[Newspaper]
Publication: The Los Angeles Examiner
Los Angeles, CA, United States
vol. 5, no. 311, p. 9, col. 5
WARNS BOARD AGAINST
USE OF INSULATORS
Inventor Claims Patent Infringement
on Device Used Along Aqueduct
Formal notice was served upon the Board of Public Works yesterday by Attorney W. W. Wideman, representing John Scott Allen, not to purchase or use a certain electrical insulator designed by the engineer of the Aqueduct Board and manufactured for the city by the Fred M. Locke Company of Victor, N. Y. It is claimed by Allen that the insulator is an infringement on his patent.
The city already has purchased seven thousand of the insulators for use along the Owens river aqueduct, and it is claimed there is an order now with the manufacturers for seven thousand more.
Mr. Allen, the inventor of the Insulator, is the Democratic boss of the Seventh ward, who, before he went into politics, was an electrician and worked for years at the trade. For two years his patent has been pending at Washington, and only a few days ago he received his papers. He says the fact that the aqueduct engineer has indorsed his invention by having insulators made on his model, convinces him that he has a fortune in sight and for that reason he intends to at once take the necessary steps to protect himself through the United States Courts.