Enlargement of the Locke Plant

Enlargement of Equipment of the Locke

Insulator Manufacturing Company, Victor, N. Y.

The rapid expansion of the business of the Insulator Manufacturing Company, Victor, N. Y., has taxed to the utmost all the facilities of the old power plant, until at the present time the construction of a new and larger one has become imperative.

The new building, for which foundations have already been laid, is to be ninety feet by ninety feet, of approved concrete construction; one side being parallel to, and fifteen feet below, the tracks of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, enabling hard and soft coal to be unloaded directly to the bunkers.

The boiler room, which measures approximately forty-five feet by ninety feet, will contain 600 horse-power in horizontal tubular boilers, hand-fired with a mixture of buckwheat and soft coal, necessary draught being provided by a large engine-driven fan.

Engines, generators and high-tension testing transformers will occupy the remainder of the building. There will be two power units, one for day load and a smaller one for night load, the demand for power being practically continuous. The smaller unit of sixty kilowatts' capacity is made up of a Skinner engine running at 300 revolutions per minute, direct-connected to a three-phase sixty-cycle, 440-volt alternator. The larger unit, a low-speed Corliss, will be direct-connected to a three-phase, sixty-cycle, 440-volt alternator of 150 kilowatts. These two machines will supply light, power and current for testing all through factory as well as supply power for street and residence lighting in the village of Victor.

The plant has been laid out for the most economical working under the peculiar conditions existing in an electrical porcelain pottery, and while the present plans as outlined will provide ample power for the present needs, provision has been made for future increase.