Charles Hesterman Merz

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Charles Hesterman Merz (5 October 1874 - 14 or 15 October 1940) was an electrical engineer who pioneered the use of high-voltage three-phase AC power distribution in the United Kingdom, building a system in the North East of England in the early 20th century that became the model for the country's National Grid.

[edit] Life

Merz was born in Newcastle and attended Armstrong College in the town. He then entered an apprenticeship at the Newcastle Electric Supply Company (NESCo), which had been founded by his father, the industrial chemist John Theodore Merz, in 1889. In 1899 he set up a consulting firm which, with the arrival in 1902 of William McLellan (1874-1934), became Merz & McLellan. His first major project was the Neptune Bank power station near Newcastle. It was the first three-phase electricity supply system in Great Britain, and was opened by Lord Kelvin on 18 June 1901.

In 1901 Merz toured the USA and Canada. In 1905 he first attempted to influence Parliament to unify the variety of voltages and frequencies in the country's electricity supply industry, but it was not until World War I that Parliament began to take this idea seriously, then appointing him head of a Parliamentary Committee to address the problem.

Between 1907 and 1913 Merz was hired by Harold Winthrop Clapp to electrify the railway system in Melbourne, Australia. The new system began operation in 1919.

In 1916 Merz pointed out that the UK could use its small size to its advantage, by creating a dense distribution grid to feed its industries efficiently. His findings led to the Williamson Report of 1918, which in turn created the Electricity Supply Bill of 1919. The bill was the first step towards an integrated system. He also sat on the Weir Committee, which produced the more significant Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926, leading to the setting up of the National Grid.

Merz's own system ran at 40 hertz, 20,000 volts, but he was forced to convert it to 50 hertz to match the European system.

In 1940 Merz designed the electric drive equipment for the TOG 1 tank. In the same year, he and his two children were killed at their house in Kensington, London, by a German bomb.