Dams Construction
Cragside is a Victorian country house near the town of Rothbury in Northumberland, England. It was the home of William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, founder of the Armstrong Whitworth armaments firm. An industrial magnate, scientist, philanthropist and inventor of the hydraulic crane and the Armstrong gun, Armstrong also displayed his inventiveness in the domestic sphere, making Cragside the first house in the world to be lit using hydroelectric power. The estate was technologically advanced; the architect of the house, Richard Norman Shaw, wrote that it was equipped with "wonderful hydraulic machines that do all sorts of things". In the grounds, Armstrong built dams and lakes to power a sawmill, a water-powered laundry, early versions of a dishwasher and a dumb waiter, a hydraulic lift and a hydroelectric rotisserie. In 1887, Armstrong was raised to the peerage, the first engineer or scientist to be ennobled, and became Baron Armstrong of Cragside.
After his first visit in 1869, Shaw described the house in a letter to his wife, noting the "wonderful hydraulic machines that do all sorts of things you can imagine". By building dams, Armstrong created five new lakes on the estate, Debdon, Tumbleton, Blackburn, and the Upper and Lower lakes at Nelly's Moss. In 1868, a hydraulic engine was installed. Inspired by a watermill on the Dee in Dentdale, in 1870 Armstrong installed a Siemens dynamo in what was the world's first hydroelectric power station. The generators, which also provided power for the farm buildings on the estate, were constantly extended and improved to meet the increasing electrical demands in the house. The 2006 regeneration project included extensive rewiring. A new screw turbine, with a 17-metre (56 ft)-long Archimedes' screw, was installed in 2014; it can provide 12 kW, supplying around 10 per cent of the property's electricity consumption.
The electricity generated was used to power an arc lamp installed in the picture gallery in 1878. This was replaced in 1880 by Joseph Swan's incandescent lamps in what Swan considered "the first proper installation" of electric lighting. Armstrong knew Swan well and had chaired the presentation of Swan's new lamps to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. Historic England describes Cragside as the "first (house) in the world to be lit by electricity derived from water power". The use of electricity to run the house's appliances and internal systems made Cragside a pioneer of home automation; one of the first private residences to have a dishwasher, a vacuum cleaner and a washing machine, the conservators Sarah Schmitz and Caroline Rawson suggest Cragside was "the place where modern living began". The spit in the kitchen was also powered by hydraulics. The conservatory contained a self-watering system for the pot plants, which turned on water-powered revolving stands. Telephony was introduced, both between the rooms in the house, and between the house and other buildings on the estate. A plaque at Bamburgh Castle, Armstrong's other residence on the Northumbrian coast, records that his development of these new automated technologies "emancipated ... much of the world from household drudgery". More details
The electricity generated was used to power an arc lamp installed in the picture gallery in 1878. This was replaced in 1880 by Joseph Swan's incandescent lamps in what Swan considered "the first proper installation" of electric lighting. Armstrong knew Swan well and had chaired the presentation of Swan's new lamps to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. Historic England describes Cragside as the "first (house) in the world to be lit by electricity derived from water power". The use of electricity to run the house's appliances and internal systems made Cragside a pioneer of home automation; one of the first private residences to have a dishwasher, a vacuum cleaner and a washing machine, the conservators Sarah Schmitz and Caroline Rawson suggest Cragside was "the place where modern living began". The spit in the kitchen was also powered by hydraulics. The conservatory contained a self-watering system for the pot plants, which turned on water-powered revolving stands. Telephony was introduced, both between the rooms in the house, and between the house and other buildings on the estate. A plaque at Bamburgh Castle, Armstrong's other residence on the Northumbrian coast, records that his development of these new automated technologies "emancipated ... much of the world from household drudgery". More details
