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the oxygen in the air would not be consumed, and they would effect a great saving by substituting
electric light for gas. It need not cost a ratepayer a single penny to have an installation
of electric light and power in his premises. The Vestry had entered into two contracts with
large syndicates, one to fix prepayment meter on the penny in the slot system, while the other
gave ratepayers the opportunity of having their premises wired free of cost. They would get for
the penny a six hours light of eight.candle power similar to the lights outside the Town Hall.
By an arrangement with another syndicate consumers could have their premises wired free of
cost, with the option of purchase in three years, by either the Vestry or the consumer. The
destructor and lighting buildings were reliable and strong, only costing £8,000, and up to the
present the scheme had not put any charge upon the rates. (Cheers.)
Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R.S., said it was his duty to propose a vote of thanks to the
consulting engineers, Messrs. Kincaid, Waller and Manville, for the skill with which they had
designed this installation and for the care with which they had overlooked its execution. Lord
Kelvin was good enough to refer to the courage of the Vestry in carrying out such an installation,
but some thanks were due to these who had the boldness to propose such an installation
and the persistence to succeed in convincing what was as a rule a very obstinate body of
gentlemen, the Vestry of any Corporation. But there were no men so active and energetic in
carrying out a work when once convinced of the necessity of it. They had been convinced in
Shoreditch, and there was no doubt that success would reward their boldness. A previous
speaker had referred to the new illuminant as the poor man's light, but it was more than that:
the poor woman would curl her hair, and cook her husband's chop with it. (Hear, hear.)
There was no household use to which electricity could not be applied. It was to cost sixpence
per unit in Shoreditch, but to his mind electrical energy produced from dust at sixpence per
unit was very dear indeed, and the day would come when they would find from actual
experience that the sixpence would drop to fourpence, and perhaps the fourpence to threepence.
(Hear, hear.) With electrical energy at such a figure as that the poor men and women
might indeed erect a monument in some prominent place to the chairman of the Committee
who gave them the benefit of this economical measure. Electric light was a great rival to the
doctor, for wherever the light was introduced health was the result. They had in their post
offices in the country introduced the electric light to an enormous extent, and wherever that
was done they found that the average number of days absence through sickness was very
considerably diminished indeed, so much so that in many places the introduction of the electric
light had paid for itself. He assured the Vestry that they could place implicit confidence in
their engineers, than whom they could not have better guides or truer friends. (Cheers).
Professor Geo. Forbes, F.R.S.E., said the people of Shoreditch had reason to be proud of
this day in having not only made up their minds as to what would be beneficial to the people,
but also in having taken such admirable steps to see this work carried out in a proper way and
finished with such great success. The Vestry had reason to be proud and to congratulate
themselves ; but he might also say that the Consulting Engineers had the very greatest reason
to congratulate themselves and to be extremely happy on this auspicious occasion. There was
nothing in the world that gave an engineer greater pleasure than to be acting in the service of
men who had the courage of their opinions to carry out a great and novel kind of work. There
was no greater pleasure than to be permitted to promote the development of one of the great
forces of nature hitherto lying dormant and going to waste, and that he should be allowed to
bring power out of that wasted force. The engineers must have felt a pride in working out this
great development. Some of them were hardly aware of the importance of this great
experiment made by the Vestry of Shoreditch: it was the first serious attempt made to
practically use these great laws of force which they had recognised for years. Eight years ago
there was hardly a destructor in the country which was making any use whatever of the power.
One of the most important then existing was at Southampton, where the waste heat passing
through the flues a long distance away from the furnace was made to pass through some