File:Outdoor test lab, Wadsworth, OH.JPG

This is an overall view of the Ohio Brass outdoor high voltage testing lab located northwest of Wadsworth, Ohio. The test setup shown is for 60 hz tests on a proposed 1500 kv transmission line for American Electric Power Company. The test specimen is a 36" diameter conductor bundle consisting of twelve 1.165 inch diameter conductors suspended by a double V string of porcelain insulators in the center of the large portal tower. The small portal tower located to the right was used in the Barberton high voltage lab for design tests on AEP's 765 kv transmission system. At the lower right is the 5,000 kv impulse generator with 20 banks of capacitors rated at 250 kv per bank. The spark gap spheres are mounted inside inverted tubs for all weather operations. When the spark gaps discharge they connect all 20 banks in series. A 3,000 kv switching surge capacitor voltage divider is shown in the front of the impulse generator. The large AEP portal test tower and the two dead end towers have since been torn down.