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Ohio Insulator high voltage test lab located on the estate of Arthur Oswin Austin, Ohio Brass Company, Barberton, OH, 1929

This shows the 1929 Ohio Insulator High-Voltage Test Lab #2 on the estate of A. O. Austin (chief engineer of the Ohio Brass Co. and factory manager of The Ohio Insulator Factory in Barberton, Ohio).  Austin purchased the horse barn and adjacent mansion (not visible in the photo) of the late O. C. Barber in 1926. This photo shows the colt barn on the right with two vintage automobiles parked in front. The three high-voltage test transformers are rated 750 kv 500 kva each and were purchased from Allis-Chalmers some time prior to 1929. A fourth transformer (not visible) identical to these three was installed in the factory indoor laboratory. This photo does not clearly show the wire cage conductor that was charged by the test transformers. One 150 cm sphere gap is shown to the left of the wire cage conductor and one 150 cm sphere gap is shown on the right of the wire cage conductor. The right sphere gap (west) has the smaller gap indicating that the test specimen was one of the towers shown on the right. In photo (number TBD) looking north, it was the east sphere gap which was smaller, indicating that the photos were taken at different times.

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An idea of the size of the transformers can be gained by the image of the man in the white shirt in front of the lower transformer. The two lower transformers were removed along with the porcelain-tile piers and installed in an outdoor test lab adjacent to The Ohio Insulator Factory in Barberton some time before 1935. In 1967, the high transformer was removed and along with the two previously-removed lower transformers, was installed in a three-unit configuration in the outdoor lab of the Ohio Brass Co. in Wadsworth, Ohio in June 1968. The horse barn was destroyed by fire shortly after 1967, but the colt barn survived and is presently the headquarters of the Barberton Historical Society.