User:Wilson62

Thomas J. Blalock received a BS-EE degree from Lafayette College in his hometown of Easton, PA in 1966 and an ME degree in Power Engineering from R.P.I. in Troy, NY in 1970, while working as a Development Engineer at the former world-renowned General Electric High Voltage Laboratory in Pittsfield, MA.

While employed there, he was involved with field investigations related to lightning protection and switching surges on high voltage power systems. In later years, he was employed as a Test Engineer in General Electric's Large Power Transformer plant in Pittsfield.

Since the closing of that facility in 1987, he has pursued a retirement hobby which involves the investigation of interesting electric power installations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

He had explored and documented the 1901 Waterside Generating Station in Manhattan prior to its recent demolition, and has documented the extensive early power system of the former home plant of the Bethlehem Steel Company in Bethlehem, PA.

He has contributed a total of eleven (so far !) articles to the "History" column feature of the IEEE Power & Energy magazine, as well as a series of five similar articles on the Bethlehem Steel plant's power system for the IEEE Industry Applications magazine.