This book is a guide to the whole field of high voltage insulators as used in electrical power networks, traction and production.

J.S.T. Looms spent over 30 years in research on HV physics and engineering, many of them as head of insulator research at the Central Electricity Research Laboratories, United Kingdom. There he led the section that developed the Salt Fog test and participated in its international standardisation.

He was the first man in Europe to work, bare-hand, on overhead conductors at 400,000 volts and was a pioneer in developing the technique.

More recently he has been in practice as a consultant to leading manufacturers and has been responsible for numerous inventions in the HV field, some of which are described in the book.

• Chapter 1: Introduction


• Chapter 2: Insulating materials


• Chapter 3: Manufacture of wet-process porcelain


• Chapter 4: Manufacture of tempered-glass insulators


• Chapter 5: Fibrous cores for polymeric insulators


• Chapter 6: Polymeric housings


• Chapter 7: Terminal fittings for insulators


• Chapter 8: Finite insulator life: limiting processes


• Chapter 9: Aesthetics of insulators


• Chapter 10: Physics of contamination


• Chapter 11: Physics of pollution flashover


• Chapter 12: Testing of insulators


• Chapter 13: Conclusions from pollution tests on insulators


• Chapter 14: Remedies for flashover


• Chapter 15: Insulators for special applications


• Chapter 16: Interference and noise generated by insulators


• Chapter 17: Insulator of the future


• Appendix A: Glossary of insulator names


• Appendix B: Testing of insulators


• Appendix C: Selective bibliography on live washing of insulators