Herman Wals, former property manager at the Municipality of Haarlem, has agreed to fill in for the evening on utilities in the 19th century. He is working on a thesis on the utilities in late 19th-century Amsterdam (gas, water, horse tram, telephone, electricity): why did the municipality take them over from their private owners and how did it work?

The choice of subject came about because when Amsterdam privatised the GEB, it had accidentally also given away the public lighting. The municipality then had to buy these back for a considerable sum. Since there was no more knowledge in the field of public transport within the municipality, DIVV hired him to write a policy story about it. He then marvelled that the municipality had let itself be so screwed in the suit and wondered how that had gone in the beginning.