Shown is a newly installed porcelain lightning arrestor installed on one of the forementioned utility's primary circuits during the teens. Such protection was vital. Otherwise a direct or nearby lightning stroke upon a primary voltage line will destroy a transformer if it is not protected with one of these devices. This physical design was pretty new at the time; prior lightning arrestors were housed in cast iron cabinets about approximately a foot square. They were very heavy and the lightning gaps inside them were becoming outdated, less effective, sometimes unreliable and not widely adaptable to the higher primary voltages the utilities across America were installing. The one shown likely was made by General Electric. The unit was chocolate brown and had tiny pellets in it that would expand within it upon a lightning hit, safely connecting the primary with ground for a very small fraction of a second to bleed off the lightning discharge. The Hingham Light Plant's manager took nothing to chance and stated in his 1914 report: "more lightning arresters are being installed; as rapidly as the finances of the Department permit. During the past year, twenty new arresters have been installed, making a total of sixty five arresters now in commission."

Of further interest during the same year (1914): the Light Plant's Commissioners stated: "Previous to May 1, 1914, the outside men were paid by the hour with allowance for overtime and deductions for absence. It seemed advisable to give the men a fixed salary; payable weekly, with no allowance for overtime. The scale of wages was arranged on average earnings per week of the men, including overtime and deductions, so in course of a year the cost to the Town is practically the same."