Arthur Oswin Austin

From ETHW

Arthur Oswin Austin

Arthur Oswin Austin was one of the pioneers and leading authorities on high-voltage transformers, insulators, and lightning effects on power transmission lines. Austin was born in Stockton, California, U.S.A. on 28 December 1879, the son of Oswin Alonzo and Mary Louisa (Hamman) Austin. Arthur, or A. O. Austin as he preferred to be known, was a good student at Stockton's elementary and secondary schools, preferring scientific subjects and showing a mechanical aptitude. He matriculated at Stanford University, painting houses and doing camera work to help pay for his education. He graduated from Stanford in 1903 with a Batchelor of Arts degree in electrical engineering.


Upon graduation, Austin took a position with the General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York and Pittsfield, Massachusetts for approximately a year before returning to California to take a job on the engineering staff of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of San Francisco where he was in charge of insulator inspection and development. In 1905, he began working for the Lima Insulator Company in Lima, New York until the plant was destroyed by fire in 1908.