Different industrial hydropower use in Neuhaus

However, the plans drawn up under the leadership of the mill owner Abraham Rosenthal, which he planned to implement together with the Paderborn electrical engineer Hermann Schmitz as his partner, were not carried out. Instead, the consortium founded its own company, which was named „Elektrizitätswerk Neuhaus GmbH“ in December 1897.[3] After completion of the power plant, the first electricity could be supplied to the customers in March 1898 by means of „insulated copper wires laid above ground“[4]. Due to the low capacity utilisation of their power station, which primarily provided lighting energy to private households in Neuhaus, the company planned to build an electric tramway connection between Neuhaus and Paderborn.[5] The project was finally realised by the better-funded Bochum-based „Westfälische Kleinbahnen Aktiengesellschaft“, which received a corresponding operating licence from the district government in February 1899. Probably in order to increase power generation, two steam engines were installed in a separate boiler house in 1900, presumably fed with water from the River Pader.[6] Previously, natural water power had been fed into an “engine house” built across the aforementioned side canal of the old Mühlenpader.[7] In 1909, the power station of the Neuhaus tramway passed into the hands of the „Paderborner Elektrizitäts AG“ (PESAG).[8] From 1911 to 1922, the „Eichelsberger Textilwerke“ from Hanover settled on the island site between the Pader and the Lippe. In November 1922, the „Benteler Werke“ from Bielefeld finally took over the area,[9] in order to fundamentally redesign it to this day.