Monday, July 11, 2005

100 years ago

At a meeting of the Electric Lighting Committee of York Corporation, the City Electrical Engineer presented his annual report. An additional 9,819 8-candle power lamps had been connected to the mains during the year, making the total connected 63,293. The number of electric motors connected to the mains was 147, with a total horsepower of 660. This showed an increase of 37 electric motors for the year. The income received from the sale of current for motors and the rent for the loan of the motors would more than pay the coal bill for the whole of the electric power station. The number of consumers connected to the mains was 558, having increased from 470 in the previous year, being an increase of 19 per cent. The maximum load on the station had increased from 661 to 810 kilowatts, an increase of 24 per cent. As the capacity of the plant was 1,860 kilowatts, this left sufficient margin without any extension for the coming winter.

50 years ago

The impact of Dr Billy Graham on religion continued to grow. He was to address a rally of 60,000 Baptists at the Arsenal Stadium that would wind up a week of celebrations of the golden jubilee congress of the Baptist World Alliance. The congress would be the largest gathering of Baptists ever held in Europe and would be attended by more international representatives than any previous congress. A sign of the religious resurgence in the Soviet Union was the fact that nine delegates were coming from that country. They would, no doubt, listen with particular interest to Dr Graham, for there was a suggestion that he would be invited to the Soviet Union soon.

25 years ago

Doctors called for a £5 charge for calling out ambulances to answer 999 calls. They said many people rang for help for nose bleeds, minor dog bites and other trivial complaints. The charge was needed to stop scarce NHS money being squandered, said the doctors. The call followed a survey, which showed that more than half of all ambulance journeys were unnecessary. Ambulances were called to take patients to hospital after "overdoses" of toothpaste, cases of tonsillitis and even when needles were lodged in fingers. One extraordinary case involved a patient who was needlessly brought to hospital three times in a single day by ambulance. In another, a schoolboy was taken to hospital protesting vigorously that he was only a spectator at an accident. Dr David Morris and Dr Anthony Cross, who carried out the survey of 1,000 emergency calls over a two-month period, said: "Non-essential, emergency ambulance work must be an enormous monetary drain. Not only must expenses be considered but also the potential danger to which ambulance personnel are exposed when hurrying to answer emergency calls."

Updated: 11:44 Saturday, July 09, 2005