Althea Amsden wrote: One of my students is very intrigued by this ref to
electricity in a military camp (presumably) at this early date. Can anyone
please enlighten us as to whether this existed, how it was generated etc?
With regard to the provision of electric light during the Beor war, the Royal
Engineers of 1900 could provide both electric power and electric telegraph
for a headquarters in the field. The electricity was produced by generators,
belt driven from the large flywheels of slow revving single cylinder oil
engines. Such an engine was installed in Salisbury Cathedral in 1877 to
drive a pump to provide the air for the new large organ, admittedly not a
generator but, even so, a reminder that we must not underestimate the rate at
which new discoveries became new devices at the end of the 19th century.
Kipling mentions prison camp lighting at the beginning of 'The Captive'
(Traffics and Discoveries) where he speaks of (Boer) prisoners of war,
bathing in the sea and... 'Behind their orderly tin camp and the electric
light poles rose those stone-dotted spurs that throw their heat on
Simonstown.' It was there that Mary Kingsley nursed Boer prisoners and
died of typhoid.
The 'tall electric light' of the 'Half-ballade of Waterval' were lights
round a Boer camp for British prisoners. When Roberts took Pretoria on 5
June 1900 there were over 4000 British prisoners in Waterval, then a village
fifteen miles north of the town. The Boers moved about 1000 prisoners away
but the remainder either escaped that day or were abandoned when an armoured
train was sent to their relief. The NCO of the poem must have been one of
these before being engaged in shipping Boer prisoners overseas, prisoners
with whom he could sympathise because at Waterval he had learnt what
captivity means. (Another example of Kipling showing that 'we' and 'they' are
not so different and one that might not have been too popular at the time).
Kipling had certainly seen the camp at Simonstown and he could have seen
Waterval while in Pretoria, helping out with 'The Friend'. However, his
image of tall lights seems to me to be an echo of the lights on poles at
Simonstown and Waterval might never have had them.
As to the nature of the light sources themselves, I favour arc lights but,
having helped run an arc-lit cinema projector in my youth (it might well have
been a contemporary of the one that Kipling described in Mrs Bathurst), I
remember that one had to keep a watchful eye on the arc, as the carbon
electrodes were eaten away by the passage of current and, if not regularly
adjusted, this would result in a dimming of the light and catcalls from the
audience in the village hall. Not quite the best source of light at the top
of a tall pole. Any more ideas?
Thanks to Althea and her student for a most entertaining evening amongst my
books. Keep the questions coming.
Yours Sincerely,
Roger Ayers
Membership Secretary,
The Kipling Society
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