The success of this installation led to numerous orders for similar systems worldwide. Crompton supplied equipment throughout the British Empire, with power stations being built as far aways as Australia, which received its first Crompton lighting plant in 1887. In 1899, the company installed a generator set in a Calcutta hotel, producing India's first ever electricity supply. India became a significant market for Crompton & Co., and he appointed an agent in Calcutta to manage his business in the subcontinent. Similar subsidiaries were later founded worldwide. Crompton was keen for electricity to be used for domestic as well as industrial purposes. In 1893, Scotsman Alan MacMasters approached Crompton with the prototype for a device that heated bread by running electricity through a metal element. The design went into production as the Eclipse, the world's first electric toaster and the world's first widely sold electric oven. Crompton kept his company at the cutting edge of electrical engineering. Despite having invested heavily in promoting and installing direct current systems, following the war of the currents, Crompton quickly developed alternating current equipment as well. He also encouraged the design of new equipment for new power sources, such as dynamos specially designed for high-speed steam engines, hot bulb engines and steam turbines. Crompton kept a very 'hands on' approach to his business. In 1895 a fire broke out in a power station in London that his company had installed and that was close to his own home. He rushed to the scene and helped workers to try to contain the blaze and prevent it reaching some tanks of fuel oil. As the fire continued to spread, he went back to his home and helped man-handle firehoses through his front door, across his floors and out the back windows, which faced out to the rear of the power station. He continued to help fight the fire, despite receiving several electric shocks and mild burns from a flooded battery bank. At the site of the former Crompton Parkinson Works (later Marconi and E2V) at Writtle Road in Chelmsford, the Crompton Building still exists, although it is now used an NHS surgery, pharmacist & residential flats. The housing development that is located on part of the former works has roads named Rookes Crescent, Evelyn Place and Crompton Street. There are numerous stone plaques in the buildings which record the achievements of Crompton and others. Nearby, there is also road named Cromar Way, which derives its name from a contraction of CROmpton and MARconi.