Charles Merz

Charles Hesterman Merz (5 October 1874 – 14 or 15 October 1940) was a British electrical engineer who pioneered the use of high-voltage three-phase AC power distribution in the United Kingdom, building a system in the North East of England in the early 20th century that became the model for the country's National Grid.

Merz was the eldest son of industrial chemist John Theodore Merz (a Quaker from Germany) and Alice Mary Richardson, a sister of John Wigham Richardson the Tyneside ship builder. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and attended Bootham School, York. He attended Armstrong College in Newcastle, where his father was a part-time lecturer.

He then entered an apprenticeship at the Newcastle Electric Supply Company (NESCo), which had been founded by his father, in 1889. In 1898 Merz became the first Secretary and Chief Engineer of the Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company in Cork, Ireland. In 1899 Merz set up a consulting firm which, with the arrival of William McLellan in 1902, became Merz & McLellan. Merz and McLellan had first worked together in Cork. His next major project was the Neptune Bank Power Station in Wallsend near Newcastle. It was the first three-phase electricity supply system in Great Britain, and was opened by Lord Kelvin on 18 June 1901. In the same year he toured the USA and Canada. Together with Bernard Price, he developed and patented one of the earliest forms of automatic mains protection. This system was successful and became known as the Merz-Price system. When Price was succeeded by Philip Vassar Hunter, Merz worked with him to develop an improved version which became known as the Merz-Hunter system. He was known affectionately within the electricity industry as the "Grid King".

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