April 1984 Foreign Insulators

Many thanks to Stephen Corfidi (Kansas City, Missouri), and Eugene Burger (Cleveland, Ohio) for sending us the following information about NGK of Japan and Locke Insulators of Baltimore, Maryland. I was not aware that these two insulator manufacturers had joined forces! I find this very interesting, and I hope you will, too. The article that follows is taken directly from the "Baltimore Sun" just as it was written on October 28, l983, by one of the newspaper's editors, Matt Seiden. The original title was Insulator-Making, Japan Style. Later, on November 5, 1983, the article appeared in the Cleveland, Ohio paper, "The Plain Dealer," and was headed Japanese take a Challenge in Baltimore.

America should take careful note of what's happening in the old Locke insulator plant at the foot of the Hanover street bridge here.

Founded in 1893, Locke was the world's first manufacturer of electrical insulators -- ceramic plates used to separate power lines from non-energized metallic parts in electric power plants and substations.

In 1920, General Electric bought out Locke and built a major new plant on the Baltimore waterfront. Continuing to use the Locke name, G.E. was now the world's largest producer of electric insulators.

But a major challenge was al- ready in making, far away and unobserved, in Japan.

The challenge began around the turn of the century when a Japanese electrical engineer visited the United States and took home a sample of a Locke insulator.

The engineer showed the ceramic device to officials of Noritake, a Japanese manufacturer of fine porcelain tableware. Noritake agreed to try making a few copies of the American product.

The copies were so successful Noritake created a subsidiary called Nippon Gaishi Kaishya (Japan Insulator Company), of N.G.K., for short.

N.G.K. is now the world's largest manufacturer of porcelain insulators, employing 5,000 people in Japan and many more around the world.

Meanwhile, Lock's fortunes gradually declined. By 1974 the Baltimore plant was losing money, and General Electric was threatening to shut it down for good.

Instead, G.E. sold N.G.K. a controlling 60 percent interest in Locke.

"Locke was our teacher, our ancestor. It was the company that taught us the business," and N.G.K. official said the other day. "So we had a strong feeling about the company, and the idea of rescuing it seemed to make sense."

But the rescue was not to be easily accomplished at a time when worldwide recession was causing a decline in the demand for energy and a corresponding drop in the demand for power plant components.

At first N.G.K. sent over a lone Japanese executive who maintained a relatively low profile here, over-seeing what was still essentially an American-run factory. Locke continued to lose money.

Then, in 1981, N.G.K. decided on a bolder strategy. To increase productivity and decrease costs, it would try to rebuild Locke from top to bottom according to the Japanese model.

To remake Locke in its own image, N.G.K. sent a new team of aggressive, young Japanese managers, advisers and technicians. They were given three years to succeed. One year remains.

"It is a final bet," Mike Shibata, the new president of Locke Insulators, said the other day. "If we fail, we surrender, close up shop and go home."

Two years after Shibata's arrival, the company is still operating in the red and still fighting for its life in a highly competitive industry in a still-sluggish market.

But there are hopeful signs for Lock's 450 local employees and their foreign managers.

The Japanese have introduced new product lines, brought in some modern Japanese equipment, and aggressively sought and won new contracts.

But they say the biggest and most important challenge lies in increasing the productivity of the American work force.

How are they doing this?

"Our philosophy is the family concept," Shibata says. "The company is like a dad, and the employees are the kids. If the company is growing, then all the kids have a better time. If the company is in trouble, then all the kids pitch in.

"When we came here, the feeling among the workers was us against them, the workers against the company. We have tried to show them that we are all on the same side. We are not enemies."

The practical results of benevolent paternalism have been mixed. On the one hand, the United Electrical Workers have managed to negotiate a new contract with no salary cuts or benefit concessions at a time when union workers elsewhere have not always been so lucky.

And the new philosophy has also led to a reduction in blue-collar layoffs. Layoffs were commonplace before the Japanese took over.

When they have had to cut jobs, the Japanese have trimmed sharply from the top instead, firing or giving early retirement incentives to nearly 70 white-collar employees.

The trade-off for the blue-collar workers has come in the work load.

According to management and union officials and a number of workers interviewed at the plant and elsewhere, almost everyone at Locke is now working harder and, most say, more efficiently.

On the factory floor, for example, workers who have slack time at their specialized tasks are given other jobs to do until they are needed back at their basic posts. Before they were allowed to sit around and wait.

Janitorial work has also been cut by asking workers to help keep their own work areas clean. This request has been dramatically underscored by the Japanese chairman of the board who makes daily rounds picking up cigarette butts from the factory floor.

"The Japanese are out on the floor all the time, so they really know what's going on," said Jim Johnson, president of the union local and a 19-year veteran at Locke. "The G.E. managers would walk through in a three-piece suit maybe once a week. These guys are out here picking up cigarette butts a couple of times a day. And their doors are always open upstairs. Communication is wide open."

I asked Johnson and others if there weren't some workers who are not happy about the extra work load or the foreign managers.

"There are always some problems," the union official said, "but most of us realize that if the Japanese hadn't taken over, we'd all be out of jobs by now. That's the bottom line."

Later, I asked Shibata how he would sum up the Japanese management formula.

"There's no secret formula," he said. "It's all common sense: motivation, loyalty, pride. We learned it all from you."

On November 28, 1983, George Hanson (Columbia Falls, Montana) found an article in his newspaper, "Daily Inter Lake," which also had to do with NGK-Locke, and, thanks to him, I can add still more to the story, which sounds as though this merger has proved to be successful. Quoting the paper word for word:

I can't tell you how much I appreciate it when one of you sends in material like this to share with other collectors. And now I guess I'll be hot on the trail for some facts about that Italian insulator manufacturer which calls itself Italiasolitori. Does that name ring any bells out there?

In Rochester, New York, at the National Show last July, Bob and Phoebe Adams showed me a small porcelain insulator from England. I had never seen one like it before, and borrowed it long enough to make shadow drawing and take measurements. It is 2-7/8 inches high and 2-1/2 inches across at the base. The following pictures show the insulator from two different angles. The glaze is a muddy greyish color with a hint of white underneath, and looks as though it had collected in dirty pools, particularly around the base, at the wire groove and in the depressions made by the incuse markings on the crown. It is not really what you would call a pretty insulator, but it is quaint and looks every minute of its ripe old age. Eventually it will be classified under its own U-number.

I included these two pictures in a recent letter to Keith Neal, our authority on English insulators, and asked him if he could tell us about this particular one. Happily, he was able to supply at least part of an answer. Here is what he wrote:

"Now to acknowledge the photograph of the highly unusual insulator you sent me pictures of. I do not know it and have never seen one. It is an Army Post Office pattern of I believe about 1880 or earlier. It is stamped with the Army 'broad arrow'. All Army or service property had to be stamped in this way in the 19th century, but it has gone out of use for a lot of things today. However, an insulator so marked is almost certain to belong to the 1860-1900 period. I actually possess an original 'die' of the period for making this stamp, but mine is a larger size than would be used on insulators. I have an idea that the maker may be Doulton, a firm which still exists after 100 years and more, and now makes high tension insulators only. If it is not Doulton it may be Taylor Tunnicliffe, but the grey color is early and was used by Doulton on their barrel insulators. So this insulator could be a lot earlier if it was made for a cemented spindle, but if for a screwed spindle then it is no earlier than 1877. It is definitely English and very rare."

Keith, the pinhole is only 1/2 inch in diameter and has very small threads, indicating the insulator was meant to screw directly onto a metal pin (or spindle); so, according to what you have told me, the insulator would be dated from 1877 or later, right?

Also, at the time I wrote you I never questioned the fact that GPO stood for anything other than General Post Office. Now I am wondering, since this 'broad arrow' is the mark of the Army Post Office, could GPO in this case stand for Government Post Office?

Another question: Since there don't seem to be any other markings on the insulator which could identify the maker, do you know of cases where either Doulton or Taylor Tunnicliffe left their insulators unmarked except for, perhaps, the initials or trademark of the user?

Thanks, Keith, for your help. Your extensive knowledge of English insulators is a great addition to our hobby!