Arthur O. Austin

Arthur Oswin Austin (December 28, 1879 – June 7, 1964) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He is the inventor of the Austin transformer, a double-ring toroidal transformer used to supply power for lighting circuits on radio towers. Austin's research included improvements to radio transmission equipment and the effects of lightning on high-voltage transmission lines and aircraft. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the Institute of Radio Engineers, and was an expert in high-voltage insulators and fittings. His work on transmitting antennas included both military and civilian projects.

A native of California, Austin graduated from Leland Stanford University with a degree in electrical engineering. He lived for a few years in New York, where he worked for General Electric and the Lima Insulator Company, but spent most of his adult life in Ohio where he married, worked for the Ohio Brass Company and founded the Austin Insulator Company. He bought a large estate in Barberton, Ohio, lived in the mansion, and built an extensive outdoor electrical laboratory on the grounds.

Career alt=Four men working in a rustically equipped laboratory. Benches covered with equipment are on both sides. One bench is supported by a wooden barrel. Wires can be seen suspended from the ceiling.

After graduating from college in 1903, Austin worked for General Electric in Schenectady, New York. He left General Electric in 1904 and worked for Stanley Electric Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts for a short time. He was hired by Pacific Gas and Electric, initially acting as their eastern representative doing electric insulator testing, and then moving to the company's San Francisco office in 1905.

During the First World War, the US Navy planned work on a military radio facility in Monroe, North Carolina, using arc converter transmitters produced by the Federal Telegraph Company, generating approximately 1 MW of power. Ohio Brass was contracted to supply the antenna insulators, with Austin assigned to the project.

Austin invented an electrically heated, oil filled porcelain insulator used to support radio transmission towers. Previous porcelain insulator designs had sufficient mechanical strength and electrical insulation for their intended purpose, but could be fragile enough that a tower might be brought down by a vandal with a .22 caliber rifle. Austin's design used a porcelain tube in combination with a bakelite sleeve, the latter having sufficient strength to support the tower if the porcelain was damaged. The porcelain was kept under compression, increasing its strength. The assembly was filled with oil kept warm by a 120-watt electric heater; a thermostat kept the exterior of the insulator above the dew point, preventing moisture from condensing on its surface which would result in leakage of radio frequency (RF) energy. The resistance to condensation in damp weather led Spokane, Washington's radio station KHQ to use this type of insulator which the Spokesman-Review described in 1945 as "the tallest self-supporting tower in the world".

Austin invented an insulated perch which prevented birds from resting on electrical transmission line insulator strings and was granted a patent on the invention in 1928. Austin was a fellow of both the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. He was a member of several other professional societies, including the American Ceramic Society, the American Society for Testing Materials, the American Electric Chemical Society, the Sigma Xi scientific fraternity Austin had previously worked on sectionalized high-tension power line towers and held a patent on that design.

Some radio stations had already built towers which were insulated from the ground, but WHK's design was the first to use insulators in the tower itself, dividing it into multiple isolated sections. In addition to the structural insulators, the tower included special ladders with "jack knife" sections at the insulated joints; during transmitter operation, the ladder sections were kept open to preserve the electrical isolation, but could be closed to allow workers to climb the tower for maintenance. During initial testing, the 1,000 watt WHK signal could be heard in New Zealand whereas the previous transmitter, with the same power level, was not even audible throughout all of Cleveland.

Tower lighting was provided by gas carried through copper pipes which transitioned to non-conductive porcelain tubes at the tower joints.

Austin transformer alt=Photograph of the base of one leg of a radio transmission tower. An austin transformer is shown, with the primary and secondary coils, spark gap, and ground straps labeled. The base of the steel tower is mounted to a concrete piling. Some metal parts rusted and most of the installation is covered in what appears to be bird excrement. Austin invented the Austin ring transformer, These are used at the bases of radio transmission towers to allow electrical power to be fed to the tower lights without interfering with the radio-frequency feed. The windings are usually at right angles to each other and oriented so rain water can drip off the secondary without hitting the primary ring.

The 1971 Austin Insulator product catalog listed 21 standard types with power ratings from 0.7 to 7.0 kVA weighing , with the larger units only available on special order. was quoted by Radio World: He attended high school in Stockton

Austin married Eleanor Briggs on December 28, 1907, in New York City. Two years later, Austin married Eleanor's sister Augusta in Los Gatos, California; the couple had two daughters, Barbara and Martha.

By the 1920s, Austin was a wealthy man. Construction was of red brick, white concrete block, royal blue trim, and red terra cotta tile roofs. The house, which had gold-leaf ceilings, was described in 2005 by the Akron Beacon Journal as having 52 rooms, "a breathtaking vista from its east-side perch", and being "the most opulent residence between New York City and Chicago". The house was surrounded by 35 ancillary buildings including barns. After his death, his heirs were unable to maintain the estate. There was an effort on the part of the Barberton community to preserve the property for its historic value, but funding could not be secured and the house was torn down. It was estimated at the time that upkeep of the mansion cost $3,000 per month.

High-voltage laboratories alt=Outside view of brick laboratory building. In the foreground is steel structure, supporting high-voltage lines. The tower is mounted on a base with wheels that ride on rails. Large pieces of equipment are mounted on a steel platform in front of the building.

Between 1910 and 1968, the Ohio Insulator Company (which later changed its name to Ohio Brass) built a series of four high-voltage testing labs, with Austin being involved in the first two. The need for such a lab had been driven by the increase in voltages used for electrical transmission. Lines running at 25 kV were typical in 1891 but by the early 1920s lines were commonly running at 220 kV and it was not yet fully understood how these lines would be affected by storms, rain, fog, or snow. The high voltages necessitated physically large equipment and clearances, which meant the labs could no longer fit inside buildings and had to be built outdoors. A capacitor and synchronous switch was used to produce a transient overvoltage and a spark across a sphere gap which could be applied to objects being studied.

The space available on the Barber estate was outgrown by 1933 and in 1934, the third lab was built by Ohio Brass adjacent to their factory.

Effects of lightning on aircraft Austin used his lab to experiment with the effects of lightning on aircraft, both airplanes and lighter-than-air airships from the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation

Preliminary experiments at the Barber estate lab were done on scale models of airplanes. The models were hit by artificial lightning strikes measuring millions of volts and hundreds of thousands of amps. These experiments showed that lightning would typically enter and leave the plane at projecting points on the structure; the two points might be the opposite wingtips, the propeller and the tail skid, or other pairs. In one experiment, the pitot tube was struck. The hot engine exhaust gas did not appear to attract strikes, contrary to speculation that it would. As of 1930, when these findings were published by Popular Mechanics, additional experiments were planned to investigate the effect of lightning on fuel tanks, the engine crankcase, flight instruments, and control cables. Decca had previously been a customer and relied on the specialized insulators which Austin provided; to ensure the continued availability of these components, Decca bought the company. The company's main products are high-voltage insulators and transformers mostly used by the radio transmission industry. Insulator strings of the "safety core" type with mechanical ratings up to are available.