Picture this…

1926
John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television.

1926
John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television.

1926
Thanks to broad cross-party support, Lord Weir’s proposal of the previous year - to create the Central Electricity Board (CEB) to link the UK’s most efficient power stations with consumers via a ‘national gridiron - becomes law, paving the way for the creation of the national grid.

1927
The British BroadcastingCorporation (BBC) is created.

1927
A tower erection gang is joined by engineers, contractors and officials from CEB as the Nursling to Bournemouth grid line nears completion.

1930
British electricity meter, c1930.

1931
Two Central Electricity Board workers standing under a pylon near Norwich.

1932
Workers on the Central Electricity Board towers at Dagenham are 120 foot higher than the roof of St Paul\'s Cathedral. They are seen working on the insulators.

1933
A huge 51 ton stator, the stationary component of an electric power generator, arrives in London from Birmingham. It is to be installed in the LMS power station at Stonebridge Park, Wembley.

1934
Workmen employed by the Central Electricity Board to lay electric cables across the Thames at Mapledurham between Reading and Pangbourne.

1935
 Commercial operation of the national 132kV electric power transmission grid begins in the UK. It is the first integrated national grid in the world. Small and inefficient power stations are being closed down. Seven grid areas are created to cover the UK, with control rooms at Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Glasgow.

1936
The original design of Battersea Power Station, with only two chimneys, another pair of chimneys being added later.

1936
Jarrow March, 28 October 1936. The unemployed men of Jarrow in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who are marching from Jarrow to London to draw attention to the plight of their town, are approaching London. Photograph by Edward G Malindine.

1936
The original design of Battersea Power Station, with only two chimneys, another pair of chimneys being added later.

1937
Popular radio programmes often led to surges in demand – and when Britain’s Tommy Farr fought Joe Louis for the world heavyweight boxing title in America at 4am in August 1937, the grid experienced one of its first surges!

1937
One of the many pylons at Llanfair, Anglesey, wrecked in a blizzard. Nearly every pylon in the line that carries the North Wales Power Company supply to Holyhead was damaged, and repairs will take two years.

1938
Broadcast of ‘The War of the Worlds’ causes panic.

1938
A harsh winter is predicted. There are fears about maintaining supply in the south of England. The solution? If all seven areas of the grid operate together, in an integrated network, supply can be maintained.

1938
A harsh winter is predicted. There are fears about maintaining supply in the south of England. The solution? If all seven areas of the grid operate together, in an integrated network, supply can be maintained.

1938
William McIlroy, the Mayor of Reading joins in the celebrations as Southern Railways extends the electrification of its line to Reading, 30th December 1938.