CHEAPER LIGHTING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 803, 28 April 1910, Page 3

CHEAPER LIGHTING.

HOW IT CAN BE INSTALLED. .Some interesting remark* 011 tlie/improved method of installing electricity which the City Council wishes to adopt, were made to 'a Dominion representative by Air. G. Lncuhlim, A.1.E.K.. lighting superintendent of the corporation. The wile used is different from the old wire in that it is much finer and much more lluiilifc. The present wire is only »t' one strand; a sample of the new • wire .'bown by Mr. Lauehlan to the press man wns ni 35 strands, ycf. it wns much thinner Vtian the other. Under the improved system, Uiu wires »ru suspended Iroin.-tlic tailings or walls by tiny porcelain insulators, which are designed to take the strain of the wires and insulate them at Ihe same time. When the wires pass through a partition, special incombustible insulating tubes arc used, 'i'he present wiree, which are now placed m.

wooden casings, could- be naked, on insulators in tho same way without danger, but owing to their thickness they would bo unsightly. The flexible wire 13 thin, unci can be obtained, in any colour, tso that it might easily be the colour of the wall-paper. The insulators can also bo obtained to match tho paper. Stewart Cassell Russell, the expert of the i'hoemi Insurance Company, London, .rt'ho was formerly opposed to the new surface wiring, has now altered ins opinion entirely, and states tfcat any system is safe, provided that it is pioporly installed. Under tho present system it is very easy, for the wires to be i tirelessly installed; for they are eased up straight away, aud nobody can f l ]P cr " else tho workman's business without Hutching the whole of- his operations. Under the new system, the wires are open to inspection all the time. Ihe low joltage of 100 under the Wellington system reduces tho clement of risk to a minimum. In Switzerland the system how in vogue in "Wellington has actually been prohibited on the score thai it is less safe than the surface wiring the New Zealand underwriters adopted the rules of the English lustiInto, states Sir. Lauclilan, they Jeft out a clause which allows the improved system to be used for sub-circuits. I ins clause has been adopted l)y all the Australian fire underwriters' societies, and If it had application in New Zealand, it would allow the council to use the surface wiring in all houses to seven or eight rooms iu size. Bill'in L'tir.opd ftfltj elsewhere tho improved system is used for the largest, ns well as tor the smallest installations,/and Mr. Webber, or the council's engineering staff, installed a thousand lights in an hotel m ruce on the now method. . The new system has recently beenj installed in the British Museum restaurant*,'--which ia the last fplace where any risks of fire would be allowed, anii in the.-Local Government Board and Board of Education ofcees, London-. In the offices it was found particularly advantageous because it permitted of the lights being easily, and simply moved - as often as . it- was desired "to change t'lie positions of the desks.'- • ; Although only 4500.houses in ton are equipped with electrical lighting, that number, Mr. Lanchlpn states, is larger than any other city in .Australasia ,can boast. - Wellington has had electric lighting now-for over 20 years, which is longer thau any of the big Australian cities, though their consumption will be larger than ours in a-few years-'-time. But Mr. Lauchlan is an enthusiast on the future of electricity in Wellington. "The day is coming," he declared, "when it will be used in every house. My idea is that 'it' will be supplied like water, and you will pay for it with a rate."