ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Irish Rural Electrification video clip

Here's a rather tacky RTE report on the cheif engineer of the irish rural electrification scheme who passed away at age 95 in 2000. Some interesting clips of footage from 1940s rural ireland including electrified milk churns etc
http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0409/nationwide/nationwide2A.ram

(RealPlayer / RealOne player required)

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 12-27-2003).]

Great old clips of film. I like the contrast between the lady who was eager to get electricity as soon as possible and the one who said:


Looking at some of the photos on ECN, a few more people should feel that way.....


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 12-27-2003).]

did you notice the lady switching the churn on which was plugged into a single socket with a diazed fuse.. quite common in old houses...

16A fuse on a panel with 1 socket, usually Schuko.. although that could have been BS546 too.

ESB actually has a rather amazing archive they employed film makers and researchers and were were a fairly unusual organisation as they realised that what they were doing was very signifigant so they recorded all of it on film from 1927 right up until the last islands were hooked up in the late 1970s!

They've huge film and photo archives, appliences, fixtures, fittings, network equipment, power plant equipment etc all stored safely and preserved dating from 1927 to 2003!

The ESB archives actually give a lot of insight into Irish life right through the 1900s not just into the power system as they were looking at social changes pre and post electrification.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 12-27-2003).]

Oh yes.... I don't think I've ever seen an electric churn before!

I some how doubt that contraption would meed CE requirements

They also used the term "electrified" rather than "electric"

So it was a "fully electrified churn" which sounds a lot scarier

I saw clips from those days and when people in rural areas got electricity (30s-40s-50s mostly) they first tended to get light bulbs... then when the lightbulbs showed up how dusty the place was there was a rush on vacuum cleaners and washing machines.

The ESB used all sorts of PR tricks to convince people to let them run cables the shortest routes like saying that electricity couldn't go around corners :P

There were a few particularly conservative spots that opposed it on grounds of safety, fear or, much like today, a dislike of pylons and overhead lines.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 12-30-2003).]