The technical and functional components (transformer) who were in the column are not preserved. The column has lost its function as a transformer station.
A circular concrete foundation. The shaft of the column is made up of cast-iron riveted to each other around curved panels. In the lower and in the upper half are double doors, hinged to the outside. The column has a roof with a 12-plane division, which was in the middle a piron with globe
Its shape is simple but extremely effective. The cast iron round shank rests on a rail located on a concrete foundation. It can turn around completely. By double doors at the top and bottom half is the formerly in the column placed transformer, was accessible from all sides. The doors are hinged to permit and attached to the shaft.
Until the 80s of the last century have been in use the transformer columns. Then transformer stations take over, and the columns are often replaced by houses.
The Pepperbox, such as the transformer pillar on the Vrouwenkerkhof is called, late 70s should, or at least have ceased to operate in 1986. In that year, a new transformer house, next to the entrance of the Boerhaave Museum, inaugurated. The transformer is then already been removed from the sheath, and only the empty shell is maintained up to 1994 at the location.
The Pepperpot is also regularly used in this way as a public display location all kinds of advertisements, announcements of activities, but also as a popular destination for graffiti.
The pepperpot on the Vrouwenkerkhof is the only pillar that is left in Leiden on its original location, and it is said that he has worked the longest in its original location. The column is a visible remnant of the electrification of the city and reminds the industrialization and the rising economic tide at the end of the 19th century, which were accompanied with numerous modernisations.
It dates from the time of the establishment of the electricity distribution network in Leiden.
By extending the Urban Gazfabriek in 1907 with a power plant to the Langegracht (since then " Stedelijke Fabrieken van Gas en Elektriciteit") Leiden retailers and households were provided with electricity.
The distribution consisted in laying of cables (underground) and switching stations. Electricity was due to the slightest loss, in high-voltage conveyed to a switching station. At the switching points were transformers for conversion to low voltage, which is suitable for normal use by the end user. At various places in the public space in Leiden placed since 1907 the beautiful cast-iron columns, as casing of the transformer.
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