I haven't figured out precisely where that Sangamo manufacturing facility was in West Union South Carolina but I am thinking a lot about the H. Mac Johnston Industrial Park that is north of Union South Carolina proper. The map indicates that the Union County Printworks is located there and at the intersection of Highway 176 and Highpoint Drive. Highpoint Drive ends at Mulberry Drive and Mulberry Drive is also labeled as 'Union County Dept Prison Farm Rd.' Union County Jail is listed on the map near the end of that road.
I don't know why I would remember being at Sangamo anyway and I don't remember that name. The company seems to have ceased to exist in 1975 when it was bought by another company and that company seems to have been bought by Itron. But, as with the memory of Antlers Oklahoma, it is possible I could read 'Sangamo' on an electricity meter on that house. I also might remember it as they told me when I went to the company in Union South Carolina to fix the computer printer that they are the company that used to make the Sangamo meters. Something like that. The is a Sangamo credit union in Union SC and I guess that is because that plant used to be there.
http://watthourmeters.com/history.html
A brief history of meter companies and meter evolution
This section contains a brief history of most of the companies that have manufactured watthour meters in the US as well as pointing out highlights of meter development from the first crude attempts at metering to today's highly accurate electronic models. A few related events that had some impact on the companies and on meter development are also included for additional perspective.
Up to the 1870s, electricity had little use beyond the telephone and telegraph. The earliest use of electricity for power was to operate strings of arc lamps connected in series. Since the current was constant and the voltage required for each lamp was known, and all of the lamps were controlled by one switch, it was adequate to measure only the time current flowed in the circuit (lamp-hours).
1960:
Duncan, Sangamo, and Westinghouse all introduce meters using magnetic bearings.
In the late 1960s, the single-phase watthour meter underwent its final major change: It was redesigned for a lower profile to make it less obvious and less prone to damage. This redesign also had another benefit - the new models were at least one pound lighter than the older models.
1975:
Landis & Gyr of Switzerland buys Duncan Electric Co. and continued operations in Lafayette, IN unchanged, relabelling the meters with the Landis & Gyr name starting in 1984.
Schlumberger of France buys Sangamo Electric Co. and moved meter production from the original facility in Springfield, IL to another one of Sangamo's plants in West Union, SC.
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Posted by H.V.O.M at 7:40 AM Friday, May 20, 2011
Union South Carolina
The way I remember it, I was there in 1990 or 1991 but damnit, in 1995 I was talking to someone in Antlers Oklahoma about Union South Carolina. The one trip I made to Union South Carolina. I pointed out that the electrical usage meter on that house was made by the company I made a service call to down in Union South Carolina after I drove there from Greenville South Carolina. That was 1995. I drove to Antlers Oklahoma in my white 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I was wearing an Atlanta Braves baseball jersey.
I see a red Mazda small car and I think back to the early 90's and a woman I knew had a red Mazda car, the woman who worked for the city, and she couldn't understand why I was shaking my head as I was looking at her car.
I keep thinking about that traffic light. I keep thinking that I was asked to go down to Union South Carolina and just sit around down there. I have been thinking that I went out one night and just sat in my car on the side of the road and I sat there and I counted all the cars that went through that intersection.
Stop gap. Something about stop gap. The printer. That's it. The stop gap. My manager thought that I was right. My coworker told me the real solution. But that's wrong. My memory has been modified.
[ JOURNAL ARCHIVE 20 May 2011 excerpt ends ]
