D. M. Steward Manufacturing are meeting success with their lava insulators

WESTERN NOTES.

BRANCH OFFICE OF THE ELECTRICAL WORLD

39 Mallers Building, Chicago, Aug. 24, 1889.

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The D. M. Steward Company, Chattanooga, are meeting with unparalleled success in their patent lava insulators, being crowded beyond their capacity. They are adding machinery and tools as rapidly as they can be made for their specialties. They are at work on large orders for Edison, Thomson-Houston, Sperry Electric Company, Heisler, Western Electric Company, Foree Bain, Standard Thermometer Company and many others. Their strong point is the absolute safety from arcing or short circuits wherever their insulators are used. This is especially true in very small pieces requiring great accuracy in fitting, as their material is frequently made up in pieces requiring a fit to 1-1000th of an inch. It is well known that rubber, fibre, and any composition, in fact, other than lava, burns at a comparatively low heat, or carbonizes, losing Its value as an insulator. A number of the new compounds used for insulating have been tested at the works recently. Some of them softened in the hot sun, others, a little better, took fire from a burning match, and none, except lava, stood the electric arc. It will stand any exposure to moisture, heat or cold. One of the strongest indorsements that could be given it is the size of the orders for example, 110,000 pieces in one week from the Thomson-Houston Company, who have ordered 205,000 pieces in a single order. The Edison orders, too, run away up in the figures, to say nothing of scores of smaller manufacturers who know a good thing when they see it. Much of the success of "lava" is attributed to advertising in THE ELECTRICAL WORLD.

F. DE L.