First house powered by hydro-electricity

The first house powered by electricity derived from hydro-sources was Cragside, Northumberland, UK, built in 1863. Constructed for Lord Armstrong by celebrated architect Richard Norman Shaw, by 1880 Cragside was using two lakes on the surrounding estates to generate electricity as well as being the first house to be lit by Joseph Swan's newly invented incandescent light bulbs. Water from the lakes dropped a vertical distance of 103 m to create the necessary water pressure. In a power house, a Vortex turbine and Siemens dynamo turned the gushing water into electricity. After many changes, in 2014 an updated system was installed, using a 17-m Archimedes screw to produce enough energy to light the 350 bulbs in the house, as well as to drive gadgets such as the rotating spit in the kitchen and elevator. Cragside is often seen as a prototype for modern homes. Besides electric power, it was also one of the first houses to boast hot and cold running water, central heating, telephones, fire alarms and a Turkish bath suite. The owner of Cragside was the extraordinary Victorian inventor, scientist, engineer, arms manufacturer and philanthropist William George Armstrong, later Lord Armstrong. Armstrong apparently had his initial idea for hydraulic power while fishing for trout, when aged just 24. As he later explained: “I was lounging idly about, watching an old water-mill, when it occurred to me what a small part of the power of the water was used in driving the wheel, and then I thought how great would be the force of even a small quantity of water if its energy were only concentrated in one column.”

Born the son of a Newcastle corn merchant, Armstrong grew extremely rich through sales of hydraulic cranes, the Armstrong cannon and other weapons, as well as through inventions such as the opening and closing mechanisms for London’s Tower Bridge and Newcastle's Swing Bridge. He was therefore more wealthy enough to put into practice at Cragside his extravagant ideas for hydroelectric power, which he saw as replacing coal power within 200 years. In particular, he wanted to be make Cragside into a “palace of a modern magician”, and fit to receive important guests, who were to include the King of Siam, Shah of Persia and the future King Edward VII.

Armstrong died at Cragside on 27 December 1900, aged 90.