Godalming public electricity supply
Primer suministro público de electricidad de Godalming
- Date
- 1881 · confidence high
- Place
- Godalming, Surrey, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Calder & Barratt (Godalming)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A Siemens dynamo driven by a mill's waterwheel on the River Wey fed arc street lamps and then private incandescent lamps. It is regarded as the first public electricity supply in the United Kingdom.
It is billed as the world's first public supply, but priority depends on the definition: Brush lit streets in Cleveland (1879) and Pearl Street is of 1882. It closed in 1884.
What it led to
- local electricity companies in Britain
- Electric Lighting Act of 1882
- the Holborn Viaduct and Pearl Street stations (1882)