DUNDEE COURIER THURSDAY 8 DECEMBER 1949
GOOD-BYE PARAFFIN LAMPS
Mrs George Reid, of Cook’s Buildings, Main Street, Cairneyhill, one of the many housewives who have had electricity installed in their homes, knits by the light of her new lamp.
Electric lights burned in the village of Cairneyhill, near Dunfermline, yesterday for the first time.
The switch-on of the current by 80-year-old Mrs Archibald Penman was the successful end to years of petitioning by villagers who have lived nearly all their lives by the light of paraffin lamps and gas.
‘I was born 50 years too soon,’ said Mrs Penman at the switch-on ceremony at the sub-station of the South-East Electricity Board in Main Street.
She envied the young wives of to-day who had the opportunity of labour-saving gadgets in their homes.
Electricity has already been led to 19 houses in the village, but soon 60 will have the opportunity of getting power.
Mr Penman was the first to put his name to a petition urging the installation of electricity, and his was one of the first houses to be fitted.
It was a big change for the old couple to go home after the ceremony to a brightly lit home. They have lived in Cairneyhill for 36 years.
Present at the ceremony were Mr C H A Collyns, sub-area electricity manager, and Mr J W Moule, commercial officer. Mrs Penman was presented with an electric iron by 15-year-old Steve Carty, youngest apprentice on the scheme.
Mr Collyns said the installation was also a result of an application by agricultural and horticultural organisations for soil heating.
Cairneyhill People and History 