Letters

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", July 1996, page 7

Tall Mud Story

After seeing big mud for two months in a row in this column, I Just had to send mine in too! This is a 6' long 4-part wall tube, being modeled here by a friend, Ron Meuse of Victoria. BC. We secured three of these from the power station at an old cement plant about six years ago. They were still in their shipping crates, stacked along a wall in the building. Mounted about 30' up the wall were 3 of them for the 60KV 3-phase that entered the building. I guess the ones in the crates were standby replacements. I’m not sure how old they are, as there was no markings on the crates or on the porcelain. The plant was built in the early 1900’s, moved from its previous location, which is now the world famous Buchart’s Gardens. It was shut down in the 80’s, and was full of antique machinery and electrical equipment. Copper salvagers and vandals made quite a mess of the electrical equipment, but I did manage to secure some old Westinghouse meters and Westinghouse lightning arresters.

Mark Lauckner, Mayne Is., BC

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