Its Electric

1991: Scientific Achievements (22p Design - Peter Till)

Michael Faraday appears in this stamp buzzing with ideas and what looks like one of those Faraday wheels we all enjoyed spinning at school to see how electricity worked. Faraday, explorer of electromagnetic fields and inventor of the electric motor was one of four scientists to be celebrated in this set of stamps.

2011: Green Initiatives

Today we try to save electricity with energy efficient light bulbs.  Due to Heleen's broken computer I am missing the weekly learning Dutch through stamps, as I am sure we all are, this light bulb has some Dutch words within it - 'Europa geeft groen licht'  Europe gives green light,

1956: Waterfalls and Power Stations

Going back in time this stamp set showed both waterfalls and power stations and from the date 1921 at the top of the stamp I think this particular one is  the Ellidaár Power Plant, Iceland's first hydroelectric power plant which today forms part of an Electrical Museum.  Lets now travel to China to see one of their hydroelectric power stations

1964: Hsinankiang Hydro Electric Power Station (Designer - Wu Jiankun)

being built, the Xinanjiang or Hsinankiang (depending how it is transliterated into English) Hydro-power station and its dam under construction and then the installation of a turbo generator rotor

followed by the completion of the project in a rather idyllic looking location.  I haven't got the last stamp in the set which shows the pylons in a more 'dark satanic mills' setting.

1974: 25th Anniversary of Technical and Scientific Cooperation between Hungary and Soviet Union

rather like this combinations of Hungarian power installations but pylons similar to these might be providing power for

2012: Baltic Railway Bridges

electric powered trains

1995: Trams

and trams.  These trams used to run in Sweden's northernmost town Kiruna which lies inside the Arctic Circle.  There used to be three tram lines which existed from 1907-1958. Kiruna is a mining town so the first line to be built was the mountain line which saved the miners a cold walk of several kilometres  and a climb up the mining hill.

 

I think this snowy Maximum card may show the mountain route which closed in 1955 after a road was built to the mine. The other line was the city tram line which had 8 Km of track and was unusual in that it had a 1 metre gauge, the carriages had double windows and heating. This closed in 1958 when buses took over from trams.  Lastly between 1941 and 1964 a tram line was used inside the mine with wagons  acquired from the closed down tram lines all over Sweden.  Kiruna is in the news at the moment because due to mining subsidence in the centre the town is being moved 2 miles to the east which led one newspaper calling it 'the centipede town'.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II prompt of the Letter E - for Electricity, Energy, Elidaár and Estonia - See It On A Postcard.