2016 PDF editionOld Familiar Strainsa newsletter for collectors of radio strain insulators and related itemsVolume 5 No.3 June 1998

Story on page 8

Show Announcement August 8 - Portland, OR

(See page 15)

Editorial

We've added four names to the mailing listwith this issue (see page 15).

Gene Streagle, has been interested in strainsfor quite a while. He and his wife had justbeen talking about getting a hold of me when Icalled him! Through a friend-of-a-friend, Ilearned about Gene's great new find, a Pyrex7-lh." strain with Navy markings (see the PyrexUpdate on page 16). So I called him up to getthe skinny. Gene not only shared theinformation on his insulator, but promptlyjoined us. Gene and his son work on thecollection together. That strikes a chord withme as I recall digging strains and arresters outof my dad's workbench.

Bob Stahr introduced me to Philip Drexler afew weeks ago. Bob and Philip met at arecent show in the Twin Cities. Like many ofus, Philip collects radio antenna lightningarresters. He and I have already swappedletters and calls and he helped out with theJewell story in this issue.

It's wonderful to have all of you on board.

Congratulations are due Carol McDougaldon a job well done with the new CrownJewels of the Wire web site. If you haven'talready seen it, a trip towww.crownjewelsofthewire.comis wellworth your time. And thanks for the publicity,Carol....

The next regular issue will be the Fall doubleissue which should be in the mail aroundOctober 1st. If your plans bring you to thePacific Northwest this Summer, give me acall. And don't forget the "Filling the VoidInsulator Show," here in Portland onAugust 8th (see page 15 for details).

I enjoy the fact that Old Familiar Strains isstill a "small-time" newsletter. I read (andreally appreciate) every bit of correspondencethat comes my way. I've made a number offriends through this project and when yousend a personal note, I feel like I'm getting toknow you a little better. With only around 60issues going out each time, I can usually guessby the return address who's writing.

I must confess that the least pleasant part ofthis task is handling the donations andrenewals. I've made an effort to highlight the. expiration dates on the mailing labels asgentle reminders, but I figure that there areany number of reasons why a person may loseinterest in the newsletter and I don't want tobug anybody.

Still, I feel that we could do a better job offollow-up, so that people don't feel "dropped."If anyone is interested in helping out bycoordinating a membership-retention/promotion effort, please let meknow.

Finally it seems that "you can read it twoways." I apparently touched a raw nerve whenI mentioned the on-line auctions in the lasteditorial. It was certainly not my intention tocondone unethical practices or to imply apersonal desire to perpetuate in them. Toanyone I offended, I apologize.

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iililillApproved by the

UNDERWRITER'S LABORATORIESMay, 1922. Regulations

1111.M AO£ By

JEWEll ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENT CO.CHICAGO-U S. A.

LIGHTNINGARRESTER

The Bethany Relay Stationby Dan Howard

Over the Winter I had a "crash" course inhistory. Bob Stahr and I were talking oneevening when he mentioned that a largemidwest radio station was being dismantled.Bob thought that some unusual insulatorsmight soon be available. However, he didn'toffer a lot of details. A few days later Ifound out what Bob had been talking aboutwhen the afternoon mail brought a letterwith news about the demise of the BethanyRelay Station.

The Foreign Information Service wascreated in 1941 to compete with the Germanand Japanese propaganda broadcasts. Planscalled for establishing broadcast transmittersto disseminate "accurate" news andinformation world-wide.

Historically, many broadcasting stationsoriented toward Europe, had been locatedalong the Atlantic seaboard. However,German submarine activity on the EastCoast caused many to worry thattransmitting sites near the shore could bevulnerable to attack. In the June, 1996, OFSwe discussed the fate of a German U-boat,U-853. Although the mission of the vesselwas apparently to prey on shipping, the subwas sunk within just a few miles ofRCA'sRadio Central station on Long Island (OFS4/97 pg. 8-9).

So, the government began looking for "safe"inland transmitter sites. In 1943, the searchlead to a rural area north of Cincinnati, OH.The 625 acre site in Butler County wasselected for its relatively high altitude and

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flat terrain. TheCrosleyBroadcastingCorporation wascommissioned tobuild the station andcompleted it in July,1944. The BethanyRelay Station wasnamed for thenearby BethanyTelephoneExchange.

Broadcastingcontinuedthroughout the war.Later, the stationwas used tocompete with ColdWar broadcasts aspart of the Voice of America system.Although the 250 kilowatt station could beheard in Europe, in later years it was usedprimarily for broadcasts to Africa Central, ,and South America.

In order to "get the signal out," a total of 14rhombic (diamond-shaped) wire antennaswere strung on poles around the property. Ahuge Sterba curtain antenna rising nearly300 feet in the air was the centerpiece of thesite (see Figures 1 and 2). Antennaswitching was all done by hand and theantennas were fed by 300 ohm open-wirefeed lines.

In the 90's shrinking budgets and operationalchanges necessitated closing the station. Itlast broadcasted on September 14, 1995.

T~e cross-shaped insulator shown in Figure3 IS an example of the type used to maintainthe wire spacing in the feed lines. A metalcenter holds together four steatite "arms."Like pin insulators, each ann has a "sidegroove" and tie wires hold the conductors.The spreader insulator shown in this picturewas manufactured by Lapp.

At the time of its construction, the stationwas located in a relatively rural area. Manywere not really aware of its existence untilInterstate 75 was opened nearby in 1960.Today, the area surrounding the station

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is highly-developed and the nearly one squaremile of real estate is much in demand. Planscall for parceling the land. Some will beused for retail. Ball fields and a golf courseare planned. And a regional campus ofMiami University will occupy a portion ofthe site.

The government contracted with the CollinsElectric Company to remove the antennasand towers. Although the company usedhydraulic cranes to salvage the smallertowers, the towers supporting the curtainantenna were too large to dismantle safelyand economically.

Instead, the contractor used gravity to bringthe two 290-foot towers down. Workers firstcut through the legs of the towers, trustingthe tension in the outboard guy wires tobalance the load of the antenna. Then, on

December 2nd, 1997 workers cut through theguy wires. As planned, the weight of theantenna caused the towers to fall toward eachother in a spectacular, but sad, display.Plans called for having the site cleared ofdebris and ready for subdividing by February,1998.

I understand that the contractor planned tosell some of the smaller towers intact.Material from the larger towers was destinedto be sold for scrap. Aside from the handfulof insulators that were salvaged (withpermission), the fate of the thousands ofother antenna insulators that littered the siteis unknown (Figure 4).

All of the salvaged strains were high-qualityLapp steatite insulators. (For moreinformation on this type of insulator see theDecember, 1997 OFS). As you can see from

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Figure 5, both white and brown glazedinsulators were used. One unusual feature isthat some insulators (numbers 4 & 5 in thephoto) sport end caps made of two differentmetals!

Several sources for this article were found onthe internet. For more information, I wouldencourage you to look them up. The JimHawkins site is especially interesting becauseit includes the personal story of a person thatused to manage the station.

Very special thanks to Dennis & R. LeeStewart.

Legend to Figure 5:1. White 1-114"x 15-3/4"

brass end caps2. White 1-5/16" x 15-112"

alum. end caps3. White 1-114" x 18-112"

brass end caps4. White 1-114"x 18-112"

brass/iron caps5. White 1-11116" x 20-

114"brass/iron caps6. Brown 1-314" x 20-314"

brass end caps7. Brown 1-112" x 24"

brass end caps

Sources:

Photos courtesy of Dennis & R. Lee Stewart

"The Ohio VOA Antennas Come Down," TheARRL Letter Online Vol. 16 No. 49http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/97/971219/#voa

Shewalter, Virginia, "A History of UnionTownship Butler County Ohio" as quoted inUnion Township Community News, WestChester, OR 12/97.

Thomas, David, "VOA towers go down witha crash," The Cincinnati Enquirer 12/3/97http://enquirer.com/edit. ..71l2/03/1oc _voadown.html

"VOA at Bethany Ohio,"http://www.exitl09.com/~jimhlvoaohio.html

Young, Eric C., "VOA towers crash down"(original source unknown)

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Jewell Electrical Instrument Companyby Dan Howard

This month's cover shows the Jewelllightning arrester.

Jewell Electrical Instrument Company wasfounded around the turn of the century. Adsplace them at either 1640 or 1650 WalnutSt. in Chicago (I: 11). Over the years theymade a variety of electrical instrumentsincluding radio accessory items. Jewellbrand panel and test meters were verypopular in the early days of radio.

The company sold at least one model ofradio lightning arrester as well. The Jewellarrester is interesting both for it's roundshape and it's large size (3-118' in diameter).It is similar in design to earlier models ofarresters used in telephone service (more onthat later) and has less in common with thefamiliar "battleships" that many companiessold for radio work.

Apparently many of the arresters were sold,as today they are fairly common. My filescontain ads for the arrester dating from theend of 1922 through mid 1926.

Whatever happened to Jewell?

According to Alan Douglas, Jewell ran afoulof RCA's patent attorneys in the early1930's. Reportedly, after resolving thosematters, the company was sold to Weston,another well-known manufacturer of testequipment. Equipment dating from theearly 1930's has been found bearing bothcompany's names.

Currently, a company by the name of JewellElectrical Instruments is doing business inNew Hampshire, but according to theirhome page, this company was not founded

until 1936. Interestingly, they alsomanufacture analog and digital testequipment and related items. I can onlyspeculate that if there is a connectionbetween the two campanies, it is probably inname only.

Who Made Jewell's Arresters?

Most likely, Jewell never owned a porcelainfactory. So who made the company'sporcelain lightning arresters?

Jack Tod's response to a letter in theFebruary, 1978, issue of Crown Jewelsprovides some answers Like some examplesreported by our readers, the author's arresterbore a recess-embossed Square-D markingon the underside.

Jack identified the porcelain maker asSquare-D Manufacturing Company of Peru,IL. However, he incorrectly named theseller of the arrester as Chicago RadioLaboratory based on the words "Chicagoradio USA" on the top of the unit.

According to Tod's book, Square-Dcommenced manufacturing private labelspecialty electrical porcelain in 1925 afteracquiring an idle porcelain plant in Peru, IL(2:94). The factory had formerly been thehome of Peru Electric ManufacturingCompany. Porcelain lightning arrestercastings would have been a typical productfor a custom job shop. Jewell probablypurchased finished castings from Square-Dand did the final assembly and packaging.

But that's not the whole story. The arrestersin my collection do not carry the Square-Dmarking. And, Jewell started advertising

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arresters in the early 1920's while, accordingto Tod, Square-D probably didn'tmanufacture electrical porcelain before1925.

So, who made Jewell's arresters prior to19257 IfTod wasn't certain that Peru hadsuspended operations in 1920 (2:91), Iwould like to believe that they did the workand sold the tooling, along with the plant, toSquare-D. However, I think that Peru wasout of business before the arrester was firstmade. More likely, Jewell contracted withone or more other specialty porcelainmanufacturers, whose names may never beknown.

How does it work?

The Jewell lightning arrester uses an air gapbetween two carbon elements to provideprotection from lightning (3). Figure 1shows a cutaway drawing of a carbon blocklightning arrester. In theory, surges of highvoltage (over 500 to 600 volts) will ionizethe air between the carbon elements,allowing the electrical current to passharmlessly to ground (4:216). In ordinaryservice, the air would provide sufficientinsulation to allow the antenna to functionnormally.

Fig,;, The construction of theprotecti ve device shown above

Why is it round?I believe that the arrester is round becauseits design was a copied from carbon blocktelephone lightning arresters. When theJewell arrester was introduced, carbon blockarresters had already been used for years toprotect telephone and railway signalingcircuits. There is one striking difference inthe design however. Carbon block arrestershad a common failing. Carbon dust has atendency to build up in the gap and cancreate a short circuit. Similar arresters fromWestern Electric and other sources hadremovable covers to allow cleaning and thereplacement of parts, if necessary. Incontrast, the Jewell arresters were, permanently potted. This leaves mewondering how the carbon dust problemwas addressed.

Sources:

1. The Radio Trade Directory Vol. 1 No. 1(New York: Mcflraw-Hill CompanyInc.) November, 1924.

2. Tod, Jack, A History of the ElectricalPorcelain Industry in the UnitedStates (Phoenix: Jack Tod) 1977.

3. Jewell Ad, QSTDecember, 1922 pg. 164.4. Allen, G'Y. "Protection of the Receiving

Antenna." Radio Broadcast Vol. 1No.3 July, 1922.

Other works consulted:

Jewell new web site http://www.teamjewell. com/page40 .html

Crown Jewels of the Wire 2178 pp. 27-28Letter to Jack Tod and reply.

Thanks to Alan Douglas, Bill Jewell, andPhilip Drexler.

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The Brach Vacuum Gap

The October, 1995, issue featured theproducts ofL.S. Brach. Recently, DonHutchinson shared this photo of his Brachvacuum gap lightning arrester (the "longskirt" version of Type 223). The interiorview of the arrester gives a new perspective.

Until I saw the picture, I didn't know that theunit was fitted with a replaceable "fuse."Unlike an electrical fuse which "blows" onlyonce, the vacuum gap fuse is more like aspark plug, allowing sparks from static orlightning to jump to ground over and over.

Show Report

NVRSIPSARA Spring Swap May 9, 1998,Hillsboro, OR (reported by Dan Howard)

I had planned to go to this year's showmainly for the camaraderie. So, I wasn't toodisappointed when my first few "sales" onFriday afternoon were free items that I wasjust happy to give away.

Later, my "generosity" seemed to come backaround when a friend unexpectedly gave mea handful of strain insulators, including anew carnival-finish porcelain and a new. glass strain. Saturday brought an oldfashioned wire cage antenna (I'm still tryingto find room to hang it up) and some neatLapp porcelain insulators with large cast-onaluminum corona shields.

I found two new arresters at the show. Thefirst was a Western Electric carbon blockstyle. The other, an expensive currentproduction Alpha Delta unit was "barely-used" at a fraction of the new price (and Italked him into throwing in a couple ofstrains, too).

On Friday evening a nice couple came andshowed me a pair of glass strains that theyhad brought. .. commons (and $9.00 each)!My interest was piqued, however, when theysaid that they were still digging for "the blueone." Well I didn't loose a whole lot ofsleep over it, but I did go back to their tableSaturday morning with visions of cobaltglass dancing in my head. Of course, itturned out to be a badly chipped blueporcelain Fedco (still too much at $3.00).

Well, I guess I achieved my goals. The freejohnny balls are gone. And, as planned, Igot to enjoy the company of good friends.

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High Power in Hawaii - Locke to the Rescueby Dan Howard

As a result of our country's colonial activitiesat the turn of the century, maintainingcommunication with forces around thePacific became essential. Navy shipspatrolling the Pacific Ocean were often out ofrange of the powerful radio broadcastingstations in Panama and San Francisco. Anddiplomats and others stationed overseas wereoften out of communication withWashington.

One solution to the communication problemwould have been to lay telegraph cable acrossthe ocean. Instead, the Navy envisioned achain of radio broadcasting stations spanningthe Pacific. So, plans were developed for anetwork of overlapping high and mediumpowered stations. Strategic sites wereselected from Puerto Rico to Alaska and onHawaii, Samoa, and Guam. Coverageoverlapped so that if one station couldn'treach another directly due to weather orstatic 1

, an intermediary might be able to relaymessages. Under ideal conditions, a messagemight follow a route "directly" fromArlington, Virginia (Washington D.C.) to thePacific Coast, thence to Hawaii, and finallyto Cavite in the Philippines.

For the installation at San Diego, the Navyordered a 200 kilowatt arc transmitter fromthe Federal Telegraph Co .. And theyspecified 350 kilowatt arc transmitters forPearl Harbor and Cavite! Power output onthese levels was unprecedented and when the

1 At this time "Summer static" noise could bedevastating to radio communications. Later the use ofother systems of communication (especially FM)mitigated the effects of static and made reliable radiocommunications a routine matter.

people at Federal were asked to build themthey were "horrified" (1 :222).

At each station, these high-poweredtransmitters fed large "flat top" antennascomprised of 11 parallel wires. Under thetheory that "higher is better," the antennaswere strung between self-supporting steeltowers up to 600 feet tall (see Figure 1).

-- -------

Upper section of one of the Navy's standard 600-footself-supporting towers extending high up into the clouds.Note that the large antenna insulators are barely visible

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A shipment of heavy dut), insulators for installation in Hawaii and the Philippines.

The support towers were typically placed1,000 feet apart and were designed towithstand an antenna pull at the top of 20,000pounds.

Figure 2 is from the Locke catalog and shows6' porcelain insulators (without coronashields) "ready to ship to Hawaii and thePhilippines." Figure 3 shows an insulatorbeing installed atop one of the 600' towers atPearl Harbor. These insulators were 72" longby 2-112" in diameter. With the coronashield, each insulator weighed about 50pounds.

If you've been keeping score, then you havesome idea of the kinds of strains that theinsulators at these installations would beunder. 350 kilowatts' 20,000 pounds oftensile strength! The engineers of the daydetermined that no insulator, then existing,would be up to the task. In fact, Federal'sengineers specified chains of interlockedporcelain insulators each approximately 15feet long and at a total cost almost equal tothe cost of the transmitter! (1 :225)

When in use, the insulators were often"accessorized" with corona shields and rainshields. The corona shield, shown on page14, is used to spread the electrical IIstrain II

over a larger surface area to minimizeionization and arcing. The rain shield, alsoshown on page 14, is used to deflect rainwater which might otherwise create a leakagepath on the surface of the insulator.

Looking for a more reasonable alternative,the Navy contacted the Locke InsulatorCompany to design a practical insulator forthe purpose. And boy did they succeed!

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The station at Pearl Harbor first went on theair on October 1, 1917 and the station atCavite in The Philippines on December, 19thof that year. And the Locke insulators were asuccess. For eighty years now, Locke's basicdesign has continued in wide use for militaryand broadcast purposes.

Sources:

1. Howeth, L.S. Captain USN History ofCommunications-Electronics in theUnited States Navy (Washington:u.S. Government Printing Office)1963.

Other Works Consulted:

Hooper, Stanford C. Commander, USN"Developments in High-Power Radio"Radio Broadcast Vol. 1 No.5September, 1922 pp. 399-406.

Locke Insulator Corporation "Insulators forthe Modern Broadcasting Station" ca.1920. (Courtesy of Elton Gish)

Photo Credits:

Figure 1: Radio Broadcast 9/22 pg. 401.Figure 2: Locke Catalog ca. 1920. pg. 22.Figure 3: Radio Broadcast 9/22 pg. 400.Figure 4: Locke Catalog ca. 1920 pg. 17.

Riggers replacing a-defective insulator in the Navy's Pearl Harbor high power radio station antenna

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--- ------------ -- ----- -

L

RADIOINSULATORS

A

iL

r-----D --~

No. 25036Rain Shield andCorona ShieldNo. 25043 No. 25040

ANTENNA INSULATORS

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Insu- Porce- Shield Dimensionslator lain Mech. Attachments in Inches Net Weight, Lbs.Diam- Str., Lbs.No. eter AI C B D

25043 3lj2 15,000None ~

12.1 + .48 per inch of L25044 31/2 15,000 Corona Shield 16 6% 25 22 19.77 + .48 per inch of L25045 31/2 15,000 Corona Shield Both Ends 27.44 + .48 per inch of L25046 31/2 15,000 Corona Shield & Rain Shield 27.82 + .48 per inch of L

25040 2% 12,000 NOlle \ 8.7 + .55 per inch of L25041 2% 12,000 Corona Shield ! 10 51/8 14 14

14.5 + .55 per inch of L25042 2% 12,000 Corona Shield Both Ends 20.25 + .55 per inch of L25034 2% 12,000 Corona Shield & Rain Shield 16.75 I .55 per inch of LT

25036 1'% 7,000None \

4.8 + .235 per inch of L250.37 1% 7,000 Corona Shield 10.6 .i, .235 per inch of L10 5V8 14 14 I

25038 1% 7,000 Corona Shield Both Ends 16.35 + .235 per inch of L25039 1% 7,000 Corona Shield & Rain Shield 12.85 + .235 per inch of L

Pyrex Update

Pyrex Dog Bone

A few weeks ago, Jim Singleton alerted me toanother unusual Pyrex insulator. After notingan unusual glass dogbone insulator on thecover of the WiFB Antenna Notebook, Jimwrote to the ARRL to inquire about it. Jimlearned that the insulator is indeed a Corningproduct.

The insulator's overall appearance is similar tothe patent drawing shown below. It surewould be nice to know how many more ofthese are out there.

This morning, I found a used copy of theWiFB book. In addition to the glass insulator,two styles of porcelain strains are shown onthe cover.

Unfortunately, I don't find the WIFB AntennaNotebook listed among the league's currentpublications. But, if you can fmd a used copyat a hamfest, the cover photo alone is probablyworth an investment of a dollar or two. And,like Jim and me, you can at least own a photoof this interesting Pyrex item.

Style 6

Bob Streagle is the proud owner of anothernew Pyrex strain. He has a 7-112" amatuertransmitting insulator with saddleways whichprobably dates from World Warn. Whatmakes it a little unusual is the markings.Bob's is the first 7-112"we've documentedwith Navy markings. I've called it Style 6.

Corning's manufacturer's code "eBI" ismarked on the end along with the part number. "61014A. "

This part number is shared with other militarystrains of the same size. We'll cover thisnumber system in greater depth in a futureIssue.

If you have other Pyrex strains with unusualmarkings, please let me know.

Carnival Glass?

Finally, I've been in contact with agentleman who owns a Pyrex 7-112" strainwith a "carnival" finish. This item wasdisplayed in the combined display at theNIA National Show last July.

The current owner bought it from an estatewhere it had apparently been in storage formany years. This alone should dispel someworries that it might be a modem "fake." Itwould be nice if we could authenticate thecarnival finish through records oradvertisements. For right now, it raisesintriguing possibilities.

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