THE ELECTRICAL AGE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1930, Page 7

THE ELECTRICAL AGE

POSSIBILITIES AHEAD

IMPRESSIONS GAINED BY MU J. U. TEMPI,IN. CIiUISTCIIUPCH, Tan. 4. After spending five months in the United States and Canada, where he made a close study of the great electrical undertakings, Mr J. R. lemplin, consulting electrical engineer to most of the power hoards in Canterbury, returned to Christchurch yesterday. He is firmly of the opinion that for saturation of electrical distribution linos throughout the rural areas as well as the towns, there is no country in the world ahead of New Zealand. “That is a fact which cannot he disputed,” said Mr Templin in an interview yesterday. “On this trip I. was in a hotter position to compare New Zealand with the United States and Canada than I was when I visited those countries two years ago. Our distribution system is more up-to-date than some of the systems seen in other countries, due to the fact that it has largely been carried out in the past few years. Many of the older systems in other countries have a good deal of obsolete equipment which the authorities can» not afford to scrap completely. Against this, however, is the fact that quite a number of our schemes were carried out when materials and money were dear, and we have not the years of growth behind us that the schemes in Canada and the United States have. “I am perfectly confident as a result Of my travels that we have entered upon what is termed the electrical age. The biggest outlet for electrie current is for domestic uses. That includes everything connected with household work, such as cooking, lighting, general house heating, refrigeration, washing, cleaning, and all the new uses which are being introduced almost every day.”

CENTRAL HEATING. Mr Templin said that two years ago lie installed in his own house in Christchurch nil electrical central heating system, hut there were several details in which it was not entirely satisfactory. Fortunately during his -travels in the United Stales he got in touch with a firm which specialised in this class of heating, and from them ho obtained information about the system that he believed would be of very great benefit to the people of New Zealand. The system was not yet in general use in the United States, but there were enormous possibilities for development. It was entirely different from the use of ordinary electric radiators, being a system which provided for the circulation throughout the house of water or air electrically heated. The system was more economical than ordinary central heating. With regard to regular hot water heating for domestic purposes, Mr Templin said that he found throughout the United States that the heat storage principle similar to what was used throughout New Zealand was very popular. Electrical refrigeration had made enoromous strides in the United States. He visited one of the largest electrical manufacturing companies in the world. The annual sales amounted to £80.000,000, and of that total £20,000,000 was received last year for the sale of electrical refrigerators. That department of the firm’s business had grown so rapidly that even the members of the firm were astonished. It showed the extent to which the manufacture of electrical appliances had developed in the United States.

MANUFACTURE OF APPLIANCES. Asked what he thought of the possi- i hilitios of the manufacture of electrical appliances in the Dominion, Mr Temp--lin said that in his opinion New Zealand manufacturers did not have much chance of competing successfully in regard to the major supplies. The enormous output of the large factories in the older countries and the highpriced machinery which they used enabled them to turn out the appliances at a cost that could not be approehed by the New Zealand manufacturers. Moreover, new improvements were constantly being made and unless a firm bad a big output it would be unable to keep abreast of the times. The changes that occurred were simply astonishing. “1 believe it is quite possible for the manufacture of minor electrical appliances to be successfully undertaken in New Zealand,” said Mr Templin. “But to achieve success it is necessary that there should be only a few large factories instead of a dozen or so small ones. It is mass production that is the key to the success of the American manufacturers.”

A NEW LIGHT METAL. During his tour Mr Templin spent some time visiting a large aluminium works on the St. Lawrence River, where new plant was being erected for the manufacture of large alloy sections. By this new process it was now possible to turn out girders in up to I2in sections, and he was informed that the output of the works was to be used by one of the largest railway undertakings in the United States for the improvement of its passenger cars, thus reducing the weight of the cars hv 50 per cent. In travelling through Canada and tin* United States Air Templin found that in the busy sections of the cities the streets at night were illuminated to a very high intensity. The reason for this, he was told, was that it had been proved that the best insurance again.-.! motor accidents at night was intensive lighting,