Edward G C Barton
BARTON, Edward G C, AMIEAust MIEE FRGS (1858-1942)
BARTON, EDWARD GUSTAVUS CAMPBELL, electrical engineer, was born in Melbourne, son of George Elliott Barton, a barrister, and his wife Jane Crichton (nee Campbell), and attended school in Dunedin, New Zealand. He studied engineering at Karlsruhe Polytechnic in Germany from 1875 to 1879, graduating in 1879, after which he obtained practical training in England and Scotland. In 1882 he superintended the first electric-lighting installation in Britain at Godalming, Surrey, as Siemens Brothers representative, before returning to New Zealand. Between 1882 and 1886 he was mainly engaged in consulting work in Australia and New Zealand but he also erected electrical plant for the Phoenix Gold Mines at Gympie in Queensland in 1885 and worked for the Australasian Electric Light, Power and Storage Co. In 1886 he was appointed Government Electric Engineer for Queensland with the immediate task of completing a second underground cable between the small generating plant at the Government Printing Office and Parliament House in Brisbane. This was a major undertaking because of the many short lengths of conductor and conduit required at the time.
In 1888 Barton resigned from this position and formed with C.F. White, the firm of Barton and White (later Barton, White & Co.). He brought design ability to the partnership whose main work was the manufacture of small items of electrical equipment. By mid-1888 the firm offered to supply electric light to the public from a small direct-current generator driven by a steam engine. Shortly afterwards the General Post Office in Brisbane became the first customer but progress in extending electricity supply was slow due to the failure of equipment, floods, and opposition to new ideas. In 1896 the firm went into liquidation although it was re-formed soon afterwards as the Brisbane Electric Supply Co. Ltd. The company's first power station was in Edison Lane, off Creek Street, but by 1898 there was need for more space and the plant was moved to Ann Street. In 1904 the company changed its name to City Electric Light Co. with Barton as General Manager and Director. Several years later he resigned and was appointed a consultant to the company. In 1915 he went to England, joining the staff of the Department of Munitions and later the Naval Information Department, partly on account of his ability to speak French, German and Italian. A major interest, which commenced in 1922, was the British Decimal Association of which he was Chairman from 1938 until his death in June 1942.
Throughout his thirty years in Brisbane, Barton contributed a variety of technical papers to learned societies, and the range of topics indicates his very broad interests in the field of engineering. They included wireless telegraphy which he demonstrated in a public lecture in Brisbane in 1903. His views on electric railways were advanced and he described in a lecture to the Queensland Electrical Association in 1901 the advantages of alternating current over direct-current traction systems, outlining their application to south-east Queensland. Barton's activities in the development of professional societies in Queensland were outstanding. In 1892 he was elected to the Council of the Queensland Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and in 1898 the Queensland Electrical Association was formed with Barton as a founding member and President for 1899-1900. The Queensland Institute of Engineers was formed in 1901 with Barton as President for 1901-2. From 1907 to 1915 he was local honorary secretary for the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Barton showed an interest in politics and in 1908 he was elected MLA for North Brisbane. However he did not seek re-election in the following year. There is much evidence of his interest in technical education and he conducted classes in electrical engineering subjects before a technical college was created in Brisbane. Later, in 1905, he became President of the Council of the Brisbane Technical College. Barton's interest in the establishment of a University is evident from his inaugural address to the Queensland Institute of Engineers in 1901. He advocated strongly that the University Senate should be "recruited chiefly from recognized scientific, industrial and commercial associations". He was appointed to the first Senate in 1910 and made Chairman of the Buildings and Grounds Committee.
Barton married Mary Allen Sutton in 1893 in Brisbane and they had one son, Joseph George Elliott Barton.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
Jour, Inst. Elec. Engrs, Vol. 90 (1943), Pt. 1, p. 531;
S.A. Prentice, 'Electricity In Early Brisbane', Qld Div;
Tech. Papers, I.E. Aust., Vol. 22 (1982), No. 19; S.E.Q.E.B, Archives,
