electric

Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons C-class tramcar - note the side mounted trolley pole. I'm willing to be corrected, but this may indicate that the shot was taken in 1897 or 1898. The C-class entered service in 1896.

John Cowper This site at section 2.5.1 has the Mosman Wharf tramway extended and electrified in 1897 too - www.railpage.org.au/tram/goddmack.html . Also the wikipedia article - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Sydney#First_period_1886_-... I will see if I can find an exact date via Trove - the date is important because it might help date the entire album, which seems to be October 1897 from this march in George St -

Too easy! Trove gives 19.2.1897, several months before this photo (?) as the "official trial trip" - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14089640 . THis article gives amazing full details of the cars ... enough to delight any trainspotter or tramspotter!

The tramway route on an interactive 1900 map - www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.map-rm2358-sd&rgn=... I think this photo is somewhere on Avenue Road - perhaps this bend on GoogleMapsStreetView ? - goo.gl/maps/qByhv

beachcomber australia Well done, as usual! Appreciate the press article re the test!

Sound chap This Mr Swan...

"... Swan's demonstration of the light bulb at a lecture in Newcastle upon Tyne on 18 December 1878, before its invention by the American Thomas Edison ..." Now consider the idiocy of this. Swan demonstrated the light bulb, so he invented it. OK so the filament was a bit naff, and it was hard to achieve a good vacuum. Thomas Edison cannot have invented it AFTER Swan had already demonstrated it. Give Edison the credit for improving it, and creating a production line for its manufacture, but please, do not fall into that Transatlantic error of thinking Edison invented the light bulb. He did not.

Timothy Jones thanks. We've reworded the caption - we certainly don't believe it was Edison who invented the lightbulb!

I was always fascinated by these and wondered how they could tell them apart? Imagine the chaos if he had a few jars on when operating these???

When my father was young, he did the same work.

Robert Lesti Careful and skilled work, I would imagine and Swordscookie sober work!!

I was just kidding about the drink though you can be sure it happened, if caught instant dismissal! These guys were so used to things and had plates on the critical ones to tell them what was what and where they went. I remember wathcing some of them in action and they looking like conductors of orchestra's they were so good at their work.

I've got a photo of my great uncle David in the same environment and in the exact same position when he worked for British Rail in Dumfrieshire!