The Chimes

by Fr David Barry, OSB

Early in 1972, New Norcia began its final preparations to move from generating its own electricity and become part of the state electricity grid, under the State Electricity Commission (SEC). That year, I undertook some research into the introduction of electricity to the town forty-nine years earlier, in 1923, which is a hundred years ago this year.

I recently discovered in the 1972 Monastery Chronicle [NNA 00485] a couple of typed pages from that research, along with a photocopy of a page from the St Ildephonsus’ College Magazine for 1923. The following write-up appeared in that issue of the SIC Magazine, page 29, with the title 'Electric Light at New Norcia':

Since Friday evening, the 27th July, the installation of the electric light in New Norcia is an accomplished fact. This year His Lordship the Abbot brought about this much-needed improvement. The undertaking was a big one, and necessarily entailed great expense. The actual work was carried out expeditiously, and in spite of inconvenience caused in the classrooms by the continuous hammering when the workmen were piercing the massive College walls, all cheerfully put up with it, realising the great boon that would soon be theirs.

The power house is a very neat and compact little building situated in the Monastery grounds. The source of power is a twelve HP oil engine, which drives a powerful little dynamo. The storage cells, 55 in number, are very neatly arranged in a room just off the engine house. This part of the work was carried out by Mr Allsopp of Malloch Bros. In the power house is the main control switch for the whole Mission, and the main meter. Here also is an ingenious arrangement whereby the current is cut off automatically each night at 10 o’clock.

The buildings that are lighted are the Monastery, Cathedral, St Gertrude’s and St Ildephonsus’. St Mary’s Orphanage is to be wired in the near future. Altogether there are 370 lights. Each building has a meter, a main control on the ground floor, and a floor control on each storey. The wiring is the exposed conduit system, and was very capably carried out by Mr R Johnson of North Perth, assisted by Brothers Placido and Alberto. The Cathedral choir and sanctuary are beautifully illuminated by massive chandeliers. The magnificent new organ has a motor attached to the bellows. Now that so much demand is made on the engine’s power, it is the intention of His Lordship to install a new auxiliary gas engine to relieve the oil engine.

In conclusion, we wish to congratulate His Lordship and Father Ubach on the successful completion of the work, which is such a boon to all engaged in compulsory night studies.

The Monastery Chronicle for 1923 also made a number of references to the work of introducing electricity as it progressed. It should be said here that ‘His Lordship’ mentioned above in the SIC write-up and below in the Chronicle was Abbot Anselm Catalan (1915-1951). The person mentioned as Manager and Procurator in the Chronicle extracts is the Fr Ubach mentioned above. And the Mission is the [tiny] town of New Norcia.

Here are the excerpts from the Monastery Chronicle for 1923:

2 January: The Manager and Fr Boniface go on horseback looking for posts to use to carry the wires when electricity is installed in the Mission, which is said to be ready for realisation in the middle of February.

5 January: Mr Henderson, of British Electric, Perth, visits the Mission. His company sells most of the equipment required for installing electricity.

16 January: Fr Procurator went to the bush with a truck in search of posts. He returned at six in the evening fully-loaded (i.e., the truck) and distributed them through the town. These posts will support the wires conducting the electricity.

22 January: Brothers Placid and Adalbertus begin putting electrical wires in St Gertrude’s, in the company of the electrician.

25 January: Brothers Placid and Adalbertus continue working with the electrician.

26 January: The electrician and some Natives begin putting in the posts to take the electric cable to the Colleges and the Church.

1 February: The Procurator and the electrician leave for Perth.

6 February: Mr Johnson, the electrician, arrived. We hope he will work better than the previous one.

14 February: At five in the morning, Fr Procurator leaves for Moora, and the Natives Biggs, Benny Taylor, Ven [Ben? Ven, from Buenaventura?] Ryder and Maher accompany him. They went to fetch the machine that produces electricity. At 6.15pm they were already back with the machine and the expert from Moora who is coming to install it.

1 March: NOTA BENE From this day till the 13th the thing most deserving of mention is: 1) that the shed to house the machinery to produce the electricity has been completed; that they have already tried how the electricity works in St Gertrude’s, and the result was that all the boarders were delighted and jumped for joy.

15 March: They begin to install electricity in St Ildephonsus’.

2 April: They finished installing electricity in St Ildephonsus’ and to see if everything was in order, they ran the machine. We all witnessed the bulbs light up with the electric current which began from the shed in which the dynamo is, etc. etc.

3 April: Mr Johnson, the electrician, began installing electricity in this monastery.

11 July: For the first time we have supper by electric light; it was only a test to see if all the globes lit up, and they all lit up in the whole monastery, with the exception of two (belonging to particular cells?).

17 July: A special electrician begins work on the batteries in the electricity shed; he was sent by the company which sold us the plant.

27 July: Since last evening the electricity machine has been working and the batteries have been getting charged; those responsible for their care are Fr Ubach and Br Adalbert. At 6.00pm all the globes were lit, both those of the monastery and those of St Ildephonsus’ and St Gertrude’s. The light produced is brighter and more abundant that that of the 11th of this month, so that all are happier and more satisfied. Blessed be God!!! The installation of our organ is going ahead, so that it is hoped next week to tune its pipes (?).

28 July: They continued the work on the new organ. We used the electric light to recite Matins and the rest until seven o’clock, when they switched off the current.

I should point out that the current produced from the Monastery power house until late 1965 was DC (direct current). An AC (alternating current) generator was installed at the Shell Service Station (now the Roadhouse) in the late 1950s, mainly for use at the New Norcia Hotel (now once again the New Norcia Hostel) and for some purposes at St Ildephonsus’ College. When AC came on stream, all sorts of domestic appliances became usable, which further contributed to the rising standard of living, and added to the pressure for a much greater output from the power house.

It would seem appropriate to conclude this article with two extracts from the already-mentioned 1972 Monastery Chronicle, which was being written in English from about 1954:

Tues. May 23: Electricians are busy in converting the northern half of NN to SEC. This should be completed by mid-week; the southern half was completed last week.

Wed. May 24: Our Lady, Help of Christians. This is a historical day in New Norcia. The generation of electricity ceased here today after some 50 years of operation. Everybody noticed the silence last night, with no noise from our power house. For better or worse, we are now entirely with the SEC.