Investigation of Transformer Burn Outs at Kern Substation

This report describes Professor Sorensen’s experiments on the Kern substation, owned by Pacific Light and Power (PL&P). Sorensen was a Consulting Engineer for PL&P from 1913 to 1917, where he performed troubleshooting experiments at PL&P facilities (“Orange and White”). In 1913, Sorensen was asked to fix the transformer burn outs at Kern substation. Sorensen hypothesized that the cause was the contamination of the oil in the transformer.

He based this hypothesis on previous lab experience. As he states in the report, in 1907, he dealt with “transformer trouble” caused by the “notion of sulphur in the oil.” To test this hypothesis, Sorensen chemically confirmed the presence of sulfur. Sorensen also saw this experiment as an opportunity to apply Caltech’s oscillograph (or oscilloscope, in today’s terms) to confirm that no other factors were causing the burn outs.

This report demonstrates the importance of Caltech’s technical expertise and equipment to LA’s electrical infrastructure. Without Sorensen’s previous experience, it would have been difficult for PL&P’s engineers to immediately identify the issue. Sorensen’s particular contribution to commercial power transmission was acknowledged in Caltech’s 1920 yearbook, where students credited him with having “designed and installed all the large electrical machinery in California” (“Orange and White”).

The impact of Caltech’s EE department as a whole was confirmed by an oral interview in 1978 with Professor William Pickering, a former professor in Electrical Engineering, who stated that the department “had done some very useful work in helping the Edison Company develop the first long-distance transmission lines” from Fresno down to Los Angeles (William Hayward). In Pickering’s words, it was this initial work that eventually helped Sorensen and Caltech obtain Edison’s support in building the High Voltage Laboratory (William Hayward).

Sources:

“Orange and White : A History of the California Institute of Technology, 1919-1920.” Big T [Pasadena, CA], Caltech Student Yearbook, nos. 1919–1920, 1920, https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechCampusPubs:20110726-143937916.

William Hayward. “William Hayward Pickering Oral History Interview.” 7 Nov. 1978, Caltech Archives. Transcript.