Reyrolle switchgear was built to last. There is one gear called OYT and has been running across Australia since the 1940s. Never broken down. The pure porcelain rings that make up a breaker cost £2400 each in the 1960s! Today you see rusted competitors switchgear because it's cheap in comparison. Alphonse Reyrolle gave quality but sadly it was a major part in his collapse. The last I heard of the Clothier lab it was testing 4 million volts DC. Another first. We had another great factory called Pyrotenax who made thermocouples starting with a long pipe about 6"dia. Inside were 2-4 cores about 1"dia filled with magnesium powder to stop the cores touching. After drawing down,those cores ended up as thin as ⁷fuse wire! Sent to Whites factory clean area and welded under a
microscope. That downfall was BICC. So sad for Hebburn and our councillors should remember that.