Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

The following collection of historical photographs depicts the evolution of Power Distribution methods, procedures, and equipment as used by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other local utilities in providing electric service to its customers.  

Historical Notes

The name 'Department of Water and Power (DWP)' did not come about until 1937 when the City's Bureau of Water Works and Supply consolidated with the Bureau of Power and Light.

Click HERE to see Name Change Chronology of DWP.

Historical Notes

West Side Lighting Company was organized in 1896 by private investors to provide another source of electricity for fringe areas of the city of Los Angeles.  Click HERE to see more.

Historical Notes

Electric cars might seem like the vehicles of the future, but they are actually a status symbol of the past.

During the early years of the “Automotive Age,”—from about 1896 to 1930—as many as 1,800 different car manufacturers functioned in the U.S. While innovators in Europe had been working on battery-powered vehicles since the 1830s, the first successful electric car in the U.S. made its debut in 1890.

The production of electric cars peaked in 1912.  And while at the turn of the century electric cars had made up a good proportion of the market, advances in gasoline-powered vehicles meant that electric cars owned a smaller and smaller market share as time went on.

By 1935, electric cars had all but disappeared from the road.^

Historical Notes

One of the earliest and most successful production 4x4s trucks (as seen above) was the FWD Model B, a 3-ton truck that was in production from 1912 to well into the ’20s, but it was sold refurbished up to at least 1939. Not only did it become a benchmark and cornerstone product for the FWD Corporation, it became a benchmark in the growth and development of four-wheel drive in general.^

Historical Notes

The Moreland Motor Truck Company of Burbank, was originally located in Los Angeles. The company slogan was "Built in the West -- for Western Work".^

Historical Notes

The above truck has been identified as a 4 cylinder Autocar with engine under the seat.^

Historical Notes

The first documented use of wood poles was in 1844 with the development of the telegraph. Samuel Morse received a $30,000 grant from the U.S. Congress to construct a 40-mile telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Morse originally tried to put his new telegraph lines underground, but in the first few miles the lines failed. So he turned to placing the lines overhead and advertised to buy 700 “straight and sound” wood poles.
The success with telegraph wires led to the use of poles for wires to distribute electricity. With the development of electricity generation and the need to carry that electricity to homes and factories increased demand for wood poles to carry the wires, insulators and other items required.

By the turn of the century, the need emerged to have standards to create a consistent supply of wood utility poles with predictable structural capabilities. In 1908, standards for round timbers were developed and soon after, the American National Standards Institute, or ANSI, adopted standards specifically for wood utility poles, defining the sizes and characteristics allowed.  Over the same time, standards for pressure treating wood with preservatives to extend their service life were developed through the American Wood Protection Association, or AWPA.*

Historical Notes

The Moreland Motor Truck Company of Burbank, was originally located in Los Angeles. The company slogan was "Built in the West -- for Western Work".

Moreland Motor Truck Co. was established in 1911, and by 1924 were offering a range of trucks from 1 1/2 ton to 6 tons capacity. In 1925 the company introduced a 6 wheel chassis (tandem rear axle) with a capacity of 10 tons. While a common feature on trucks today, Moreland was one of the first to offer a 3 axle truck. The company did well during the 1920s, but sales plummeted during the depression. By the mid 1930s the company was selling less than 50 trucks a year, down from a peak of nearly 1000. The company began to offer diesel engines and trucks up to 21 tons in the late 1930s.

In 1941 truck production ended and Moreland became a parts and service company. Moreland went out of business in 1949.^

Historical Notes

The truck above appears to be a 1920's Fageol (perhaps a 5 ton).

Historical Notes

Model T trucks were made available from the factory in 1925. The Runabout truckmarked the first time Ford had offered a factory installed a pickup bed. Responding to increased competition, Ford launched the 1926-1927 Model T Fords as a "NewFord," but in effect, under the surface, it was the same old Model T.

Historical Notes

Truck on the left is a 1920's Moreland. On the right is a 1932-34 Ford.

From the LADWP Historic Archive

Outstanding feature of the new unit is a 72-ft ladder which operates through an arc of 180 degrees. At one end of the ladder is a bucket which seats the man who washes the insulators. A hydraulic hoist, controlled by an operator at the base of the ladder, raises it to any desired height within the 72-ft range.

A unique safety feature is a second set of controls in the bucket which enables the employee operating the hose to cut off all operations, including movement of the ladder, at any time.Normal operating pressure of the water is 350-lb per square inch but when used on the Boulder transmission line, pressures up to a maximum of 1,000-lbs are utilized. The pumps can force 37-gallons of water per minute through the specially constructed hose from a 900 gallon capacity tank mounted on the truck chassis, making the unit a full fledged piece of fire fighting equipment also.

The Moreland truck is equipped with special compound gears and special tires use in both desert and mountainous country. The entire unit was designed for silent operation since insulator washing is done at night when power lines may be taken out of service without inconveniencing Power Bureau customers.

Although no performance record for the truck is available as yet, a normal month’s operation of the former unit amounted to approximately 12,000 washed insulators.**

From the LADWP Historic Archive

July 1940 – The scene is in the home of the Smiths, an average Los Angeles family. The time is after the dinner hour and Mr. Smith is reading the evening paper; his wife is doing some mending and the two children are studying their next day’s school assignments.

Suddenly the lights go out. Mr. Smith gropes his way to the phone, strikes a match and dials Michigan 4211, the Department’s telephone exchange, which immediately connects him with the Trouble Dispatcher’s Office, located on the eleventh floor, Second Street Building.

Trained and experienced in their work the dispatchers are the intermediary between the electric consumers and the field men who restore service. They are responsible for maintenance of operating functions, as far as electric distributions is concerned, from the time the power leaves distributing stations over 4600 volt primary wires until it reaches the consumer.

On the Power Bureau’s high voltage transmission and 34,500 volt systems, the same responsibilities are assumed by the Load Dispatcher’s office and the transmission line patrol.

The first concern of the dispatcher is to obtain information which will indicate the probable nature and extent of the outage. His first question is whether or not all lights in the home are out, if parts of them are still in service, the trouble obviously has been caused by a blown fuse in one of the house circuits.

In such a case, the dispatcher will, as a service to Power Bureau customers, send a petty troubleman to replace the burned out fuse but a practical precaution is for the customer to have on hand spare fuses of the correct rating so that he may replace the defective fuse in a jiffy.

If all lights are out, the trouble may be in a main fuse but if Mr. Smith reports that neighboring homes also are dark, there remain the possibilities that either a transformer fuse has blown or electric wires are down.

From past experience, the dispatcher many decide that the outage is the result of transformer trouble, in which case a primary troubleman is sent to the exact spot since the location of every transformer in the Power Bureau System is recorded.

If wires are down, locating the scene of the trouble is more complicated. For instance, the Load Dispatcher’s Office may send in the information that a primary circuit has relayed out at a certain distributing station. There is no way of instantly telling where the line trouble occurred.

A primary troubleman immediately is sent to the feeder center with instructions to call back as soon as he arrives. In the meantime, the dispatcher is collecting information that may determine where the trouble lies.

Sometimes the police or a pedestrian notice that wires are down and phone in the report. Addresses of consumers complaining that lights are out are checked with feeder maps, thus helping to establish the general location of the trouble. As a last resort, the troubleman patrols the district until the break is discovered.

Once on the scene of the trouble, the troubleman reports that he can make repairs without assistance or asks for help. One or two more men may be sufficient or it may be necessary to call out a crew from one of the district headquarters.

It should he noted that except on rare occasions, power failures in the City are caused by carelessness on the part of the consumer or circumstances over which the Operating Division has no control.

A prolific source of trouble is the practice of inserting a penny or piece of foil behind a defective fuse instead of inserting a new one. If consumers fully realized the damage that can result from a short circuit or a fire the practice would be discontinued.

Wind and rain storms sometimes play havoc with the municipal distributing system. Gales blow down one or more poles occasionally but the greatest damage comes from trees being blown down and falling into electric wires. Rains often soften the ground to such an extent that the trees topple over wi6th the same resultant damage. Storm waters may flood vaults of the underground system, throwing circuits out of service.

Kites are a headache during the kite flying season. They become entangled in the wires and, if constructed with a metallic frame or if wire or tinsel string is used, a short circuit is often the result. In the past fiscal year, 28 outages were attributed to kites.

Pigeons, owls and sea gulls constitute another problem. Pigeons like to roost on electric wires and cross arms and around the switch racks on top of some of the distributing stations and are the cause of many outages. Owls and sea gulls, with their wide wingspread, sometimes in flying around electric wires touch two conductors with the tips of their wings and a short circuit is the result.**

(1940s)## – Overhead power line congestion on an unidentifiable street in Los Angeles.

The use of underground electric distribution in Los Angeles began in 1897 when LA Edison Electric Co., in its first year of operations, installed a system in downtown Los Angeles. The high load density and rapidly growing demand for power in this area made an underground system a practical and economic necessity. In later years LA Gas and Electric Corp. and the Bureau of Power and Light would continue with this practice by installing their own underground system.

During the 1920’s, several residential subdivisions in the western part of the City also obtained underground electric services. The developers paid the difference between cost of overhead lines and higher cost of underground installation. Because of the relatively high costs associated with underground installations as compared to overhead installations, the widespread development of underground power lines in Los Angeles did not begin until the mid-50’s. At that time, utilities began to review the former dual objective of low cost and high reliability by including a third objective – appearance. Since that time appearance has become increasingly important.

Historical Notes

In 1896, West Side Lighting Company was organized by private investors to provide another source of electricity for the city of Los Angeles and fringe areas.

In 1897, West Side Lighting merged with the newly established private company, Los Angeles Edison Electric, which owned the rights to the Edison name and patents, especially the underground DC-power rights. The merged company took on the Edison name. An underground system and technology was crucial at this time, since the city voted in a resolution limiting the installation of new overhead utility poles due to excessive overhead wire congestion. Los Angeles Edison Electric installed the first major DC-power underground conduits system in the Southwest.

Until the 1930's, three separate electric utilities served Los Angeles. Click HERE to see more in First Electricity in Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

The name 'Department of Water and Power (DWP)' did not come about until 1937 when the City's Bureau of Water Works and Supply consolidated with the Bureau of Power and Light.

Click HERE to see Name Change Chronology of DWP.

Historical Notes

The truck above has been identified as a 1928-29 Ford Model A.

From the LADWP Historic Archive

Electricity, a mystic of modern science, is like omnipotent elements, both powerful and dangerous. The electrician, whose duty it is to tame and subjugate this invisible monster, must protect himself with a weapon very unlike a sword. The value of rubber gloves as a protection against electrical shock is inestimable.

Linemen and electrical workers who construct and repair high voltage lines and apparatus while they remain in operation, very often have only one-sixteenth inch thickness of rubber glove between them and the spirit side.

To emphasize the necessity of un-faulty protection to the lineman from electrical shock one should witness him at work. A man perched ninety feet up on a pole with his spikes dug into keep from slipping down and a leather belt hugging him to the pole so that his arms may be free. Upon each hand he wears a rubber glove and over that a leather glove protector. After thus protecting and adjusting himself he is free to begin his task of splicing cable.

From below one does not get a fair idea of how cumbersome and difficult it is to work with tools while both hands are doubly gloved and near at hand a hot wire carrying up to 4600 volts is to be constantly evaded even though one must touch it. Truly work for a brave man as well as skilled!

The possibility of this danger rests solely with the lineman themselves and can only be eradicated by careful use of the gloves.

Linemen are instructed carefully to inspect their gloves each time before using. Rubber gloves in some respects are like spring fruits in mid-winter. They are both perishable and expensive. Heat, sunlight, ozone and oil aid in the rapid deterioration of rubber gloves. New gloves are transported in individual cartons and are stored in a cool basement where the air is quite moist.**

Historical Notes

The truck above is a Moreland 11 ton truck with 10 ton winch.

LADWP Historical Archive

(1973) Despite the variety of designs, street lights are known as either electrolier or utilitarian types, according to Harvard Johnson, engineer in charge of Street Light Design. Customers own the electroliers --- lamps affixed to concrete or metal posts. The customer-owners of these are most likely the Department of Public Works or residents who form a private street lighting district.

The DWP owns the utilitarian lights. These are temporary lamps attached to wooden poles. Other agencies and lighting districts will eventually replace this type with the more modern electrolier systems. With both types, the DWP supplies the electrical energy, cleans the glassware, replaces lamps and glassware, and paints the electrolier posts. There are 191,000 electrolier standards and utilitarian lamps presently (1973) in the city.**

(Early 1920s)* - Electric-powered street light truck with platform fully extended.

(Early 1930s)* - New street light being pulled up for installation.

(1933)* - L. G. Gould with a new and an old incandescent lamp at 30th and Trinity Streets.

Historical Notes

This marked the close of another era in the development of Los Angeles. The last arc light in the City was removed November, 1933 by L. G. Gould's street lighting section and replaced with a modern incandescent lamp.*

Historical Notes

Ken Boothe, Supervisor of Transmission and Distribution out of the Van Nuys District, was overseeing the replacement of two wooden poles on Tujunga Canyon Boulevard that were damaged by a falling tree during a wind storm. Because of the location in a Tier 3 extreme fire risk zone, Power Distribution opted to replace the wooden poles with steel poles. Situated close to homes, up against a hillside, the poles were supporting two spans of 4.8 kV wires along with communication lines.

Historical Notes

Note some of the differences between then and now:

- Hard Hats vs. Felt Hats

- Work done from a bucket truck

- Type of climbing boots (difficult to compare)

- Type of clothing and protective gear