Holborn Viaduct to Calder Hall : E B Watton AMIEE : promotional publication issued by Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. London : 1956
A booklet issued by the boiler makers Babcock and Wilcox Ltd in 1956 for the opening of the Calder Hall nuclear power station in Cumberland, the world's first large scale nuclear power plant. However electricity generation was really a secondary aim as the primary purpose of the plant was to provide plutonium for the UK's nuclear weapons programme. Babcock and Wilcox were celebrating the fact that their boilers featured both here at Calder Hall and at the Holborn Viaduct generating station of 1882.
As the text admits there is some debate about what precisely constitutes the UK's first generating station - the site at 57 Holborn Viaduct where the Edison Electric Lighting Station was fitted within an existing building was of course predated by other schemes; the Holborn Viaduct works were however designed to allow the supply of current to other private consumers.
Anyhow, a rather fine cover by "Monk" shows the new and the old. The text is by E B Watton AMIEE.
Holborn Viaduct to Calder Hall : E B Watton AMIEE : promotional publication issued by Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. London : 1956
A booklet issued by the boiler makers Babcock and Wilcox Ltd in 1956 for the opening of the Calder Hall nuclear power station in Cumberland, the world's first large scale nuclear power plant. However electricity generation was really a secondary aim as the primary purpose of the plant was to provide plutonium for the UK's nuclear weapons programme. Babcock and Wilcox were celebrating the fact that their boilers featured both here at Calder Hall and at the Holborn Viaduct generating station of 1882.
As the text admits there is some debate about what precisely constitutes the UK's first generating station - the site at 57 Holborn Viaduct where the Edison Electric Lighting Station was fitted within an existing building was of course predated by other schemes; the Holborn Viaduct works were however designed to allow the supply of current to other private consumers.
Anyhow, a rather fine cover by "Monk" shows the new and the old. The text is by E B Watton AMIEE.