ETU Museum
ETU Collection includes
Audio and Video Library, Awards & EBAs, Badges, Banners, Books & Booklets, Commissioned Reports, Electrical Licensing, Journals and Newsletters 1912-current, Photographs, Posters, Tools & Instruments, University Theses, Union Rules, Women’s issues
In the Virtual Museum This Month
This kilowatt hour meter is a long way back from today’s smart meters. It’s a shilling in the slot meter. The householder drops a shilling in the slot behind the handle presses and turns it. A shilling’s worth of power is dialled up on the readout and the shilling drops into the locked box at the bottom of the meter.
A householder could buy up to twenty shillings or one pound of electricity at a time, then periodically the meter man would call to unlock the box and collect the money.
On 5 February 1895 electrical inventors Sydney Evershed and Ernest Vignoles founded a company and applied for several patents for various electrical devices. One of them was a ‘hand dynamo’ that could generate voltages high enough to measure resistance in megohms.
This led them to design the first portable resistance tester; a meter that could measure megohms. They combined the names megohms and meter and registered their new tester as a Megger on 23 May 1903.
Since that time the Megger has become the iconic installation tester in the electrical trades.
The ETU is sometimes referred to as a pepper and salt union in that its members are sprinkled over all industries. But it all began with the poles and wires.
While the newspapers were warning the general public about this new stuff electricity. “If you see a wire off the pole and on the ground don’t touch it. If possible train your dog to to pick it up…” electrical men were busy installing small private power generators and transmission lines to supply Melbourne city blocks.
From those small beginnings electricity and electrical workers began a long association with Australian people and businesses.
Behind the scenes their union has worked with organisations to secure electrical standards, electrical licensing, training, and safety.
But more than that it has tirelessly supported members’ local communities in many charitable ways.
