Brisbane Power Station 1886 and Edison Tubes
The 1886 Power Station
The invention of the commercial incandescent lamp in 1878 by Joseph Swan in England and in 1879 by Thomas Edison in USA was the greatest technical breakthrough in bringing controlled Electric light for use inside buildings. The adoption spread rapidly world-wide, and incandescent lighting first came to Brisbane in 1882 as demonstrations by the Edison Co USA of Arc lighting in Queens St and incandescent lighting in some shop front widows. Following a trial installation of new incandescent lighting at the Government Printery in 1882, the Queensland Government decided to build their first power station alongside the rear of the printery to not only supply the Printery but also Parliament House at the end of William St. The contract for supply and erection or all the electrical supply system was awarded to the Edison Co, the steam engines and locomotive type boilers to Smellie and Co and the building to Andrew Petrie.
The PowerStation consisted of a new building, two Robey Steam engines of 40 horse power (29kW) each one belt driving two Edison 400 light 16cp 110v DC dynamos of 30 kW each plus a spare. After many setbacks and changing of personnel, the project was commissioned in 1886 by the new govt electrical engineer, Edward GC Barton, who then continued to manage the operation and maintenance of the whole scheme to 1888. The total cost of the installation including the wiring and lighting the 50 lamps at the Printery, the underground Edison tube supply along William st, and the 400 lamps and wiring at Parliament house was over £19,000 ($38,000), the majority being for the building.
Edward GC Barton was the most experienced electrical engineer in the colony at that time due to his training in Germany and professional work in Europe, England, New Zealand, Tasmania, Victoria, and NSW on electric lighting schemes. In 1888 he resigned to start up a new partnership Barton, White & Co to supply the pubic with electric power from a new Power Station in Edison Lane off Creek St. Barton remained as a consultant to Government and with the addition of the new wing extension to parliament house in Alice St in 1892, and the excessive voltage drop in the existing street tube, he recommended a major reinforcement with a second 3 core Edison Tube main to be laid in William St. This was carried out by his private partnership now called Barton & White. By 1906 when even additional load was required, the Printery and Parliament House had their supply transferred to a new Ann St PowerStation built by Barton & White’s successor organisation City Electric Light Co. This larger and more efficient station supplying a lower cost of electrical energy enabled the William St Station to be closed and it was eventually recovered in 1909.
The Edison Street Tubes
These underground mains called Edison Street Tubes were invented in 1881 by Thomas Edison in the USA, and first used in London, England as a trial in early 1882 and permanently in New York, USA in late 1882 for the world’s first central steam powered Electricity PowerStation and distribution system. They were patented in by Thomas Edison as the first commercial underground electric mains in the world and were manufactured in New York, USA by one of his companies, Edison Electric Tube Company. They were supplied to Brisbane to allow supply from the PowerStation at the printery to be distributed underground along William St to the Queensland Parliament House rear entrance via Alice St.
This was the first and only place in the southern hemisphere to use these mains. Reinforced in 1892, they were superseded and abandoned in 1906. It was not until 1992 that the route was rediscovered in William St and sections partially recovered. Later in 2018 a full 150m long recovery exercise from the original William St route was completed as preparation work for the Queens Wharf development. There remains about another estimated 110 m length of unrecovered mains from Margaret St to Alice St. on the opposite side of William St with the exact route not as yet confirmed.
The Street Tubes are solid wrought iron pipes each 20 feet in length (6.1m) with conductor sizes of 2x 0.206 sq. inch (133sq mm) for the two-core operating in 1886 and 3x 0.12 sq. inch (77 sq mm) for the three-core tubes installed in parallel in the same trench in1892. They consist of solid copper rods insulated by millboard diaphragms tied by cords in the case of the two-core and twisted rope in the three-core and slid into the 20 ft long wrought iron tubes of outer diameter 2 ¼ inch (57mm) for two-core and 2 3/8 inch (61mm) for three-core (See Figure 1.) After filling by vacuum pump with insulating compound made from a combination of refined Trinidad pitch, linseed oil, beeswax and paraffin wax, they were permanently sealed with rubber plugs at each end for transport, with 3 inches (75mm) of copper rod protruding to enable continuous connections. Following installation in the trench, they were joined by cast iron bolted egg shaped “boxes” filled with the same insulation and with flexible connectors to allow for expansion. The trenches were only 300mm deep under the roadway, with the two mains running parallel just 2.6m from the curbing and well away from any other underground services.
Samples are held by Queensland Museum, Queensland Parliament House, Commissariat Store, and various other museums in Qld and NSW, and the Science Museum London, England.
References:
1- S.A. Prentice Sept 1988- “Edward Barton 1858-1942 Pioneer Electrical Engineer”-Memories of the Queensland Museum Vol 7 Part1
2- McKenzie, E.D. & Prentice, S.A. 1994-06-01; “The first underground mains for electricity supply in Brisbane.” Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 35(1); 181-192. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835
3- Becconsall, B.J. & Simmers, J.M. April 1992; “Electric Lighting in Brisbane – The First Decade 1882-1892. Power Supply and Lighting.” EA Qld Division Technical Papers Vol 33 -1992
4- Edison Tubes Presentation to the Speaker of Queensland Parliament in 2018
by B.J. Becconsall & S. Wallace
5- “The Recovery of 134-year-old “Edison Street Tubes” from William St Brisbane”. by B.J. Becconsall & S. Wallace -Engineering Heritage Australia Magazine, Vol.2 No 9 September 2018 pp. 8-13
6- Brian Becconsall, Stuart Wallace Proposal to Nominate as Item of Engineering Interest, April 2026.
