PUKEKOHE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 313, 25 September 1917, Page 2

PUKEKOHE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Illumination Imminent. Before the close of the current week or at the latest early next week Pukekohe's electric lighting scheme will, it is confidently expected, be in operation and the streets at nighttime, the gloom of which has hither to been a reprcach to the town, will accordingly be a scene of moieor less brilliancy. Business men and private householders are also anxiously looking forward to the current being available for not only are acetylene gas plant users confronted with a shortage of carbide, many stocks having entirely given out, but kerosene lamp 9 at the most onlv provide inferior illumination. Private connections cannot, however, all be effected simultaneously but they will be gradually carried out in the order of application as

! received. It will bo recalled that thi electric lighting scheme was part and parcel of the Borough Council's £12,000 loan proposal which, on a poll of ratepayers, was carried by 226 votes to -10 on August 23rd of last ytar, £SOOO out of the £12,000 being allocated for electric lighting. The scheme was initiated by Mr E J. Fenn, who was engaged by the Council as Consulting Electrical Engineer, and has been duly put into execution under his guidance with Mr W. L Cutten superintendiog local arrangements, the Lighting Committee, of which Vfr A. B. Barter is Ch urman, and the Waterworks Engineer (Mr W. Wyatt) also lending helpful assistance the work being carried out by day Übour. In some respects the original p'ans have necessarily been altered or modified by reason of warconditi >n>. Thus, for instance, i: was at first intended that with the installation of powerful rams at Hickey's Dan to raise wa'er to the n w reservoir on Roose's Hill, a3 provided for in the remodelling of the water supply system, the p >wer-h )use engine used in pumping water to the old reservoir on Pukekohe Hill would only be required f >r a few h >urs daily for that purpose and would otherwise be available for generating electricity. However, through the war the consignment from England of the rams has not been possible and the Borough Council, rather than to indefinitely postpone the fiuition of electric light, determined t» avail themselves of an opp irtuni y to purchase from the New Z'alani's Dairy Association butter-factory Pukekohe an engine and t-U' tiun gas plant, which whs to a large ext«nt a duplicate of the machinery already at the power house 'lhis involved a task <>'f no little magnitude in the transfer of the machinery from the dairy factoiy as can easily be realised vvhfii it is mentionel tint the tlv wheel of the engine wtighedovar live tons and was tio less than Bft in diameter, the engine-bed being also of six ton Wright, and it is to Mr Wyatt's credit that the machinery was dismantled at the factory and re-erec'ed at the power-house expetjoiislv and without the slightest hitch * "f any kind. Tha plant, so purchased, consists of a To h p. suction gas Cambiidge genorator and i r.J It it Nuional engine, the latter drivingdirect on to a Westinghous« d\nam», 460 vo'ts Th# electric light equiiment furthar in dudes whit is technically known as a balancer, a main switchboard, and a station switchboard for testing purposes. The external cables are connected up with the main switchboard

And from otttside the building have t)ebh carried overhead so as to sefve all parts of the town there has been no necessity to enlarge the power-house building for the purpose of housing the electrical plant as the old workshop has with minor Alterations been adopted for the The new engine has already been tried in running and has proved its efficiency but at the time of writing * test has not been made of the

dynamo. jforty lamps have been erected for Street lighting and some 30 to 40 premises residences hate already been wired lip for Connection with tne system. The latter number is, however, likely to be considerably augmented in the near future.

For the present, owing to the impossibility of obtaining an accumulator and extra dynamo current for power purposes will not be available in the day-time, whilst since the water-driving plant cannot for the time-being be utilised for a reserve or stand-by purposes the installation must necessarily be what is known a* single-system. This has manifest disadvantages in the case of a breakdown but the skill and good-work-manship displayed in the installation of the Kear in all departments should produce results such as to give general satisfaction to the public as consumers, to the Borough Council as its sponsars, and to the staff who have been responsible for the carrying out of the scheme. The current to be supplied to consumers will be of 230 voltage.