Brightwater’s chicken power
- When
- 1908
- Where
- Brightwater
- Reach
- Local
A Waimea miller brought a hydro generator home from England and lit the first streetlights in Brightwater and Richmond, switched on and off by roosting chickens.
Robert Ellis shipped a small hydro-generator back from England in 1908 and set it up on the Motueka River. He later bought the Brightwater flour mill, mainly for its water: it ground flour by day and made electricity by night, enough for five streetlights in Brightwater and ten in Richmond. There were no time switches, and nobody wanted to walk out at dusk and again at dawn to work them, so Ellis rigged the circuit to the hen roost. The birds went up as the light went, and the lamps came on.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to read the full account, or to check this one against the original.
Related
New Zealand connected to the world by cable
A submarine cable from Sydney landed near Nelson, cutting news from London from three months to a few hours.
Cable Bay, NelsonThe North Island Main Trunk line is completed
Prime Minister Joseph Ward drove the last spike at Manganuioteao, linking Auckland and Wellington by rail for the first time.
ManganuioteaoThe Waihi strike
Six months of confrontation at the goldmine ended when police and strikebreakers stormed the miners’ hall and Frederick Evans was fatally injured.
WaihiThe Great Strike
Watersiders and miners struck nationwide; the government swore in mounted special constables — farmers on horseback — who cleared the wharves by force.
Wellington waterfront