Fred Locke insulators used on Colgate-Oakland line in California

VICTOR JUSTLY PROUD OF ITS INSULATORS

Fred M. Locke Inspecting Famous

Colgate-Oakland Line.

HE'S A VICTOR WIZARD

Plant at Victor Now Running With

Seventy-five Men Day and Night

to Supply the Demand-

Ontario County.

Fred M. Locke, proprietor of the Locke Insulator Works, of Victor, is at present on a tour of inspection over the Bay Counties Power Company's long-distance power transmission lines in California, which he has recently finished equipping with a specially designed porcelain insulator invented by himself and turned out of his factory in Victor. The line is becoming celebrated, inasmuch as it is the longest of the kind in the world, being 214 miles in length at the present time, with new branches yet in prospect.

The line begins at Colgate, a point on the Yuba river, in Yuba county, and extends through several counties to Oakland on San Francisco bay. The powerhouse, where the current is generated for the entire line, is located at Colgate, the power being obtained by a pipe line through the Mountains from Lake Francis, eight miles distant, with about 800 feet fall.

Two separate lines of poles with wires run parallel all the distance from Colgate to Oakland and are now carrying over 3,000 horse-power at a pressure of 40,000 volts. One great difficulty in transmitting power long distances in the past has been the loss of electricity owing to defective insulation, and it was to overcome this difficulty that Mr. Locke bent all his inventive energies and finally succeeded. The insulators with which he equipped the line are so nearly perfect that but 10 per cent. of the current is lost in transmission, a very low percentage as conceded by all electricians.

One particularly interesting feature in the construction of this line was the feat its projectors accomplished in crossing the straits of Carquinez, near Oakland. At the point crossed the straits have a width at high water of nearly 2,800 feet, and the government requires that any span crossing streams navigable 'to deep water shipping shall have a clearance of 300 feet above high water. In order to accomplish this it was necessary to go back from the shore on each side for some distance where high steel towers were erected, over which the spans passed. The total length of the cable is 4,448 feet, and special insulators weighing about fifty pounds each were constructed which would bear the tremendous strain. The cables are of steel, seven-eights of an inch in diameter, and exert a strain between the two points of twelve tons.

The line is ore that is attracting worldwide attention, and its success has made a greatly increased demand for the products of the Locke manufactory. Beginning on a very limited scale about three years ago, the business has grown to such proportions that it employs about seventy-five men, and is run day and night to enable it to keep up with its orders. It is the only factory of its kind in this part of the state and the industry is one of which Victor is justly proud.