While working as a telegraph operator for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in Victor, Fred Locke didn't always receive messages during wet weather. Complaints were lodged, and his bosses thought that he was sleeping on the job! This was not true, of course.

Because of his curious nature, Locke began looking into the problem and soon found that the cause was wetness of the line's glass insulators, which caused the electric current to short out. Locke's experimentation led him to perfecting a "triple petticoat" glass insulator.

In 1892, Locke and two partners formed Fred M. Locke and Co. to make electrical and telegraph parts. Their first small factory was in a warehouse next to the Fishers sawmill.

As more and more electrical power plants were built in the U.S. in the mid-1890s, more dependable insulators were needed to transmit electricity over longer distances and with higher voltage levels. Without the insulator, power transmission over any great distance would be impossible.

In 1895, Locke designed a porcelain insulator and quickly made a name for himself and for Victor. It was not porous like ordinary porcelain and absorbed no water; it was stronger and less fragile than glass and was not affected by temperature. The insulator had a capacity exceeding 40,000 volts and was used for the first power line to Buffalo from a newly built Niagara Falls power plant. The clay for the early insulators was red clay dug at Fishers.

In the summer of 1898, the Locke Insulator Manufacturing Co. opened on Maple Avenue by the New York Central Railroad tracks. By 1902, he had 80 employees and had made over 100,000 porcelain insulators for two California power companies.

By 1904, the plant had 140 employees. About this time, Victor bragged that it had the largest insulator plant in the world and was said to be the training ground for the insulator industry.

Victor's first electric lights were courtesy of Locke — his generator also ran electric arc lights along Coville Street. And not to forget how important sports were, Locke provided light for night football practice at Locke Insulators' Field.

In 1900, Locke moved his family to a 14-room Victorian home on East Main Street. Locke designed and constructed a one-room wing to be added to the home for his laboratory — previously, he had used his wife Mercie's kitchen as his lab.

Locke never stopped experimenting and trying his inventions — he made artificial gemstones, and "In 1925, he and his son Fred James Locke invented in Victor a type of low-expansion glass ultimately used for windows in American's spacecraft and space shuttles," according to Victor: The History of a Town, by Lewis Fisher.

By 1945, Locke Insulators had 485 employees in Victor and 15 beehive kilns for firing their products.

Locke's contributions to the economic growth of Victor are to be lauded. Many have said that the story of the development of the insulator is as great as the story of electricity.

Story and photo provided by Babette Huber, Victor town historian.