Queensland Energy Museum Collection

"Edward Gustavus Campbell Barton (1857-1942), electrical engineer, was born on 11 December 1857, at Toorak, Melbourne. He attended school at Dunedin, New Zealand, received engineering training in Scotland and studied in Germany at Karlsruhe Polytechnische Schule. In 1875-79. He returned to New Zealand and became a consultant there, and in Australia, for the next three years. During this period he erected a electrical plant for the Phoenix Gold Mines at Gympie, Queensland, and worked for the Australasian Electric Light, Power & Storage Co. Engaged in 1886 to complete lighting installations in the parliamentary buildings and the government printing office in Brisbane, he was appointed government electrician. He was retained as an adviser after he resigned in 1888 to form a partnership with C. F. White. By mid-1888 Barton, White & Co., manufacturers of electrical equipment, were ready to supply electric light to the public from a small, direct-current generator driven by a steam-engine. Their first customer was the General Post Office in Brisbane.. In 1896 the company went into liquidation, and was then re-formed as the Brisbane Electric Supply Co. Ltd, of which Barton was manager. Its first power station, in Edison Lane, off Creek Street, was superseded within eleven years by a new building in Ann Street, where in 1901 Barton installed the first steam turbine in Queensland. The firm became the City Electric Light Co. Ltd in 1904: Barton was general manager and a director before resigning to become a consultant. In 1908 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a member for Brisbane North, but did not seek re-election the following year...Between 1899 and 1904 Barton lectured in electrical engineering and physics at Brisbane Technical College. In 1908 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a member for Brisbane North. In 1910 he was appointed to the first senate of the University of Queensland. Later he served as president of the Brisbane Institute of Social Services (1910-1915). In 1915, he left Australia to work with the British Ministry of Munitions and was based iin Europe until his death in England in 1942".--[Summarised information taken from the Australian Dictionary of Biography, retrieved on 21 January 2016 from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barton-edward-gustavus-campbell-9445].