Kingdom during vho Queen’s reign. A further stage of this great project—the brat of its kind in England—was reached on June 28, when the mammoth works were started by Lord Kelvin in the presence of a great crowd. It will not be without interest to sketch briefly the

IHSTORY OF TUB PROJECT. The combined municipal undertakings consist of a central electricity station, worked by steam supplied from destructor cells capable of destroying all the household refuse of Shoreditch, erected on a common cen^re °f the borough, with public baths and washhouses (also heated from the destructor cells) aud a public library and museum, whilst, on an adjacent sice opposite the latter, provision has been made by the London County Council for a recreation grouud and large technical institute, and for the absorption and extension of the municipal technical schools of the Shoreditch Vestry. Tho total cost of these schemes approximates £200,000. The history of the scheme is simply this ; It was promoted by the unanimous vote of the Vestry to prevent the monopoly of the supply of electric lighting passing into the hands of a private company. Subsequently, on estimates being obtained, the heavy capital outlay caused considerable hesitation on the part of the Vestry, and the ■whole scheme was submitted to the ratepayers in the election of 1894, when it was completely endorsed by them.by the return of candidates pledged to carry it out. Since then it has been pushed forward with energy and practical unanimity, although its completion >vas somewhat delayed by the strike in the building trade in 1896. The importance of the scheme to Shoreditch lies in two directions. First, it contains the recognised centre of London’s woodwork and furniture industry, and therefore offers a splendid field for the sale of electric light and power. Second, the exceptionally large number of public-houses —over 300—and the number of small establishments that keep open late at night make the district the largest light-consum-ing one in all London. When parliamentary sanction was given to the scheme the Vestry engaged as consulting engineer Mr E. Manville, consulting electrical engineer to the Dublin, Portsmouth, Salford, and Kilkenny Corporations. Mr Manville proceeded to make an elaborate report upon the questions submitted to him, in which he expressed the opinion that the supply of electricity could be established with greater profit to the Vestry than in many of the more favorable neighborhoods in London, owing to the late hour the shops kept open, and to the probable demand for motive power for the various industries, which indicated that Shoreditch would prove a roost admirable field for the introduction of a municipal electric lighting generating station. He recommended the utilisation of the heat generated by dust destructors for raising steam for running an electric central station, and beating baths and washhouses proposed to be erected on an adjoining site. As these estimates were prepared from the commercial standpoint, and did not cover the question of the cost of taking up the necessary loans and repayment of principal and interest, the Vestry clerk was instructed to present a memorandum on this part of the scheme. The Vestry clerk estimated that the annual charge for repayment of principal moneys and interest would be £3,537, whilst (taking the engineer’s estimate of profit from the sale of electricity, the saving on the burning of dust over its disposal by canal barging, and the saying to the baths and washhouses of fuel, with other receipts, amounting altogether to £5,127), a net saving and profit of £1,590 per annum might be anticipated. An Electric Lighting Committee was then formed by the Vestry to work on the lines of Mr Manville’s report. The difficulty of obtaining a suitable freehold site in Shoreditch was very great, as the Vestry had no compulsory powers of purchase, and in many cases owners would only negotiate for long leaseholds, and would not sell the freehold on a,ny consideration, whilst the acquisition of a large site involving a number of different interests and trade compensations tended to ', make the price prohibitive. The Vestry clerk brought under the notice of the Parliamentary Committee a large site in the centre of the parish of about one and a-half acres in extent, and having four frontages to streets, which had formed the old_ City Iron Works, and a large portion of which was lying vacant, and constituted a heavy loss to the rates of the parish. As it appeared that the clear freehold could be acquired without compensation for any trade interests, except yearly tenancies, tho Parliamentary Committee decided, on the ISth November, 1892, to negotiate for this site, which the Vestry ultimately purchased for £33,600. The size of the site presented the opportunity of combining upon it a public library and baths and washhouses, and as the Library and Baths and Washhouses Commissioners happened at that time to be on the look out for a site in that part of the parish, a conference of the Parliamentary Committee, the Library and Baths and Washhouses Commissioners, and the Dusting and Scavenging Committee was accordingly convened on the 19th January, 1893, when the Pitfield street site was approved as the most suitable for the combined purpose of electric station, dust destructors, baths and washonses, technical institution and free library, and the Vestry were recommended to acquire the same, and to apportion the coat between the different bodies. The sale was finally completed on 26th March, 1895. In order to prevent any proceedings from adjoining owners for a nuisance by vibration or otherwise, additional property was purchased, by which means a convenient rectangular site was obtained, sufficient for all probable future extensions, abutting on three aides to streets, and on the remainder to, the Vestry’s property, the site of the baths. Messrs Manlove Alliot and Co., the chief manufacturers of dust destructors in England, were instructed to report to the Vestrywhat results they could guarantee to obtain in the way of heat for electric lighting purposes by the burning of 20,000 tons of dost per annum. This firm reported that with the aid of tho thermal storage system of Mr Druitt Halpin such refuse would produce sufficient heat for the electric lighting station proposal by Mr Manville, and they pointed out that the value of the steam so produced would be £4,290 per annum; and that a saving of at least £1,500 a year would be effected by burning the dust instead of disposing of it by barging. This report was adopted by the Vestry. For a time the scheme dragged on wearily, owing to a division of authority, but when the Local Government Board transferred the management of the library and baths to the Vestry a new spirit pervaded the latter body. The elections of 1895 saw an immense majority returned in favor oi the scheme, and by a majority of' eighty it was decided to press on matters vigorously. In May, 1895, a contract for the lighting part of the scheme was let for £67,646, against the engineer’s estimate of £65,000.

This unique departure in municipal enterprise promises to revolutionise the sale of electricity to the people of Shoreditch by cheapening the supply to the extent of about Id per unit, owing to the saving in fuel caused by the destruction of dust. The prices fixed are 4d per unit at night the first two hours (for which 6d per unit is charged) and 2d per unit in the day time for motive power, or 3d per unit for all hours, which are stated to be exceptionally low prices at the commencement of the undertaking. Electricity is to be supplied (by means of the Baatian penny-in-the-slot machine) to consumers at 6d per unit for all hours, with fittings free.

THE SYSTEM

adopted may be described briefly as that of burning the dust and refuse of the panah in specially constructed “destructors” and utilising the resulting heat to generate strain for driving the" electric light plant. The interest attaching to this work’lies in the peculiar arrangements rendered necessary by the combination indicated above, nob forgetting that the steam requirements of

the electric lighting station must be treated as of secondary importance in comparison to the hygienic manipulation of the refuse. The novelty of the destructor is further enhanced by the combination, for the first time, of Mr Druilt Halpiu’s system of Led thermal storage, and the substitution of the electric lifts and motor cars for revising and distributing refuse throughout the cells in place of the more usual inclined road and tipping platform, thus effecting a considerable saving in horseflesh. The destructor house is 80ft Equate, and it contains twelve cells, each having twenty-five Equate feet grate area, ami six water-tube boilers, each with 1,300 square feet of heating surface. The boilers and thermal storage vessel (which is 35ft long and Bft in diameter) are designed to work at a pressure of 2001b per square inch, and are supplied with duplicate fittings throughout to guard against breakdown. There are three motor-driven fans, calculated to deliver each 8,000 cubic feet of atr per minute, with a maximum ashpit pressure of 3m water. The chimney is 150fb high. The thermal storage adopted prevents the heat developed during the day-time from being wasted. The burning of the dust will go on continuously, and as only a small amount of steam is required by day a lot of heat would bo lost if some method were not adopted to preserve it, Halpin’a system was therefore adopted. During the day-time steam generated in the boilers is passed into a thermal storage cylinder, where it is mixed with a small quantity of cold water from the feed pumps, the proportions being such that when the evening approaches the cylinder is full of water at the temperature and pressure of the steam required by the engines. The cylinder is then shut off'from the feed pumps and connected to the boilers, which in their turn are connected direct to the engines; hence when the boilers require feed water they are supplied with it from the cylinder at such a temperature that the fuel that is then being burnt has merely to furnish to the water in the boilers the heat sufficient to overcome the latent heat of evaporation at the required pressure. The result of this arrangement is that the boilers are able to evaporate about one-third more steam than they would be able to evaporate were they connected directly with the water mains, and, moreover, gases can be sent away from the boiler at such a low temperature that they would be useless for the purposes of even an economiser. The importance of the thermal storage cylinder is further enhanced by the fact that it acts as a water purifier. One of the main drawbacks to the use of water-tube boilers has always been overcome by the use of clean or softened water, but if the feed water be first raised to 359deg Fahrenheit in the thermal storage cylinder, the deposit will occur mainly there, and clean water will be delivered to the boiler. The presence of scale in the cylinder will tend rather to improve its efficiency than otherwise, for the radiation losses will diminish. The electrical generating portion of the undertaking is fitted with the very latest developments of science both for lighting and motor purposes.

Lord Kelvin, in declaring the works open, said that this was the first :ime that the dust of a parish was used as a means for providing fuelfor supplyiugheat sufficient for the purpose for which it was to be used. The parish dust hr ; previously been barged away at a cost o2 3s 2d per ton, and the burning of their own dust would beat once a saving of that amount, leaving alone the other suggested benefits which they might derive from it. The undertaking which had so auspiciously begun was well worthy of the Victorian era. It was a remarkable example of the combination of scientific knowledge and forethought with mechanical and engineering skill and with courage in entering upon new undertakings. It was a courage which did not belong to the class of gambling adventure, but the courage to bring into practice carefully worked out engineering results and capabilities. Shoreditch might well be proud of what its Vestry had done for it. It was tho premier body to undertake a large work like that they had "just seen. Tentative efforts at the furnace method of destroying dust had been made, but little or nothing had been accomplished in the way of getting up steam from the heat developed. The Shoreditch electric lighting commenced with dust, and the contractors undertook to give 120,000 tens of steam per annum from this source. No doubt more would yet be done. He believed people were not only at the beginning of a vast advance in the direction in which the Vestry was moving. He believed that unless the neighboring vestries were very quick in following the example that had been set them people would soon begin to bring their dust to Shoreditch and Shoreditch would make light and power out of it. Especially power, because he thought that at the price suggested a great deal of the work now dons by small gas engines would soon be done by electric motors, whose power would be derived from dust. Electrio lighting companies were only just awakening to tho capabilities of electricity as a motive power, which were demonstrated theoretically fifty years ago by Joule, and twenty years ago, practically, by Sir William Siemens and other far-seeing men of that time. People must not imagine that eleotricily in itself was power, it was only a means of transmitting power, and as such it was brought before them by the Vestry. At the price fixed by the Vestry he believed the people of Shoreditch might speedily enter upon the employment °of electricity, and they would find it less costly than gas at 2) 10d per thousand cubic feet. He considered that much of the success of the undertaking was due to the skill and knowledge of the engineers, who had taken the best of what had been done elsewhere and adapted it to the special needs of the locality. Mr James Stuart, M.P., mentioned that the Technical School had not cost the parish one penny piece, as the money spent on it was obtained entirely from the advertisements on the lamp posts of the parish. We have to thank the editor of the ‘Hackney Gazette’ for his forethought in sending us a copy of the report of the proceedings at this important function.