AIEE fellows elected: Board of directors meeting, April 7, 1954

Ross D. Brown (AM '24, M '36), chief engineer, Monongahela Power Company, Fairmont, W. Va., has been transferred to the grade of Fellow in the AIEE “for his initiative in direction and engineering development of a statewide electric power system.” Mr. Brown was born in Morgantown, W. Va., December 15, 1897, and was graduated from West Virginia University in 1922 with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. After a few months with the General Electric Company, Schenectady, N. Y., he joined the Monongahela Power Company and predecessor companies and has been system operator, electrical engineer, and chief engineer. Some of the special engineering studies Mr. Brown has undertaken include the following: From 1926 to 1928 he applied three Klydonographs on a highly exposed H-frame 66-kv line over a period of three lightning seasons. This work pointed the way to improvements in electrical design and insulation co-ordination of wood-pole lines. From 1924 to 1937 he field tested relays by staging faults on the transmission system. These tests were effective in supplying clues to the source of undesired or improper operations of the protective system. Field tests of repeater fuses led to an understanding of the limitations of the device and assisted in its proper application. During 1946 to 1951 he served on Joint Subcommittee on Joint Use of Poles for Rural Power and Telephone Circuits under the Edison Electric Institute-Bell Telephone System Joint Committee on Plant Co-ordination. The subcommittee developed and submitted engineering specifications for long-span joint construction. Studies of effects of harmonics resulting from mine rectifier operation on local and Bell Telephone Systems have led to various designs and applications of filters to suppress harmonics propagated over an extensive 12-kv rural system. Mr. Brown is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, West Virginia Society of Professional Engineers, and National Society of Professional Engineers.