The molds were engraved so the letters were dug in. There are a lot of unembossed insulators out there, but at the turn of the century there were a lot of engravers and glass makers and cast iron was very big so people were making a lot of molds, and embossing was very big.
As the years went on, there were fewer engravers available and the embossing started getting simpler and simpler. Macky : The very earliest insulators were lightning rod insulators. One of the interesting things about insulators is that they parallel the development of electricity. Before people were making electricity, insulators were being used to support grounding rods, just channeling electricity to ground, protecting houses. Later on when the telegraph was invented, suddenly there was a need to run wires on poles for many miles and to develop insulators.
They started out small because there was typically only one telegraph line on a pole. Then telephones took over and got popular, and there was the Rural Electrification Act, which tried to provide power to all these farm people.
So there was a big insulator boom in the early part of the century, they were producing them by the millions. This was during the open wire days. They started tapering off after that. When I lived in San Mateo a lot of the old glass was still up in the air. There are some very thrifty companies out there, and insulators lasted and they just kept reusing them over and over. For the power, they almost exclusively use porcelain. For new construction they will only sometimes use glass on the high power pylons.
The glass ones are used a lot more in Canada than here. The transition to porcelain started in the s and by they were pretty much done. Macky : The earliest design was used on the Morris telegraph and was called a bureau knob because it looked just like a knob on a dresser, just a knob with a groove in it. They discovered very quickly how important weather proofing was.
One of my favorites is from Chicago. Somehow they thought this was better insulation because the wire contacted the glass less, which was ridiculous. There were many designs like that, that made no sense at all. Hemingray was very big on their drip points.
At the bottom of their insulators they had these little raised points that were said to help the water drip off faster, so the insulator would dry off faster. After a while they got a bit more scientific with insulator designs and found out what exactly was important and became more standardized.
It worked well and they mass produced it. Every year someone comes up with a few new rare pieces. The best thing about glass is that it lasts a very long time if you take care of it. The rarest insulator I own is a Fry Glass insulator. There are very few of them, but they come in a fantastic opal color. I come across a lot of rare colorations. My father gave me a Micky Mouse insulator in a milk electric blue.
The guys who made it got permission to run a batch of Cobalt blue insulators, mostly for collectors. They got the machine set up and got something called frit, or concentrated pieces of glass used to get color into the new glass. They added that to the clear glass melt, but forgot to turn on the stirrer so they had clear glass with Cobalt splotches.
It looks cool and people want them. I also have insulators on the site where someone got the mold, but not the press, so they took the mold and poured glass in it and just got a solid lump of glass. Macky : The very first designs they tried were threadless insulators , and they had to suspend the insulators with the hooks and the bureau knobs.
Then they got the idea to put a wood pin in the cross arm and have an overturned glass on top of that, but at the time the hollow inside the insulator was smooth, there was no thread. So it was hard to get it to stay on the pin, they would glue them on. National Insulators Association that puts on a national show once a year and regional shows once a year. There are also local clubs which host shows and activities at their houses. All images in this article courtesy Ian Macky of Glassian.
Insulators embossed with a 5-pointed star were made by various manufacturers under contract with General Electric.
They were made in large numbers, so most are not too rare or valuable, but they do come in nice colors within a limited palette of mostly aquas and greens , so a star collection is an affordable way to get started collecting. I love it so much thank you.
My neighbor came over to tell me that last night during a storm he saw an insulator that is very close to my house glowing and fading. Can you please tell me exactly what this could mean? Thank you Deb Wright. So I hastily said goodbye got off the phone…. Great memory of him. I have eight glass insulators, all in good condition. No charge. I will even pay for shipping. Just let me have your mailing address. Dana Moran, Saratoga, CA.
I have a brown ceramic insulator with no markings. It is threaded and has the notch on the top. Perhaps this introduction might help? For years i have been hunting for a purple one. I was at a friends house after she had knee surgery.
I walked back to her bed rokm ans it smacked me in the face, a purple one. She let me have it. I never knew there are red ones and orange lookong one. Now i am on tbe hunt again.
I need a orange ,red, dark blue. What glass remains will usually be found along RR right of ways. In my little town, only a single pole still has glass on it; the rest was switched to porcelain long ago.
Amber and fancy blue colors were only made that color on purpose by Hemingray, so they could be used to mark specific lines fire and police signals, etc , so they were never common. The best place to buy insulators is at an insulator show— see the schedule at insulators.
I bought most of my glass at shows or via snail-mail sales lists before the rise of online auctions , plus traded for a few. The chances of finding fancy colored glass still in the air is pretty much nil, sorry— you missed that boat. I have a H. CO jade green threaded insulator. Saw it at a bottle show and had to have it. Anyone know anything about this one? I have a Brookfield New York cobalt blue insulator. I have looked on- line several places and can not fond any information.
Does anyone know anything about this insulator? I purchased a metal milk basket at an auction as the picture had a brass carbide lantern in it. When I picked up the basket, I also found a number of old tools as well as a Hemingway glass insulator.
What is distinct about the insulator is the two tone nature of the color: the top is clear but the bottom is two tones of gray with the top light gray band about 1 inch in width and the bottom darker gray band also about 1 inch in width. Bintu Kalabukhov Professional. What is a Hemingray 42? It sits close to the cross-arm, thus giving the pin protection against rain splash. Harnek Schneiderlochner Professional. What can I do with old glass insulators? Sajid Escursell Explainer.
Are glass insulators still used? Old photos from around the U. Today, a few lines using glass insulators are still in service, but are only a tiny percentage compared to the heyday of open wire communication. Danil Oertel Explainer. Why are insulators Brown in Colour? Insulators are brown because of the change in the glaze as it's heated during manufacturing process, it also is the least expensive color to use as some colors such as colbalt blue involve certain rare elements that make up it's density in it's color when fired, hence glazing insulators involves dipping it in a large.
Hagie Lucumi Explainer. Why are glass insulators different colors? Why do insulators come in so many colors? In general, insulators were not made in specific colors for any reason. The natural materials that were used to make glass , including sand and glass cullet, tended to make light aqua to aqua colored insulators.
Some batches were more green, others more blue. Anatoli Grelo Pundit. How do you drill through a glass insulator? Use diamond bits to drill your glass , not carbide bits. It is available in print and digital form. Many, but not all, popular styles on this web site also have a value range listed, based on historical and publicly available collecting data.
However, most ranges vary widely based on the above factors, so having a good, current insulator price guide is crucial. However, there are many factors to consider when finding the value of your insulator: Design Number - The insulator collecting hobby assigns design numbers to each unique insulator design. The most widely-used identification numbering system is the CD Consolidated Design number. If you don't know what your insulator's CD number is, you can find it by identifying your insulator.
Primary Embossing - This is the main embossing on the insulator such as Hemingray, H. Chances are if you're viewing this page, your insulator's primary embossing is Hemingray, H. However, Hemingray also made insulators with other names as well. View all primary embossings attributed to Hemingray. Base Type - The base is the portion around the bottom outer circle skirt of the insulator.
0コメント