Abstract
IN view of the decision of the Institution of Electrical Engineers to hold no meetings of the Institution in London during the first half of the session, a copy of the address of Mr. Johnstone Wright, president of the Institution and chairman of the Central Electricity Board, which he would have delivered normally on October 26, has been posted to every member in the United Kingdom and Eire. His choice of the construction and operation of the Grid as the subject of his address was a happy one, owing to the significant coincidence that the incoming president on the outbreak of the War of 1914–18 was the late Sir John Snell, to whose vision, enthusiasm and advocacy the Grid is so largely due. The deficiencies in national electrical organization revealed by that war resulted in the establishment of the Grid. It is not too much to claim that the Grid has a vital national role in the present struggle. The Grid construction and standardization of frequency planned in comparative prosperity of 1924–29 and carried out largely in the period of acute depression which followed, resulted in a large increase above the normal capital expenditure of the industry at a time when such expenditure was most needed. The policy had the valuable effect of affording manufacturers in Great Britain extensive and intensive experience in designing and constructing large high-voltage power plant, thus putting them in a position of equality with their competitors abroad.
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The Electrical Grid in Great Britain. Nature 144, 778–779 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144778d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144778d0