On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:47:56 +0100, David Hansen wrote:

On 5 Oct 2006 08:34:18 GMT someone who may be "Bob Eager"
wrote this:-

Rudyard Kipling did it in 1903...!

And the monks at Fort Augustus provided a public supply from a hydro
plant in ISTR the 1880s.

Hmm, Godalming is cited as the first British location to have a public
electricity supply in 1881 using a dynamo provided by Siemens. I believe
I've mentioned this before.

It was remarkably early, since Swan only installed electric lighting at
Cragside in 1880 and Benwell Lamps did not start to manufacture Swan bulbs
until 1881.

The Godalming scheme ran power into private homes, shops and street
lighting using a mix of Swan bulbs and arc lighting.

The porrage eating monks were Johnny-come-latelies not getting around to
generating electricity until 1890.

http://www.kilmorack.com/html/hydro.html

You will note from this page that the Scots came second in generating HEP
(to Godalming) and that the monks were well down the list of achievers.