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World's Only Antique Electric Meter Enterprise Marks 35th Year

"We developed the idea of converting them into unique desk lamps with functioning, animated meters wired into the bulb circuitry, but we hadn't acquired enough to create a viable business."

After his military discharge, Jim pursued the idea further.  "A crash course in the history of electrical distribution revealed that the meters were actually some of the first ever designed to calculate residential electric bills.  For the most part, these meters were the first ones installed when homeowners upgraded from kerosene lamps and gaslights to light bulbs."

"Unlike modern heavy-duty meters, these early meters are quite small," Jim relates.  "They have jeweled mechanical movements not unlike a fine watch and an amazing 36,000,000-to-1 recording gear ratio.  They also employ a generous amount of brass, which when polished, greatly enhances their visual appeal."

Further research revealed both good and bad news.  An exhaustive nationwide survey disclosed that additional antique meters were still available from various electric utilities, but they had to be purchased immediately as they were all headed for destruction.

Overextending his finances, Jim went for broke in securing these endangered meters.  In true entrepreneurial spirit, though, he decided that the debt was worth the undertaking.  "An expenditure of a few hundred thousand dollars locked in a potential return in excess of over the restoration period, based on initial customer demand and sales."

All has not been a financial bed of roses, however.  Decades of additional acquisitions to further bolster the inventory have impacted cash flow, but "an increased restoration pace planned for 2011-2012 will easily clear this up," Jim states. "We just need to address some chronic conversion bottlenecks and work up sales levels to better handle debt service obligations."

Jim's optimism is fortified by the fact that micro-size Arcman Corporation, with no direct competition, is now a world monopoly with its unique niche products.  Furthermore, its mere 1% or less current market penetration affords lots of expansion opportunities.

In addition, the value of its massive inventory, now in deep protective storage, has steadily increased in value as the years pass.  Beyond this, there are also a series of new, unrelated products under development as well.

Today, Arcman Corporation's restored electrical artifacts may be found on display from .  Personally engraved, they have been presented to heads of state, to hundreds of corporate executives and thousands of others who now own pieces of early electrical Americana rescued from an imminent fate with crushers and melting furnaces.

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Caitlin has also used the blog as a chance to heal from the death of her father, like a support network of people who are touched by colon cancer. She has used it as her way to be vocal on the topic and encourage others that colon cancer is not something of which to be ashamed or embarrassed.

Her goals for the blog remain simple – to keep on keepin’ on. And see it all come together on race day.

We also featured Caitlin’s inspiration for bringing the event to Boston earlier this spring.  You can read more of her story here .

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