There might have been more active progress in the pioneering days if the presence of water power at convenient points had encouraged electrical engineers to repeat the experiments at Portrush and Bessbrook. But at an early stage in electrical history it became clear to engineers that coal was just as feasible a source of cheap power as water. The idea that a waterfall provides power 'for nothing' is one of those superficial conceptions which make the hardiest of fallacies. To 'harness' a waterfall requires a heavy expenditure of capital on conduits, pipe-lines, dams, and other works. The interest upon that capital is a heavy item, apart from the cost of maintenance and repairs. Waterfalls are situated in mountainous country, generally remote from the centres of industry; the water-power station, therefore, has to face the cost of transmission mains and the loss of energy involved in conveying the power to the place where it is wanted. Further, waterfalls and the adjacent ground belong either to individuals or to the State; and payment is generally exacted for the right to use them. All these items have to be covered in the price charged for current to the public or to railway undertakings. Nature may provide the 'head' of water 'free,' but man has to spend money in utilising it, just as he has to do in mining and in obtaining heat from the coal which is also provided 'free.' Anything which is obtained 'for nothing' is generally worth nothing. The full economies of generating electricity by steam power are not, however, realised until business is done on a large scale. As the first essential of a successful electric railway is a plentiful supply of cheap power, development from the experimental stage of Portrush had to wait until engineers mastered the art of producing electricity from large generators. They gained the necessary experience with electric tramways and in electric lighting. We have seen how, as regards tramways, legislation delayed and hampered progress. A similar cause was at work in connection with electric lighting. In 1882 an Act was passed regulating electric lighting on lines modelled upon the principles of the Tramways Act, 1870. Capitalists declined to work under this Act; and it was not until after 1888, when the Act was amended, that any money could be found in Great Britain for electric lighting schemes. This delay was a serious handicap not only to electric lighting but to the business of British electrical manufacturing, as there was, comparatively speaking, no demand for electrical plant for over six years. Meanwhile, matters had been advancing on normal lines in other countries; and when the demand came at last, the manufacturers on the Continent and in America were the only ones organised and ready to meet it.