bartonwhite

Barton, White & Co.’s Power Station, Edison Lane, Brisbane, ca. 1888

from State Library of Queensland

• beachcomber australia said:

  "Edison Lane" happened in 1889 - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/177612149?searchTerm=b... The building was still there in 1953 - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/50553139?searchTerm=ba...

• State Library of Queensland said:

  Thanks Beachcomber. It seems it's not there anymore, but Edison Lane does have a design of electrical circuits painted on the entrance.

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  The electricity supply in Brisbane has been an important part of the economic and social development of the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In 1882, a demonstration of what electricity could do was conducted with eight arc lights along Queen Street in Brisbane, the capital and largest city in Queensland. Power was supplied by a 10-hp generator driven by a small engine in a foundry in Adelaide Street. This was Australia's first recorded use of electricity for public purposes. The first practical use of electricity was for lighting in the Government Printing Office in George Street in April 1883. In 1886, the Roma Street Railway Yards were using arc lights, and in the same year, an underground cable connected the Parliament House from the Printing Office, the first of any Parliament House in Australia. The supervision of the laying of cable was done by E.C. Barton, who formed a company with C.F. White and in 1888 built a powerhouse in Edison Lane behind the General Post Office with a generating capacity of 30 kW. The General Post Office became the first consumer of electricity in Australia and Barton and White was the first electricity supplier in Australia. Adjoining shops were supplied by overhead wires, becoming the first non-government customers. In 1896, Barton ceased his partnership with White and established the Brisbane Electric Supply Co., which in 1899 relocated from Edison Lane to Ann St. In 1904 the company renamed itself the Central Electric Lighting Co. (CEL). Growing demand resulted in CEL building a new power station in William St in 1910 with a capacity of 1.2 MW, with the 0.5 MW plant relocated from Ann St in the same year and a further 0.7 MW capacity added the following year. In 1914 CEL converted to AC generation, DC being used until that time. In the meantime, the Brisbane Tramway Co. decided to electrify its network, and in 1897 it built Queensland's first significant power station at Countess Street, generating 0.9 MW @ 550 VDC, with capacity expanded to 4.05 MW by 1915 as the network was progressively electrified, as well as the construction of a second plant at Light Street with a capacity of 1.05 MW in 1913. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_electricity_supply_in_Br...