Colombia's Vi-Bo Insulator Mystery Solved

The excitement of finding my first CD 154 Zicmes in a small mound of Whitall Tatums piled on the back room floor of an electrical parts store is still fresh in my mind. It's been more than 10 years now since that momentous day. Little did I realize how much this serendipitous find would change my life. Once I found proof the elusive bubble packed Zicme originated in Colombia I was eager to find out more about the company that made them, along with any other manufacturers of Colombian insulators I might discover. 

Zundel y Cia Limitada, the manufacturer of Zicme insulators, has received the lion's share of the spotlight for Colombian insulators until today. In the shadows of the breathtaking Zicme stands an even more elusive insulator: VI-BO. My contact, Gustavo, found the first insulator marked VI-BO on a CD 106. It was on a crossarm mixed with American insulators. Unlike Zicmes, which were usually found exclusively together on the same pole, the VI-BO was found on a rural line among with Whitall Tatum and Hemingray insulators. On another trip on a distant section of the same line we came across an odd mixture of Telecoms, Zicmes and a single CD 154 VI-BO. About three years ago, Gustavo reportedly found a handful more CD 106's and another CD 154 in an entirely different part of the country. This leads me to believe they were primarily used as replacements for damaged insulators. 

A couple visits to the Bogota Chamber of Commerce yielded exciting new information. VI-BO Limitada was founded in Bogota, Colombia by Arbelaez Octavio Villegas and Jaramillo Eduardo Botero on July 26, 1967. Each contributed 100,000 Pesos as joint business partners in an electrical parts company with the hopes of selling and distributing materials and obtaining licensed contracts of service. Each CD 106 and 154 insulator has been found in light sage green color (with an olive tint) embossed VI-BO, probably an abbreviation for the two founder's names (Villegas-Botero). Apparently VI-BO Limitada temporarily filled the demand created for insulators after Zicme ceased production.

Although production figures are unknown, VI-BO insulators are believed to have been made for a one-time contract for Telecom, as they have only been found in limited quantities scattered across telephone lines in the country. 

Around 1966, Porcelana Gamma of Medellin, Colombia began production of large quantities of insulators including telephone styles, dead end spools and multi-parts for high voltage power. No doubt this new competition contributed to VI-BO Limitada quietly slipping into obscurity after being dissolved on July 26, 1987.