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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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electricity
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Single buildings were lit by electricity (through the installation on the premises of a steam-driven generator) before there was any public supply of current. Joseph *Swan had been the first to give a practical display of electric light, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1878; the *Savoy Theatre then made history in 1881 as the first public building to be lit by this method; the first systems delivering power to subscribers' homes were installed in London in January 1882 and in New York in September of that year.
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The spread of electric power in Britain was the piecemeal achievement of private companies and municipal councils. Each separate enterprise built its own power station and connected it to the houses of the surrounding district. By the time the industry was *nationalized, in 1948, there were 195 private and 367 municipal concerns, working alongside a Central Electricity Board which operated a national grid and some 300 national power stations. All towns and nearly all villages had by then a supply of electricity, but most farms and prosperous isolated houses relied on their own diesel generators, while country cottages were still lit by paraffin lamps.
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It was not until the 1960s that electricity in the house was normal throughout Britain. By then *nuclear power stations were providing a small part of the nation's supply, as a supplement to those fired by *coal.
The nationalized electricity industry in England and Wales consisted of a Central Electricity Generating Board and 12 area electricity boards. It was this structure which was *privatized in 1991.
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