he was appointed Director of Experiments and Research on the Board of Invention and Research an appointment that led to his nationality being questioned in the House of Commons. Between 1907 and 1913 Merz was hired by Thomas James Tait to electrify the railway system in Melbourne, Australia. The new system began operation in 1919, after World War I. From 1912 to 1915 he was Vice-President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In 1916 Merz pointed out that the UK could use its small size to its advantage, by creating a dense distribution grid to feed its industries efficiently. His findings led to the Williamson Report of 1918, which in turn created the Electricity Supply Bill of 1919. The bill was the first step towards an integrated system. He also sat on the Weir Committee, which produced the more significant Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926, leading to the setting up of the National Grid. Merz's own system ran at 40 hertz, 20,000 volts, but he was forced to convert it to 50 hertz to match the European system. Merz received the Faraday Medal in 1931, was awarded an honorary D.Sc by the University of Durham in 1932, was a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Fellow of the American Institution of Electrical Engineers. Merz wrote his memoir in 1934. In 1940 Merz designed the electric drive equipment for the TOG 1 tank. In the same year, aged 66, he was killed during an air raid, with his two children, at their house at 14 Melbury Road, Kensington, London, by a German bomb. Legacy The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Cambridge manages a Charles Hesterman Merz Fund. The Newcastle University campus includes a building named Merz Court which was opened in 1965. The building houses electrical, electronic and chemical engineering facilities. A commemorative plaque was unveiled at his former home in Gosforth, Newcastle Upon Tyne in 2013. References "The Second Industrial Revolution" on Making the Modern World Managing Change – Regional Power Systems, 1910–1930, Thomas Parke Hughes, University of Pennsylvania (PDF) – detailed essay on Metz's contribution to the UK electric supply industry Harold Winthrop Clapp and the Melbourne Railway (transcript page contains photo of Merz with George Westinghouse and Lord Kelvin) Charles Merz – Lessons from Boston, IEE Archives Cambridge fund Sinclair Knight Merz – Celebrating 40 years Paxman History Pages (TOG 1 tank) Newcastle University