Cragside: the Facts (NU073022)

Cragside, an extraordinary country house on the outskirts of Rothbury, is arguably the North-East’s greatest ever creation, with a history as eventful and notable as any structure of its kind worldwide. Here are some of the better known facts of its life and times:

• Originally a sporting lodge, it was built in 1863 by local industrialist, Lord (William) Armstrong (1810-1900), and subsequently extended thereafter thanks to architect Richard Norman Shaw;
• It was the first house in the world to be lit be hydroelectric power (in 1878);
• It originally had arc lamp-type lighting, and then became Joseph Swan’s first major project employing his new-fangled incandescent electric lighting system in 1880;
• As well as lighting, this early form of electricity supply powered countless labour-saving devices, such as an internal passenger lift, laundry equipment and a spit (rotisserie). There were also extraordinary Victorian luxuries such as hot and cold running water, central heating, a Turkish bath suite, a hot room, a rain shower, a plunge bath and even a fire hydrant ring main;
• It has seven million trees and shrubs (from all over the world), five artificial lakes, and 31 miles of carriage drives – all created in Armstrong’s day;
• It is home to the largest Scots Pine tree in the UK (131ft), planted in the late 19^th century;
• It once contained an astronomical observatory and a scientific laboratory;
• Lord Armstrong entertained the likes of the Shah of Persia and the King of Siam at Cragside; as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales;
• It is fronted by one of Europe’s largest rock gardens;
• It has been in the care of the National Trust since 1977;
• In 2014, a 17-metre long Archimedes Screw was installed which generates around 10% of the property’s power.

And, best of all, it is open to the public!

Mr Swan’s Underhill (NZ262606)

(from Wikipedia)

Now a residence for the elderly, the elegant Victorian building known as Underhill on Kells Lane, Low Fell, was the first domestic property in the world to be lit by electric light bulb. Which is not surprising, really, as it was once the home of Sir Joseph Swan, the local lad who invented the said item.

The blue plaque on the wall (which you can just about make out on the picture above) pretty much says it all:

Sir

Joseph Wilson Swan

(1828-1914)

lived here 1869-1883

A physicist and chemist, his experiments

here led to him inventing the first

electric light bulb. Underhill was

the first house in the world

to be wired for domestic

electric lighting.

It was in the conservatory of his home that most of his experiments were conducted. Dry plate photography and engraving, for one thing; and, of course, the making of filaments for incandescent electric lamps. He had been fiddling around with his idea on and off since 1850, but was not able to declare the idea a success until 1880 – which is when he probably had Underhill suitably kitted out. In December of the very same year, Swan travelled up to his friend’s house, Sir William Armstrong’s Cragside, to supervise the installation of electric lighting there, too.

Internally, Underhill remains relatively unspoilt, retaining its staircase, most of the woodwork, fireplaces and the original bathroom.

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (NZ375579)

The inventor of the incandescent electric light bulb was born at Pallion Hall*, Sunderland, on 31st October 1828. Leaving school at twelve, he was apprenticed to a firm of local chemists, before moving onto a similar firm run by John Mawson, in Newcastle. In time, Swan would develop many new processes in the burgeoning photography business – patenting the carbon process for photographic printing in 1864, and inventing the dry plate (1871) and bromide paper (1879).

Swan was an enthusiastic member of the Newcastle Literary & Philosophical Society (which still exists), and became hooked on the search for a practical electric light bulb after witnessing an early demonstration in which a wire was made to glow after being placed across a battery. Early models by Swan and others were pretty useless affairs, but our man persevered with wires of many different materials – eventually falling upon specially coated carbonised paper, of all things. But only when there was no oxygen present would the filaments hold firm – and try as he might, he couldn’t get a completely ‘clean’ oxygen-free vacuum.

In the end – and after more than a quarter of a century of trying – he had to essentially invent the world’s first artificial fibre (a sort of rayon, or artificial silk), which would then be carbonised, placed in an oxygen-free tube, then heated. By the late 1870s he was at last able to get his special filaments to glow white without burning out. After showing a few friends, he then demonstrated his process to a packed Lit & Phil Society lecture theatre in Newcastle on 3rd February 1879, and the world would never be the same again.

Swan didn’t bother properly patenting the carbon-filament making process, and so allowed Thomas Edison to steal a good deal of his thunder over the coming months and years as the American tried to claim the credit, quite wrongly, for the new invention. A dispute arose between the two of them during 1879, which exploded when Swan opened his light-bulb factory in Benwell, Newcastle, in 1881. Eventually, however, they buried their differences (or rather their similarities!) and joined forces with the ‘Edison & Swan United Electric Light Co.’ in 1883.

Swan’s home at the time, Underhill in Gateshead, was the first private home to be lit by electric lighting. Most of Swan’s experiments were conducted in the property’s greenhouse - and Underhill still stands in Kells Lane to this day. The great man was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1894, knighted in 1904 and died in Warlingham, Surrey, in 1914.

* Pallion Hall was demolished in 1901. It used to sit a little to the north of the present-day Pallion Metro Station, not far from the River Wear.