Doctor’s home gets special treatment

Dr Simon Topham has been the subject of much discussion of late in the West Highlands as he was one of the two outgoing family doctors at the Acharacle Medical Practice who reluctantly submitted their resignations earlier this year, citing a lack of NHS support.

He’s now joining a practice in England, which means saying goodbye to the home he and pharmacist wife Dawn created in Strontian, and thought they would live in until their old age.

Westernmost is a modern, luxury eco-friendly house in the small community of Resipole, which they designed after working closely with Alan Dickson, an architect with Rural Design Architects based in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye.

“We wanted to create a house we’d live in until we retired,” said Simon, 48.

“We gave Alan a brief which included a desire to use materials sourced from as close to the area as possible so as to blend in with the environment.

“Internally, we wanted a feeling of openness and spaciousness, with light coming from many different directions,Huge range of polished tiles including polished tiles, so there are little openings and windows throughout the house which means, in practical terms, when you’re working you have light striking from different angles which reduces shadows.”

Westernmost sits in a fabulous location on the shores of Loch Sunart and boasts spectacular, panoramic views.Browse the Best Selection of buy mosaic and Accessories with FREE Gifts.

“It’s a wonderful site and I think Alan our architect summed it up best when he said you can always add to a building, but you can never add to a location,Find detailed product information for howo tractor and other products.” said Simon.

The eco-friendly south-facing house was designed to take full advantage of its position.

“Having a house in this setting is about extending your vista beyond the confines of the building into what actually surrounds it so the building and the environment become one and you feel a connection with what’s outside, which gives you a rhythm of life,” said Simon.

“The views from the front, overlooking Loch Sunart, change hour to hour so there’s no need for a TV as there’s always something to see, such as regular visits from otters, pine martins, red deer, woodpeckers and jays.”

The house itself has many lovely rooms with nice touches throughout.

“We designed it with comfort in mind but wanted to add luxury items of the sort you’d find in hotels – simple things like heating under the porcelain floor tiles in the en-suite and having a central light switch next to your bed,” said Simon.

The accommodation at Westernmost, which has a guide price of 385,000, includes an entrance hall with glass door and side patio and built-in cupboards, a handy utility area and cloakroom, a large open-plan living area which includes a vaulted ceiling lounge with patio doors and multi-fuel stove, stylish dining area and kitchen fitted with cream coloured gloss Wellmann kitchen and a host of top of the range, Neff appliances.

An inner hall with solid oak stairway leads upstairs – the full-length window on the half-landing is a nice touch.

Upstairs there’s a luxury bathroom with Roca suite and Grohe mains shower, an L-shaped bedroom with fitted wardrobes, a gallery and study area with more built-in cupboards and fitted bookcase,Find detailed product information for shamballa crys talbeads wholesale, a second double bedroom and a master bedroom with a full-length window, fitted wardrobes and an en-suite shower room.

The latest technology has been installed to keep running costs to a minimum, as Simon explained: “It’s a very energy-efficient home with a heating system that’s quite complex and based on a 300l thermal store which we heat through wet solar panels (free energy), a back boiler on the multi-fuel stove and, lastly, an economy 10 electricity system which we use to top it up when we’re not burning logs.

“The house is a high thermal envelope and, as the majority of the heat comes from passive solar gain, it makes it very cheap to run.

“You can have an impressive storm racing across Loch Sunart and be warm, dry and relatively quiet in here because of the insulation.”

Outside the house, which is clad in Scottish Larch, there’s a drive with parking and turning area and a front decked area which allows full advantage to be taken of the outstanding views over the Loch and fascinating water way.

The remaining garden ground is laid to lawn with an attractive rockery area and vegetable garden.

In addition, there’s a strip of land between the road and high water mark included in the sale which the family have cleared to create a small slipway with mooring directly in front of the house.

It’s with great reluctance that they are now selling.

“We had intended to stay here until I retired, but circumstances have changed and it is immense sadness that we are leaving the house and a community that made us so welcome.”

On the upside, moving south will allow them to spend more time with their family, son Alex and daughter Emily and spoil grandson, Lewis.

“We may be moving away but we don’t intend to be strangers here,” said Simon.

Resipole, on the Ardnamurchan peninsula,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and plastic moulds. is famous for its natural rugged beauty and wildlife.

Approximately 40 miles west of Fort William, the village of Acharacle four miles away has local amenities such as shops, hotel, doctors’ surgery, post office and primary school, while the secondary school is six miles away in the village of Strontian.

Market stalls at heart of fight over old Hebron

Four stalls in a trash-filled, abandoned outdoor market have turned into hotly contested real estate in the center of biblical Hebron where several hundred ultranationalist Jewish settlers are wrestling with Palestinian residents for control, house by house and storefront by storefront.

The stalls' Palestinian tenants want Israel's Supreme Court to evict settlers who seized the properties a decade ago, but some in Israel's pro-settler government believe the small shops should remain in Jewish hands.

Such an outcome would boost one of the most controversial endeavors of the Jewish settlement enterprise — tightening Israel's hold over the center of the West Bank's largest Palestinian city.

"The fight is over the character of Hebron and the old city area," said Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement group.

The first group of settlers moved into Hebron in 1968, a year after Israel captured the city, along with the rest of the West Bank,Leading Swarovski crystalbeadswholesale Wholesale Supplierpandahallprlog. from Jordan. Over the years, the community has grown to about 800 people who live in several heavily guarded compounds, separated from the city's 180,000 Palestinian residents by barbed wire, blast walls and hundreds of Israeli soldiers.Leading Swarovski crystalbeadswholesale Wholesale Supplierpandahallprlog.

Settler leader Noam Arnon said the community hopes to expand in what he called "Jewish areas" in the center where Palestinian access is limited and which he said make up about 3 percent of the city. This includes real estate owned by Jews who lived in Hebron before Israel's creation in 1948, he said.

Settlers say they are ready to co-exist in Hebron with the Palestinians, but argue that the city — which looms large in Jewish history but now serves as the center of Palestinian commerce in the West Bank — must remain under Israeli control. That runs counter to the Palestinian demand for a state in all the lands Israel captured in 1967 — the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank.

Over the years, Israeli governments have maneuvered between the settlers and the Palestinians.Find detailed product information for howotractor and other products.

Israel transferred 80 percent of Hebron to Palestinian self-rule as part of interim peace deals in the late 1990s, but retained control over the rest, including the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a shrine sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews as the traditional burial place of Abraham and other biblical figures.Learn how Toyota's Solar Powered ventilationsystem uses the sun's rays.

More than a decade ago, as the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli military rule erupted, the army boosted protection around the settler compounds. It also carved out a wide path for Israelis into downtown Hebron from the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to the city. Palestinians can't drive along this route and Palestinians on foot are barred from a small part of it.

Hundreds of Palestinian shops in the downtown area were either sealed by the army or had to close for lack of customers kept away by protracted curfews. The streets in the once thriving shopping district are deserted and rows of storefronts are shuttered. Some Palestinians have put up wire mesh to protect against stones hurled by settlers.

Palestinian activists are trying to reclaim the ancient old city next to the settler enclaves and have renovated hundreds of apartments with funding from Arab states and the Palestinian Authority. Community organizer Emad Hamdan said several thousand have returned to the old city, lured by rent-free apartments.

Ofran of Peace Now said there is concern that "eventually all the closed areas will be for the settlers and that's what the settlers want," she said.

The stalls of the wholesale market next to the Avraham Avinu settler compound are a prime target for expansion. The market was built on land owned by Jews, Ofran said. After the outbreak of the second uprising in 2000, the army barred Palestinians from entering the market because of its proximity to Avraham Avinu.

Two settler families took over four stalls next to the settlement and turned them into homes. These stalls stand on a parcel held by the Ezra family, which left before the city came under Jordanian rule in the late 1940s. Jordan's Custodian of Enemy Property took over the market and rented the stalls to Palestinian residents, as protected tenants.

The Awawi family rented the four stalls now under dispute, selling clothes and shoes.Learn how Toyota's Solar Powered ventilationsystem uses the sun's rays. The rental agreement remained in place after Israel captured the West Bank in 1967.

Abdel Razek Awawi, 82, said his six sons worked with him in the market and his father and grandfather before him. He said a member of the Ezra family asked him after 1967 to leave the shop so he could rent it to settlers. Awawi said he refused.

"I rented it legally, and no one can take that from me," said Awawi, whose demand to have the settlers evicted is currently being heard by the Supreme Court.

Yosef Ezra, a Jerusalem resident listed as an heir in court papers, declined comment.

Orit Struck of Avraham Avinu said that since Palestinians won't be able to reclaim the market for security reasons, the stalls should be used by Jews, rather than being abandoned.

Last month, members of a newly established Israeli ministerial committee on settlements recommended that the stalls be handed to Jews after evicting the settlers living there now, said Danny Danon, a pro-settler lawmaker in the governing Likud Party. Israel's attorney general expressed concerns about breaking the lease of the Palestinian tenants, according to the Haaretz daily.

Romney Green Energy Fund Draws Fire From Democrats

Mitt Romney reiterated this week his belief that government shouldn't be "picking winners" in the private sector, and his campaign is pounding away at the argument that the Obama administration did exactly that in its failed investment in the Solyndra solar panel company.

But as the Solyndra debate rolls on, that line of attack is being shadowed by a vestige of Mr. Romney's own history: his championing of green-energy investments, some of which also went belly up,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, while he was governor of Massachusetts.

The $15 million Mr. Romney set aside for the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund when he was governor was a fraction of the $535 million in loan guarantees the Department of Energy gave Solyndra before it went bankrupt, part of an overall $16 billion fund. Still, the campaign of President Barack Obama is now citing the Massachusetts fund in an attempt to undercut the Romney argument that the administration has wrongly meddled in the private sector. The Democratic message is simple: The Republican contender did pretty much the same thing.

The green-energy tiff is an example of a broader trend emerging. The Romney campaign is seeking to keep the spotlight on the Obama presidential record. Meantime the Obama campaign is trying to use Mr. Romney's own record as a public official to show that on a series of issues—job creation, government debt, abortion rights and global warming—his gubernatorial performance is at odds with his campaign posture.

Solyndra still lurks as an uncomfortable problem for the Obama campaign. The company was in the news this week as it tried, for the second time, to sell off its California manufacturing complex to help repay creditors and the federal government.

But Democrats are pointing to the Massachusetts fund to spur alternative-energy companies. Mr. Romney inherited that fund—much as Mr. Obama inherited the U.S. program that gave loans to Solyndra—so the debate turns on what he did with it once in office. Such funds are commonplace in many states, used to attract new businesses or build up local enterprises.

Early in his term, Mr. Romney appeared at Konarka Technologies Inc., which had won approval for $1.5 million in first-round public funding shortly before Mr. Romney took office.Heat recovery ventilators including domestic home ventilationsyste. He handed over the funds to Konarka, a solar panel maker, and used that appearance to announce the start of his own $15 million Green Energy Fund.

The $160 million fund that predated Mr. Romney was managed by a semipublic agency involving officials in government, business and academe. Mr. Romney carved out $15 million from that fund and shifted it to a public-private partnership run by a board of independent, private-sector investors.

The Romney clean-energy fund went on to make 14 investments in green-energy concerns. Three of those have gone under, said William Osborn, a founding partner of the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoortracking since 2000. He added that the governor never raised concerns about the program. "There were plenty of opportunities for him to say, 'This is a bad thing for government to do,' " said Mr. Osborn, a Democrat. "None of that happened."

The Romney campaign says the key difference between Mr. Romney's effort and the Obama administration's approach is that Mr. Romney converted his program into a public-private partnership. "Mitt took the money away from the government bureaucrats and gave it to private venture capitalists to manage," said Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to the campaign. "That's where it belongs."

Mr. Romney took heat about his energy policies during the GOP primaries, when opponents tried to paint him as too liberal. And Former Pennsylvania Sen.Rubiks cubepuzzle. Rick Santorum accused him of "listening to the radical environmentalists about global warming and pushing taxpayer dollars to green energy companies."the Obama campaign contends his green energy financing clashes with his campaign rhetoric. "The wheels continue to fall off Mitt Romney's Solyndra offensive against President Obama," said Lis Smith, an Obama campaign spokeswoman.

The debate over the Massachusetts fund was pushed further into the limelight, to the discomfort of the Romney campaign,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. with the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing early this month by Konarka, the firm to which Mr. Romney delivered the state funds early in his administration. The company said in a news release that its assets will be liquidated.

Still, Mr. Romney's campaign says that the candidate has been consistent in his views about state backing for green businesses. It pointed to a 2003 interview in which the candidate said, "The idea of state employees deciding which businesses to invest in is not a model which I would subscribe to."

As governor, Mr. Romney felt money devoted to green energy would be better spent elsewhere, aides said. At one point, facing a budget shortfall, Mr. Romney used millions from the $160 million energy fund to help plug a budget hole. His campaign cited that as evidence that he attempted to steer state funds away from green investments.

A beacon for the quality and workmanship of long ago

You’ve not only fallen heir to an exceptional antique, but also to a room accessory that is as wonderfully and beautifully functional today as the day it was made.

As you’ve discovered,Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services. it’s very heavy, which in and of itself is a testimony to the quality and workmanship that was once the standard of American industry. Of course,Features useful information about glassmosaic tiles, it’s not without its shortcomings, and if you’d like to trade up, I’ve got a nice modern plastic model you’re sure to like. Mine is superior,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? naturally, in that you’ll suffer less consternation should it fall off a table.

Your lamp was made by the Mosaic Shade Co. of Chicago, circa 1920. Often referred to as “Chicago Mosaic,” it became the largest art glass manufacturing company in the United States. Unfortunately, like many factories producing superfluous, if not extravagant, non-essentials, it went belly up during the Great Depression.

As its name suggests, the firm became famous for its stunning mosaic, Tiffany-style stained-glass lamps. However, “mosaic glass” is also the terminology that several companies used in those days to refer to the marble-patterned glass found in yours.

The decorative framework in the shade of your lamp appears to be fitted with 12 panels of what is commonly known as slag glass, or what was originally called malachite or simply marble glass. It has a rich opaque streaked or marbled effect throughout, the creation of which was incorrectly attributed to mixing slag iron with molten glass. In actuality, the product is made by combining glass of two different colors, a process that was introduced in England in the 19th century.

The illumination through a slag glass shade creates a soft, creamy glow in a room rather than the bright,I found them to have sharp edges where the injectionmoldes came together while production. cheery and random colors achieved via its stained-glass counterpart.

Unfortunately, the term slag glass is used casually and indiscriminately nowadays to convey elegance to inexpensive pressed glass that can mimic the patterns. However, the richly marbled swirls of authentic malachite are easily distinguishable from the cheap imitations.

Though slag glass is most commonly found in purple, it also was made in brown, green, blue and turquoise. The color, size and number of glass panels in the metal overlay shade can be influential in terms of determining its value, but it mostly boils down to how attractive the lamp is to a perspective buyer who envisions the perfect spot for it.

Of course, condition is of utmost consideration, and if this were put in an auction, it would be examined closely for every imperfection,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and porcelaintiles. especially in the glass.

All Chicago Mosaic pieces are cherished and held in high esteem among collectors today. I’m sure the single photograph that you’ve provided, which was taken in daylight, doesn’t begin to do justice to the lavish beauty it emanates at sunset.

Assuming it’s as nice as it looks, I would value it between $850 and $1,300. Of course, should an antique dealer get a hold of it, you might find upwards of a $3,000 price tag attached. This isn’t all bad, though. After all, a potential buyer could talk him down $1,500 and both parties could celebrate the other’s capitulation.

Google Outsells, but Apple Cultivates Loyalty of App Developers

Smartphones running Google’s Android operating system outsell iPhones more than two to one. And yet, even as Google’s system has gobbled up market share, Apple has held onto one critical advantage — the loyalty of mobile app developers.

Many developers have continued to make applications first, and sometimes only, for iPhones. They find it easier to create software for Apple devices than for ones running Android, or it may be more lucrative. Their allegiance to Apple has helped make its devices the powerhouses they are for the company.

“Android may have a lead in how many handsets it ships, but it doesn’t have a lead in how much money app developers are making from it,” said Hadi Partovi, an investor in technology start-ups like Dropbox and a former manager at Microsoft.

On Monday, Apple will seek to strengthen its ties to mobile developers with a series of product announcements on the opening day of its developer conference in San Francisco, an annual ritual where the company tries to stimulate the creative juices of this important constituency.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoortracking since 2000. The company is expected to introduce a new version of the iOS operating system that powers iPhones and iPads, according to people familiar with Apple’s plans who were not authorized to speak about them publicly.

One feature of that software is expected to be an eye-catching new 3-D map service operated by Apple that will pose a challenge to a Google map service used within many iPhone applications, these people said.

“It’s a lot more beautiful,” said one of these people, who has seen a demonstration of Apple’s maps service.

At the same time, Apple is expected to update its Mac family of computers with new hardware, these people said.

Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman,Professional Manufacturer for ceramictile. declined to comment.

The conference is “the most important event of the year,” said John Casasanta, owner of Tap Tap Tap, the software studio that makes the popular Camera+ app, available only on the iPhone. “I’m having trouble thinking of any conference that comes anywhere near as relevant.”

Apps are among the strongest weapons Apple and Google have for marketing their mobile technologies to consumers. The bounty of software available for Android and iOS, as varied as racing games and apps for managing recordings on cable boxes, is a chief reason the mobile phone market has settled into a two-horse race.

Rival technologies plagued by a scarcity of apps, including Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Phone, are finding it difficult to persuade developers to invest in them.

Apple’s continued influence among mobile app developers flies in the face of predictions that the company would steadily lose clout as Android phones flooded the market, presenting developers with a much bigger target audience. And it could help Apple avoid the fate the Macintosh experienced in the 1990s when competing with PCs running Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Although many considered the Mac to be superior,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Microsoft outsold Apple’s computers in part by distributing its product broadly on hardware made by many companies, which helped Windows to snowball.

Software developers flocked to the larger Windows PC market, which in turn attracted more customers, which attracted still more software developers to Windows. For the better part of two decades, Microsoft held the allegiance of software developers, relegating the Mac to the periphery of the computer business.

In the mobile market, there is no doubt Apple’s share has been overshadowed by Google, which makes Android freely available to any hardware maker that wants to build a phone with it.

Although the first Android handsets did not appear until about a year after the iPhone was released, widespread support from handset manufacturers, especially Samsung, and wireless carriers helped propel Android to 59 percent of the smartphone market during the first quarter, compared with 23 percent for the iPhone, according to estimates from IDC, a research firm.

There have been predictions that the huge volume of Android smartphones being sold would persuade developers to abandon or at least weaken their iPhone efforts by, for example, developing apps first for phones running Android.

In December, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, said that six months from then, mobile developers would begin favoring Android app projects over iPhone apps.

“Because ultimately applications vendors are driven by volume and the volume is favored by the open approach Google is taking,” Mr. Schmidt told an audience at a technology conference in Paris.

That six-month mark passed last week. In the interim, the companies behind some well-known iOS apps like Instagram have made Android versions of their software. But as the technology writer and investor M.G. Siegler wrote in a column on TechCrunch last week, Mr.Distributes and manufactures rubbermats. Schmidt’s prediction that developers would begin making Android apps first did not come to pass, at least not the most prominent developers.

“You failed hard in this prediction,Features useful information about glassmosaic tiles,” Mr. Siegler wrote, addressing Mr. Schmidt.

Christopher Katsaros, a spokesman for Google, declined to comment for this article.

Longtime Democrats Berman-Sherman clash in congressional race

For four decades, Berman’s been an untouchable Democratic Party powerhouse in California — first, as a state legislator, and then as a congressman whose district includes much of the eastern San Fernando Valley. Then, the redistricting commission released its new political boundaries.

71-year-old Berman landed in the same western San Fernando Valley-based district as 57-year-old Sherman, a Valley congressman for 15 years. More than half the district sits within Sherman’s current district; that leaves Berman at a distinct disadvantage. Another Democratic giant — and longtime Berman ally — Congressman Henry Waxman urged Sherman to move north to a Ventura district, in deference to the elder.Trade organization for suppliers and distributors in the promotional products industry. Sherman balked, and Berman went on the offensive.

“Brad’s passed three bills in his 15 years in congress — two of them naming post offices," said Berman. “That’s a silly yardstick for measuring a member of congress.”

Sherman says his approach to lawmaking is different than Berman’s.

“Most of my work is in amending and shaping legislation that doesn’t have my name on it,TBC help you confidently buymosaic from factories in China." said Sherman.

Sherman, a Certified Public Accountant, tax lawyer and former member of the state Board of Equalization points toward 2008 to highlight his successes.

“My number one accomplishment was blocking and forcing the re-tooling of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout known as TARP," said Sherman.

At the time, Sherman took to the House floor as a member of what was known as the 'skeptics caucus,' amid rampant fears of economic collapse.

”This bill is not going to solve the problem. People think if you act in a panic and throw $700 billion at it, you’re going to solve it. Hardly," said Sherman on the House floor.

Howard Berman supported the original bailout bill. He’s unlikely to ever join a 'skeptics caucus.' Having mastered the arcane legislative rules of the House, he prefers to work the levers of power from the inside.

“By and large, politics is a team sport. The more relationships you have, the more alliances you have, the more effective you can be," said Berman.

Berman’s longevity has earned him seniority in the House. He’s the ranking Democrat on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee.

Another big difference between Berman and Sherman is the way they interact with their constituents.

Sherman sips iced tea with voters at a meet and greet in a San Fernando Valley living room. He’s held 160 town halls like this during his time in office — compared to Berman’s relative handful. Outside, Vera Highland says sIt's pretty cool but our ssolarpanel are made much faster than this.he likes Sherman.

“I also like Howard Berman. I actually helped work on his campaign," said Highland. "I’m checking everybody out.”

She glances around nervously, hoping not to offend anyone. Her friend who hosted the event is a big Sherman backer.

Many Democratic voters are divided because Berman and Sherman hold similar political views — on immigration, the environment and U.S. support for Israel. Both are Jewish. They do differ on the economic bailout and trade issues. Sherman is more protectionist — that’s one reason more labor unions prefer him.

Berman has been called “Hollywood’s Congressman.” He’s helped sponsor anti-piracy legislation.

Suddenly, Sherman’s mother walks up. She’d attended the tea inside the house.

“I’m Lane Sherman,This page contains information about tooling. I’m Brad’s mother. So I was interested to hear what you were saying," she says. “I’m just very pleased that he’s happy and he has a family.”

This kind of intimacy between candidates, their families and voters is relatively new in politics, especially for people like Berman who was first elected to public office in 1972.

“The world he is running in is not the world he came up in. It’s probably a little more of the world that Sherman came up in," said political scientist Raphe Sonenshein. “I think you’re looking at a period now where the general disdain for politics and parties and politicians that was always strong in California just keeps getting stronger. And the ability to connect with voters is extremely important.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network.”

Two Out of Four Must Go!

For the most part, tower insulators are pretty rugged. I’ve been in this business for more than 35 years and have never seen a base insulator fail — or even crack … until recently.

Porcelain is a rugged material that is very durable in compression; it does not crush. That makes it an excellent material for use in high weight-bearing applications (such as under a tower). The same material is used for guy wire insulators in AM applications, with the guy cable rigged through the insulators so that they compress the porcelain material and don’t pull on it.

In guyed AM tower applications, a cone-shaped or cylindrical insulator is placed between the base pier and the tower base plate with the full weight of the tower compressing the material of the insulator.

Free-standing towers are a little different because they have both downward and upward moments, depending on the direction and velocity of the wind. As such, base insulators under the legs of a free-standing tower have to work in both directions, both supporting the weight of the tower and holding the tower leg to the foundation, depending on instantaneous conditions. That double duty requires a special design, usually a pair of porcelain insulators held captive in a steel or iron frame. The lower insulator supports the tower leg’s weight while the upper holds the tower leg down.

In my company, we have a number of “legacy” AM signals, and some of these employ free-standing towers with this type of dual insulator design. Some of these towers and insulators date back to the mid-1930s, a testament to their toughness and durability.

Base insulators have to operate out in the elements, providing isolation between the metal members above and the ground below in all kinds of conditions — wet, dry, dirty and clean. It’s almost unheard of for a properly-selected base insulator to arc over due to RF excitation or a combination of RF plus static electricity. Ball gaps are usually provided across the base insulator to provide a discharge path for static and lightning away from the porcelain material of the insulator.

We were wrapping up a tower painting project awhile back when at the end of a workday, our chief engineer noticed paint overspray on the porcelain surface of two of the base insulators under tower #3. He notified the tower crew and they wiped the insulators down with a wet rag.

The next morning was foggy and everything was soggy-wet. When our engineer arrived at the site early that day, he was greeted by one of the tower crew asking, “Are those base insulators supposed to be steaming?” Our engineer noted that indeed there were copious amounts of steam rising from two of the insulators, and from his vantage point in the parking area he saw what appeared to be a sustained plasma arc dancing over the surface of the nearest insulator.

Hendrix Announces Availability Of Complete Line Of High Quality Covered Tap Wire, Ground Wire, and Tie Wire

Hendrix, a premier provider of high quality overhead and underground power distribution products, announces the availability of its complete line of covered tap wire, ground wire, and tie wire.

Tap Wire - Hendrix covered tap wire, a stranded or solid copper conductor covered with a 0.150-inch layer of flexible, black, thermoplastic elastomer, is used to provide a covered lead to connect an overhead phase conductor to equipment bushings.

Utilities are using covered tap wire for jumpers and connections on most bare wire applications to improve reliability. Using covered tap wire avoids outages due to wildlife contact with the energized tap. It is suitable for all overhead systems, including open wire, weatherproof, tree wire, and spacer cable. The tap wire can also be used in substation equipment connections to provide covered bus and as covered ground lead.


Hendrix tap wire is available in #2 AWG, #4 AWG (copper), and #6 AWG (copper) sizes. Custom cut lengths and packaging is an option. Hendrix tap wire has excellent ultraviolet and weathering characteristics, which maintain covering integrity. The tap wire's thermoplastic elastomer covering is more flexible and trains more easily than polyethylene covering.


Ground Wire - Hendrix insulated ground wire is ideal for utilities using covered ground wire on distribution pole tops to improve reliability and increase basic impulse level (BIL), or on transmission lines to get the ground wire down through the primary in lieu of standoffs. The insulating covering on the ground wire helps meet the BIL requirements when the ground wire is stapled to the pole.


Consisting of a copper conductor, an inner layer of unfilled high molecular weight polyethylene and an outer layer of proprietary black, track and ultraviolet resistant, high density polyethylene, Hendrix ground wire eliminates expensive "outriggers" required by bare grounds, provides a neater pole, and makes pole climbing and maintenance easier. Customized cut lengths and pre-stripped ends are available to facilitate rapid installation.


Tie Wire - Hendrix covered tie wire, which consists of a #4 AWG solid, fully annealed aluminum conductor covered by a 0.045-inch extruded layer of black thermoplastic rubber (TPR), is used primarily to tie a covered conductor to a Hendrix polyethylene pin type insulator. The covered tie wire eliminates tracking and erosion caused by the use of bare tie wire on a covered conductor. The conductor and covering are both flexible, and have no tendency to spring back. In addition, TPR covered tie wire grips cover the conductor better than PVC and other tie wires.


About Hendrix Aerial Cable & Systems

Hendrix Aerial Cable Systems is one of five operating divisions of Marmon Utility LLC, a provider of high-quality overhead and underground power distribution products located in Milford, NH. The division's benchmark product, Spacer Cable, formed the foundation of the company in 1951, solving local utilities' reliability problems, reducing weather-related outages, and providing options for areas difficult to engineer with standard bare wire systems. Today, Hendrix Spacer Cable is available at 15kV through 69 kV.


ISO 9001-certified Marmon Utility LLC is a member company of The Marmon Group, an international association of more than 125 business units that operate independently within diverse business sectors. Member companies have collective revenues of $7 billion.