File:Pacific service magazine (1924) (14595061699).jpg

Identifier: pacificservicema1627paci (find matches)
Title: Pacific service magazine
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Subjects: Pacific Gas and Electric Company Electric utilities Electrical engineering Public utilities
Publisher: San Francisco : Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Contributing Library: San Francisco Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: San Francisco Public Library

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Francisco andfigured on a proposition. If I rememberright Mr. Schafer was the engineer fromSchenectady andhe had with himMr. lancovichfrom the com-panys office inSan Francisco.They finallyagreed to buildthree 50 kilo-watt air-cooledtransformers bywhich the volt-age of electriccurrent could bestepped downfrom 11,000 to2,200, and thesewere to be usedin connectionwith two 2200-volt electric mo-tors, one of 100horsepower andthe other of 50horsepower. I nthe meantime,Mr. Livermore,after further in-vestigation haddecided to per-mit the installa-tion. Our agreement with him and his peo-ple was that we were to install our ownequipment and pay for all the work, thiswork to be executed under the supervisionof the power company which, however,would undertake no responsibility for thesafety appliances installed. To house our equipment we built awooden tower twelve feet high, somethinglike an old-fashioned water tank, thatstood on legs made of wood six inchessquare. The house stood upon a platform
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The late Russ Stevens in his orchard that was reached by a ladder. The equip-ment came along in due course and thetransformers were installed in the house.Then we put tlae switches in. The mainswitch that threw the current from thetransmission line into the transformers wasa three-knife switch, twelve inches squareand fastened to the wooden wall of thebuilding with no installation save a pieceof asbestos two feet square and one quarterinch thick. With this outfit we made our first experimentin rural electri-fication. To show youhow careful themanufacturingcompany was inbuilding thisequ i pmen t Imight tell youthat our 100-horsepower mo-tor, which wassix feet high andweighed 6,000pounds, carried1 3 4 horsepowerwhen pumpingto full capacity,which was mostof the time dur-ing the irriga-tion season, andlasted ten years.We had no trou-ble at all fortwo years, whenone day therecame a noisefrom the trans-form e r houselike a bombardment of cannon, flames shotout and the whole thing went up in

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