Los Angeles County
Biographies
TIMOTHY C. DOBBINS
DOBBINS, TIMOTHY C.,
Consulting and Electrical Engineer and Inventor, Los Angeles, Cal., was born at
Lindley, Grundy Co., Mo., the son of Thomas Dobbins and Sarah (Kirkpatrick) Dobbins.
He has been twice married, his first wife having died. He married Mary Harris
at Telluride, Colo., Jan. 27, 1897.
Mr. Dobbins, the youngest of fifteen children, is descended from a family
noted for longevity. His father was one of the first men to make the trip
across the Continent in the late forties, walking beside an ox team the entire
distance. He was among the earliest gold hunters in California, and within a
comparatively short space of time had won a fortune. He started back to his old
home in Illinois, but, in Missouri, located on some Government land. He lived
to be eighty-seven and was the oldest Mason in Missouri when he died.
Mr. Dobbins received his early education in the common
schools of his native town and later attended the State Normal School at
Kirksville, Mo. He left there in 1881 and the next year was a student at the
State Normal School, Warrensburg, Mo. In 1882 he took a year’s business course
in the Marysville (Mo.) Business College.
Upon leaving college Mr. Dobbins studied telegraphy and
went to Western Missouri with the Western Union Tel. Co., but at the end of a
year gave it up as too confining. He took a position as trainman on the Wabash
Railroad, working for six months out of Moberly, Mo. His next position was with
the Union Pacific at Kansas City, where he remained about a year. In the latter
part of 1885 he went to Ottumwa, Iowa, with the C., B. & Q.
Road as locomotive fireman until the Brotherhood strike in 1887, when he
abandoned railroading.
During his several years with roads Mr. Dobbins worked on
the trains and in the shops, and when he left the Burlington was an all-round
mechanic and engineer. He went from Ottumwa to Chicago and obtained a position
with the Western Electric Co. in order to learn electrical engineering. He
began as an apprentice, despite his knowledge of mechanics, and for eight
months worked for fifty cents per day, but as his fortune now runs into six
figures, it attests to his success.
In two years’ time the Electric Construction Co. chose him
to superintend the wiring of the Monadnock Block,
then the largest fireproof building in Chicago. He was later selected by the
General Electric Co. for an important position on its staff. He was with the
latter company six years, engaged in the construction of electric street
railways in North Chicago, North Evanston and Quincy, Ill.; Cedar Rapids and
Ottumwa, Iowa, and St. Louis, Mo., concluding with the construction of the
Cicero Proviso line in West Chicago.
For ten months he was connected with the electrical
department of the World’s Fair at Chicago, in charge of underground
construction. He also worked on the installation of
the Intermural Railway and was made traveling
inspector of the road.
At the close of the World’s Fair Mr. Dobbins went to Telluride,
Colo., where, for three years he was Superintendent of the Telluride Electric
Light & Power Co. Later he undertook electrical contract work in various
parts of the West. While living at Santa Rosa, New Mex., he was offered the
position of Engineer for the underground electrical construction at the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1902, but declined and in a short time went to
Grand Encampment, Wyo., as Chief Electrical Engineer for the North American
Copper Co.
Under the supervision of Mr. Dobbins a general electrical
plant was erected, including a power house, sawmills,
twelve miles of wood stave pipe line and a lighting
system, one of the most complete in this country at the time, costing in round
numbers, about one million dollars.
In 1904 he was made Constructing Engineer for Hendrie & Boldhoff of Denver,
electrical machinery manufacturers, and for two years was engaged in the
installation of plants throughout the West. Among others for them was, in 1905,
the installation of a steam plant at Laramie, Wyo., for the Laramie Light &
Power Co., a 1500 h. p. plant.
In 1906 he became affiliated with the Nevada-California
Power Co. as Constructing Engineer, and embarked on the most important part of
his entire career. This company for many years has been engaged in the erection
of electrical plants and the construction of high-voltage transmission systems,
and Mr. Dobbins, because of his superior knowledge in this branch of his
profession, has been given the actual building of these. He constructed the company’s
main transmission lines from Bishop, Cal., and transmitted power to Goldfield,
Tonopah and other points, hundred of miles distant.
Mr. Dobbins is (1913) engaged on the most important work
of his career. In 1911 he took a contract to construct for the Southern Sierras
Power Co., a subsidiary of the Nevada-California Power Co., a high-voltage
transmission line from Bishop to San Bernardino, Cal. When completed, it will
be the longest high-power transmission line in the world. It is composed of six aluminum steel corded cables, strung on a series of high
steel towers, and is regarded as a great engineering feat.
There are two thousand towers, placed over territory of
every description, much of it mountainous; these structures range from
seventy-five feet in height on an average, to eighty feet where the
transmission line is carried over railroads, and their construction was a
problem which Mr. Dobbins was called upon to solve for himself, which he
did, employing the most highly developed scientific methods, taking into
consideration varying temperatures and heights, but the work, so far, is
declared by famous engineers to be wonderfully accurate. The entire work will
cost in the neighborhood of $2,000,000. The total weight will be about
6000 tons and will transmit 110,000 volts.
This operation is being watched by engineering and
electrical experts of the country, and when completed much of the credit for
its success will be due Mr. Dobbins.
Mr. Dobbins enjoys a splendid reputation for
accomplishment and is regarded one of the most resourceful engineers in the
country. His resourcefulness has found another outlet in the creation of a
number of practical articles, which figure largely in certain commercial lines.
The first was an electric cigar lighter, which he patented in 1897 and sold. It
is in universal use and, while he realized a handsome profit on it, it did not
compare with the success attending the Dobbins Blow-Out Chain, patented in
1910. This consists of a series of chains for use on tires in cases of rips or
tears, and has proven of such value that it is now a part of the equipment of a
quarter-million automobiles. Mr. Dobbins sold this to the Weed Chain Tire
Grip Co. of New York, on a royalty.
Mr. Dobbins is a member of the Sierra Madre Club,
composed of mining men, including engineers and other affiliated interests. He
also belongs to the Royal Arch Masons, Maccabees and
Woodmen of the World.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
30 August 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 721,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES