Mr. Herman B. Ross Jr. graduated from Columbia High School in Columbia, South Carolina. He served in the U.S. Air Force and attended the Air Force Electronics School in Denver, Colorado. Afterwards he attended the University of South Carolina and received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in May of 1965. In June of 1965, he began working for VEPCO in Hampton, Virginia. He retired from Dominion Virginia Power in Richmond, Virginia, having worked there for 30 years. He was an electrical engineer, supervisor, district manager and project manager. He was also the inventor of the ACVGD Ross Meter and owner of the HB Ross Manufacturing Company. Although he passed away on November 12, 2014 at the age of 75, his family continues to build the Ross Meter today.
In May 1965, Herman B. Ross, Jr. and R.E. Alley, Jr. jointly published this article in The Physics Teacher while each were attending the University of South Carolina. Experiments that they conducted and documented within this article consisted of a Rectifier experiment, a Voltage Doubler/Tripler/Quad circuit experiment, Diode Clipper circuit experiment, Single Stage Transistor Amplifier, a Wien Bridge Oscillator, a Free-Running MVBR, a Peaking Circuit experiment, and a Linear Sweep Generator experiment.
In an effort to become more productive, time effective and efficient, H. B. Ross, Jr. designed and developed the passive process to locate direct buried secondary cable faults in 1973. That process led him to create the only device in the world that can passively detect voltage that is leaking into the ground from secondary service cables. Like most inventions, the ACVGD Ross Meter began as a passing thought and Mr. Ross maintained that it was a God given inspiration which later produced this untouched original concept drawing in 1974.
From concept to prototype, the unit you see here was put into the field for testing by linemen in September of 1974. Valuable feedback was received which included physical characteristics that needed improvement to make it more rugged and functional in the user environment. Field tests continued through 1975 and once the concept and process was proven for effectiveness and accuracy, the HB Ross Manufacturing Company was formed.
This unit was one of the first Ross Meters that went into production at the HB Ross Manufacturing Company. This particular unit was used by VEPCO linemen in the Virginia Beach, Virginia area for a few years then taken out of service in July of 1978. VEPCO by name has changed many times over the years, but it is now known as Dominion Energy.
Since 1975, the design of the meter has changed just a little but the ACVGD Ross Meter continues to have a record 98% capture rate on faults due to damaged or degraded sheathing. It also continues to prove its worth by locating faults within 15 minutes or less. And it always provides a safer work environment for operators since no additional equipment is required to be connected to the customer’s service.
