California Glass Insulator Company

A PACIFIC COAST INSULATOR FACTORY.

Electrical men throughout the country will be interested in the announcement that glass insulators are now being made at Long Beach, California, by the California Glass Insulator Company. This company has completed the installation of the latest and most up-to-date machinery, and commenced operations in October of this year under the experienced management of Robert P. Frist.

The factory is ideally situated within a short distance of Los Angeles on the lines of the Southern Pacific and Pacific Electric Railways. It consists of a large tank house, lehr shed, soda house and mixing shed, machine shop and mould room. This plant has ten acres of ground with three and one-half acres enclosed.

The manufacture of glass, as is generally known, consists in the fusion of a mixture of siliceous sand, sodium carbonate and lime. White sand containing over ninety-five per cent of silica is found in great abundance near Riverside, California, and shipped in sacks to Long Beach, where it is stored in the mixing house.

The finest grade of hydrated lime and sodium carbonate are similarly stored here. These ingredients are thoroughly mixed by hand after the proper proportions have been weighed on a most ingenious scale, which is automatically set to determine the proper proportion of each part. The material is then conveyed to the upper end of the longitudinal furnace, which is heated by sixteen especially designed oil burners. The molten mass gradually works its way down to the lower end of the melting tank, passes under a bridge wall to the working end, then is dipped with iron rods through nine apertures.

These rods are handled by men known as gatherers, who pour the molten glass into moulds. These moulds are pressed by a second man, passed on to a third who screws out the pin form, and thence to a fourth who opens the mould, takes out the finished insulators and places them on long trays.

These trays are conveyed to the annealing furnace where they are heated and slowly cooled so as to remove all internal strains from the insulator, the annealing process occupying twenty-four hours. The insulators are then stacked in piles in the open air for three months after which the perfect ones are selected and packed for shipment.

The resulting insulator is as near perfect as the most modern machinery, the greatest care, and the most rigid inspection can accomplish. Standard types are manufactured for telephone, telegraph and power use, and special designs are made in accordance with the customer's specifications.

Arrangements have been made with the Pacific States Electric Company to distribute the products of the California Glass Insulator Company, a full stock now being carried at the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland and Seattle houses.