The Light Bulb Conspiracy

In the 1920s and 1930s the Commonwealth Bank's "Industrial Purpose Accounts Officer" in Newcastle was a Mr John Henry. Mr Henry made it his business to visit some of Newcastle's bigger industrial plants and he wrote some accounts of his visits in the bank's staff journal, Bank Notes. Mr Henry visited Electric Lamp Manufactures Australia (ELMA) in 1933, when the factory - in Clyde Street, Hamilton - was just two years old and regarded as the peak of modernity. Notably, the major light bulb manufacturers decided to set up the factory as a joint venture, simply…