science · 30 September 1881 · 143 years ago
In 1881, the Godalming town council in Surrey, England, voted to have the world's first public electricity supply. The contract expired that day with a gas company that lit the community's high street. I instead of renewing that contract at a cost of £210 a year, the council accepted an offer from Calder & Barrett for £195. Earlier in the week, the mayor and councillors saw a demonstration of electrical lighting by that firm, and had inspected the generating plant. The AC generator was driven by a water-wheel on the River Wey at one of the leather mills owned by John Pullman. It could supplied lighting to the mill, street, and some businesses and homes. Though the Thames Embankment in London had arc lamps a couple of years earlier, Godalming preceded Edison's first public supply scheme in London in Jan 1882.
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