Keeping Current: Re-Introducing the M-0001!
by Bob Beckwith, CEO
Originally printed in December 2002.
The figures below show the first product manufactured by Beckwith Electric
Company - the M-0001. It was manufactured on the kitchen table on May
1, 1967 and the metal was cut from my wife's aluminum cookie sheet and
formed with a hammer and workshop vise. A nameplate was drawn by hand
on white paper and pasted on the unit for the photograph that you see
in the figure.
A product release was sent to a friend of the company and one of Beckwith
Electric's first board members-Frank Kovalsic, Midwest Editor for Electrical
World, the prestigious McGraw-Hill publication for the electric utility
industry. We paid for a small ad using the photograph and accompanied
by the product release. The product ad was listed on a reply card to be
sent with each magazine. From this small ad, we received orders for a
few M-0001's, shipping the one shown in the bottom figure.
This M-0001 proved to be a great success. The M-0001 was wired across
a $10,000 fault recorder powered by the station battery. An AC power line
came in contact with one side of the battery causing high current to flow
to ground (as designed). This held the voltage across the fault recorder
terminals preventing damage. The M-0001 conducted a DC arc long enough
to blow a fuse with the recorder undamaged. Obviously, that customer bought
a lot more M-0001's!
Beckwith Electric still sells the M-0001 for only $205 and the product
works just as reliably as it did in 1967 when the first one was made-a
great value!
The M-0001 works best when wired with short leads across battery-operated
equipment to be protected from accidental contacts with AC circuits and
other sources of induced transients on the battery leads capable of damaging
equipment.
Upper left: First M-0001 built
Upper right: M-0001 which protected fault recorder (burn marks evident)
Lower: One of first M-0001's built in 1967
Powerlines
issue #40
Keeping Current is an editorial column by Bob Beckwith,
CEO of Beckwith Electric Co, Inc. Reproduction of the whole
or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
|
