Ohio Brass High Voltage Laboratories
Ohio Brass High Voltage Laboratories
Laboratory Number One -- 1910 to 1926
The first laboratory was located in Building 3 at the Ohio Insulator Plant at Park & 9th Streets in Barberton, Ohio. The principle test voltages used at this time were generated by Tesla coils with a frequency from 20 kilohertz to 70 kilohertz because the exact wave shape of lightning was unknown.
Laboratory Number Two -- 1927 to 1933
O. C. Barber, who had made his fortune manufacturing matches, and for whom the town of Barberton was named, died in 1920, but it took until 1926 to settle his estate. In 1926, Arthur Oswin Austin purchased a large tract of land, the mansion, and the horse barn belonging to the estate. The Ohio Insulator Company at about this time (1926-1928) had ordered four 2200 volt to 600 kilovolt 60 hertz test transformers from the Allis-Chalmers company. A. O. Austin found he could over excite the iron cores of the transformers to obtain a new rated average of 2750 volts to 750 kilovolts. A. O. Austin began testing with high-voltage impulse waves generated by charging a large screen wire conductor with the transformer bank and discharging it onto the test specimen. Figure 30 of A. O. Austin's paper entitled "A Laboratory for Making Lightning" presented in Paris, France on 6 June 1929
