1879 Football Under Lights
	These days there seems to be almost as much football under lights as there is under daytime conditions.  Most of us have grown up accepting night football on television on more or less a regular basis and it will probably by a huge surprise for most to learn that the first night matches were played back in 1879 and almost as big a shock that the first match under lights featured two virtually unknown scratch teams from the defence volunteer brigades, the East Melbourne Artillery and the Collingwood Rifles ...

The novelty of electricity was first sighted in Melbourne in 1867 when the incumbent Duke of Edinburgh visited Melbourne and five public building were lit for the occasion with the new medium.

The unsophisticated techniques of the time saw the carbon points of the apparatus rapidly burn out and heat and fumes of the combustion proven unpleasant - "We see little practical value in electricity yet … although it may have some future potential (The Age, November 12, 1867).

By 1878, the first rudimentary light bulbs had been invented, Credit is popularly given to the American inventor, Thomas Edison, but in fact Edison's work was predated by some 16 or 17 years by Joseph Swan in England.   Despite the creation of one of the most common household items of today, it was the availability of carbon arc lighting that saw the first faltering steps towards sporting events under lights.

Alf Batchelder's "Pavilions In The Park" suggests that in December of 1878, a member of the MCC Committee, George Gibson, was given use of the Ground "for the purpose of playing a cricket match under the Electric Light" but there is no evidence that a match actually took place.

In June and July of the following the club, public interest in the new lighting medium was again stimulated, this time by a series of lectures "all packed to the doors" given by Mr. R. J. Ellery, the Government Astronomer where "… he illustrated his remarks with diagrams and experiments, the latter being arranged and conducted by Lieutenant Draper" (The Australian, July 26 1879).

Around the same time, the leading weekly journal reported the M.C.C. Committee had received an application from a Professor Pepper to play football 'by electric light" after reports appeared in the Melbourne press of a night match played in New Zealand. The game was scheduled for August 5, when "a grand military football match will be played".

Whether "Professor Pepper" was either Professor or Pepper is not entirely certain. He claimed to be a member of the Royal Polytechnic Institute of London and while in Melbourne specialised in giving public lectures (admission from a shilling down to threepence for back stall seats) at which he gave "semi-scientific lectures in which amusement and instruction were happily blended (The Argus, April 30, 1880).

For reasons unknown, Pepper was not able to make good on his plans. Peter Pindar, Melbourne's leading football writer suggested before the cancellation the demonstration would "doubtless draw a big crowd" and "it would be better if football were a more important part … say a match between the two leading metropolitan clubs (then Melbourne and Carlton".

Pindar's first two predictions were to prove true, but his ideas on the teams proved remarkably wide of the mark.

The following week, The Australasian announced that the keenly awaited demonstration of the new lighting would now be presented with "the considerable experience of Lieutenant Draper". Batchelder, with access to the M.C.C. Minute Books and other records, reveals the committee offered Draper a guarantee of £100 and "half the net proceeds of the gate and stands".

Lieutenant Thomas T. Draper led the Victorian Corps of Engineers, a volunteer brigade officially stationed at an orderly room in Lygon Street, Carlton, but for practical purposes operating out of barracks in Wellington Parage, Jolimont. One of many volunteer forces that served in the defence of Melbourne from 1854 until the mid-1880s, the Engineer Corps under its unique rules was restricted to "architects, civil engineers, surveyors, their assistants and mechanics connected to those professions".

Undoubtedly Draper may well have had established experience with the uses of electricity, but just why was he selected and despite Pindar's pleas, why did two virtually unknown teams from the military take to the field?

The missing link was the new M.C.C. Secretary, Benjamin Wardill. Wardill took up the M.C.C. position in May and in later years would by universally known as "the Major". He had to officially wait until 1885 before that commission, but in 1879 at the time of his appointment to the M.C.C. role, Wardill held the rank of Captain with the East Melbourne Artillerywhich shared the same barracks in East Melbourne as the Engineers.

As well his involvement with the M.C.C. on an administrative position, like many committeemen of his time Wardill was also active in several of the club's sporting activities, primarily cricket and shooting

His prowess in the latter sport earned him a place in a five-man Victorian shooting team invited in 1876 to compete in both the "world shooting championships" at Creedmoor in New York and in the British Championship, the Queen's Prize at Wimbleton (now Wimbledon) amongst his team-mates was "Captain T. T. Draper, of the Victorian Engineer Corps". The team earned several prizes in a dozen competitions in England, but sadly finished third (and last) behind England and Scotland in the Victorian Prize, a special commemorative event held just before the team sailed for the United States, and fourth of fifth against national teams in the "world" championship.

As a result of the pair's friendship, the first two football teams to "try conclusions" under lights were nothing more than scratch sides drawn from two of the Volunteer Brigades that provided early Melbourne with its defence force - the East Melbourne Artillery and the Collingwood Rifles.

The connection to the Collingwood Rifles is somewhat more obscure, but again may have been Thomas Draper.

In a somewhat less attractive earler enterprise, Draper held the contract in the 1860s with the Collingwood Council for the collection and processing of night soil from several hundred houses in the Collingwood area, in turn deodorising and drying the contents and selling the end product as garden feriliser - an operation that proved so profitable that several Collingwood councillors formed a private company that took over the contract when in come up for re-tender.   Draper turned his hand instead to the design and manufacture of "earth closets", contraptions designed to sprinkle earth, lime or clay automatically into the the toilet pan to absorb and at least partly deodorise the contents before removal by the "nightman"..

Like many of the Volunteer Corps, the Collingwood Rifles regulaly fielded cricket and football teams in arranged matches on days that did not clash with field exercise, parades or rifle drills. The brigade was one of the oldest in Melbourne and known to have existed in 1855, the first year of official volunteer forces and then known as East Collingwood. Oddly enough, their parade ground and rifle range were actually within the then boundaries of Northcote - the triangular wedge south of the Merri Creek and bordered by Queen's Parade, Heidelberg Road and Hoddle Street..

Despite the obscurity of the teams, the match proved an irresistible curiosity for the football public

The military teams drew with three goals each and returned a profit to the M.C.C. of round £149 (although not revealed at the time, presumably the Volunteers received a similar amount with Draper's £100 covering the set-up costs of what must have been an extensive exercise in logistics).

The clash "under the Electric Light" between the great rivals of the time in Carlton and Melbourne match was heavily advertised, but the general public seems to have been somewhat less enthusiastic than Pindar and the match proved a major disappointment. Melbourne's weather seems to have changed little over the last hundred and twenty odd years and our modern appreciation of electricity at the flick of a switch may be a t little premature.

On a cold and foggy night, Draper and his fellow "electricians" had to stoke a steam engine for an hour, the crowd being left to shiver in darkness until a somewhat feeble light finally penetrated the gloom at around 8.30 and “sixteen each of CarIton and Melbourne took the field and a motley crew they were, scarcely two of a side being similarly attired.”.

The players used a ball painted white which was moderately successful, but after about five minutes, it blew up and play continued with a tan-coloured ball that was difficult to see except when the ball passed under a bank of lights. Carlton's star George Coulthard kicked a goal with the coloured ball, and soon after, another white ball was produced to the relief of the players, spectators and undoubtedly the promoters. The Navy Blues adapted to the murky conditions scoring three goals (one with the tan ball and two with the replacement white) to Melbourne's solitary score.

After the windfall of the Volunteers match, the M.C.C suffered a small loss on the second match, despite matches between the two leading teams usually attracting between 7,000 and 10,000 at the time.

Perhaps significantly, none of the contemporary press reports included crowd estimates. Some histories of the two games have suggested that they hosted the first commercial use of electricity in Melbourne, but this is not correct - arc light electricity having been used for night work at, oddly enough, a candle factory in Footscray in 1877.

The Age's prediction of electricity having "some future potential" was, of course, an under-statement and Thomas Draper became one of the pioneers of the industry during Melbourne's boom times.

In 1881, Draper became a partner in the newly formed Union Electric Co. The company imported arc light machines from England, initially suppling commercial buildings near their plant in Heffernan Lane (near the corner of Exhibition and Lonsdale Streets), and later expanding to provide lighting to such Melbourne landmarks as the Town Hall, Princes Bridge and Foy and Gibson's huge emporium in Smith Street, Collingwood.

Electricity started to be used in Preston around 1914, initially for street lighting, but also for domestic use over the next couple of years.   Electrictity was linked to the Preston Park pavilion in 1919, the costs of just under ive punds share equally byetween the Shire and the cricket and football clubs