ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND THE HARBOUR BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6786, 17 August 1883, Page 3

ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND THE HARBOUR BOARD.

TO T:HB EDITOR. Sir, —In the lecture delivered by Professor Brown on " Electric Lighting,''he appeared to be of opiDioii that gas would compete with electricity for some time iu. Auckland, but that the moire modern light would be the tetter for wharves and large railway fctations. In the years to come oblong will probably give place to round accumulators, shaped somewhat like the. common gasometer. .Every seagoing steamer will bo provided with, the electric light, and as soon as they are moored at a wharf, having no use for their waste steam, they will immediately connect with the wharf accumulator, and as long as the steam lasted electricity could be generated, and the steamer tiroiiiied with so many coulombs electricity when the ckrk came to. pay her harbour dues, And the electricity so stored, say at Auckland, could be ujed for lighting the wharf at night, the Railway Wharf, and the station, in the immediate neighbourhood. The utilisation of the tidal force in Hobsou's Bay would be considered a difficult problem by-the Harbour JBoard. Suppose a dam were to be run across the mouth of the bay, with Openings at both endi for the inlet of the -water, and openings between piers in the dam for the turning of water-wheels, the openings at the ends would not only serve for the inlet of water, but aiso for owners of property having a water frontage oa the bay, and boats could go out and in at water, while the channels would be deep enough for small boats at low water. But the water woald be required to be locked in .it the opening 3 at the ends, shqrtly after high water, to secure full force on the wheels. With carefuliy constructed piers,, there would not be a great waste of water,, and the machinery for elevating and lowering the wheels might either be automatic or worked by hand, yet with every possible means for economising force, I do not see bow 50,000 howe-power could be available for electric lighting, or any other purpose.'—lam, &c, Gβ-Ahead.