An illuminating paragraph

I remember the power cuts of the early 1970s, but apart from that, it’s hard to imagine what it must have been like to live in a world where you couldn’t just flick a switch and carry on reading until gone midnight.

This month marks the arrival of the first electric light in Watford, 131 years ago.

It was reported in the Watford Observer of August 18, 1883, thus:

“Messrs Rogers Bros have been the first to adopt the electric light in Watford and have fitted up a three-light electrolier both inside and outside their establishment in High Street. The light is most brilliant and has attracted a large concourse of people.”

“Electrolier” was the name for a fixture, usually hanging from the ceiling, for holding electric lamps. And it really must have been amazing for the people of Watford.

But, of course, it wasn’t a unique installation for long. When the above paragraph was reprinted in the “In Days Gone By” column of the Watford Observer on August 19, 1933, it was accompanied by a leader reflecting on the amazing changes which had taken place over those intervening 50 years.

“What may be called an illuminating paragraph appears in this week’s extract from the Observer file of 50 years ago. It is there announced that a Watford firm had been the first to adopt electric light in Watford and their electroliers, being very brilliant, had attracted ‘a large concourse of people’.”

It continues: “Some idea of the progress that has been made in the half-century may be gathered from the fact that last year, nearly 35 millions of units were sold by the Corporation electricity undertaking, the total number of consumers being 14,486. Some 14 years after the first appearance of shop lights, the council obtained an Electric Lighting Order, and was the first authority in England to light by electricity every public street lamp.

“As time  went on, the area was extended under new Orders and now comprises 90 to 100 square miles.

“The undertaking had its vicissitudes and at one period, so little was thought of its prospects that a proposal to dispose of it to a private company was seriously debated.

“Fortunately, better counsels prevailed and today, large profits are made. From these profits, rate relief is obtained, though not to the full permissible extent, the committee always being strangely reluctant to give the shareholders, that is the ratepayers, the benefits to which they are entitled.

“That point, however, need not be emphasised; we are only concerned now with illustrating the vast strides that have been recorded since Watford people first blinked at the new light. And, in passing, it is not a little remarkable to note that, so far from the older illuminant, gas, being ousted, the Watford Gas Company has kept pace with its rival and has grown into a great and prosperous concern with ramifications covering almost half the county. Here is a case where competiution has led to profitable enterprise.”

I wonder what the readers of 1933 would make of our current council turning all the street lights off and plunging us into darkness every night? Total bafflement, I suspect.

Thanks to those who have commented they enjoyed our recent Nostalgia special commemorating the start of the First World War and while we’re on “light”, or the lack thereof, I am reminded of Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey’s famous quote: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time”.

One thing about researching and writing about the First World War, is that it can lead to you feeling somewhat depressed. It’s all very well celebrating something, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that many millions died – on both sides.

In an attempt to cheer myself up, having finished the 1914 work, I decided to look up the Watford Observer files of November 1918 to see how the paper reported the Armistice.

The following comes from the leading article published on November 16, 1918 – the first paper after peace was declared. It reads not unlike a Churchill speech from the 1940s at times, but those of us born after both world wars were over, can only wonder what it must have been like to live in peace again after so much bloodshed.

Headed The Sun of Victory, the article begins: “It may well be that November 11th, 1918, will be the greatest date in history. In our own eyes, it will, by reason of its effect on national destiny, loom larger than the dates of the Armada, of Trafalgar, of Waterloo.

“Not yet can we of this generation adequately realise the stupendous character of the changes which must follow the consummation of the victory of the Allies over the powers of autocracy and tyranny. For the moment we can only rejoice at the birth, after four years of bitter and sorrow-laden travail, of a new world.

“A nightmare has been lifted from men’s minds. We look from the dead ashes of militarism to the torch of Liberty, lighting up, in an ever-growing arc of splendour, the dark places of the earth.

“Since Monday, the light of a wonderful gladness has been in the eyes of free men. Even in Germany, the bitterness of defeat is, for the masses, softened by hopes of the future.

"Out of the struggle, Britain comes greater and more gloriously strong than ever. She made the choice, as by her faith and traditions she was bound to do, for the good against the evil side; and never once, through days dark and menacing, has the spirit of her people faltered.

“Through the gloom of the valley, the sunshine on the hilltops was always visible and by God’s grace we stand today where the sun is high in the heavens.

“What we owe to the men who have fought our fight, who have met death in forms as hideous as devildom could devise, who entered the fiery furnace with exaltation of spirit, serene and unconquerable, can never be adequately expressed. In their presence we feel humble today.

“Underlying the rejoicings of the past week has been a kind of amazed wonder that it is all over, that the sullen mouth of the cannon is cold, that the frenzy of killing has passed.

“And it is but right that our thanksgivings and transports of joy should be modified by thought of the brave who are no more, of the bereaved whose tears are not yet dry and who lie thinking in the slow watches of the night of some grave across the seas. But the dead shall live again. Soldiers of ours yesterday, in the noble words of Clemenceau, are soldiers of God today.”

ONLINE TOMORROW: Watford FC manager Ken Furphy giving out fixture cards at the start of the 1967/68 season (picture).