November's Jefferson State Insulator and Bottle Show can be summed up in one word: SUCCESS! We had 90 sales tables, approximately half bottles and half insulators. The Seven Feathers convention hall was plush, and the casino's service was great. The dealers were impressed with the show hall, praised the lighting and spaciousness, and were generally pleased with the entire event.

What's more, the show was a financial success. Dealer reservations and raffle proceeds covered all expenses and returned a tidy profit for the insulator club... seed money for our next show this fall.

One of the features of the show was a silent auction of goodies brought in by the public. We weren't sure how many walk-ins would attend, but our uncertainty turned to astonishment as an endless onslaught of people arrived with items to appraise and sell. At times, there were lines of people waiting with boxes and sacks full of insulators and bottles.

Items that 'walked in" included CALIFORNIA helmets in sage and yellow, an amber CD 162, lots of black glass MCLAUGHLIN tolls, a box full of purple Whitall Tatums, a big purple AGEE, plus loads of porcelain. One lady had a cardboard box full of glass and porcelain radio strains in a rainbow of colors. The strains struck the fancy of Barb Smith, whose winning bid allowed her to take the whole box home. Many good bottles walked in as well, but I won't bore you insulators collectors with those. 

Insulator displays included Carl Scott's porcelain johnny balls & CALIFORNIA insulators; a new porcelain discovery by Barb Smith & Carver Mead; Gil Hedges cobalt porcelain; Gary Michener's CD 120's, and Mindy Michener's CD 102 ponies.

Scott Morrell considers ordering an insulator shirt from Mary Ann Thomas.

Among the outstanding insulators that changed hands at the Canyonville show were the three CD 123 EC&M's shown on the next page. Vi Brown brought the bright green and cobalt blue examples. The bright green EC&M is a B mold (smaller upper loop on the ampersand, straight skirt, and button on the reverse). The cobalt is an F mold (extended skirt, flared skirt, button on reverse). Both now reside in the collection of Tim Wood.

Scott Morrell sold the apple green EC&M at the bottom of the page. It's a G mold (extended skirt, straight skirt, button on reverse). Scott purchased this insulator at a garage sale in Ashland, Oregon a couple of years ago from a woman who had collected back in the 1960's. Her next best insulator on the day of the garage sale was a CD 154 purple Whitall Tatum. Scott sold this insulator in a silent auction at the Canyonville show, with Frank Feher the winning bidder.

Larry Shumaker enjoys the show from his sales table.

Vi Brown tempts the editor with two colorful EC&M's.

Steve Nickoloff, Don Berke & Chuck Irwin check out 
the latest issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire.

CANYONVILLE SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

These three CD 123 EC&M's were among the western insulators that exchanged hands at the Canyonville Show.

B-mold EC&M in a bright green 
that borders on chartreuse.

F-mold, flared skirt, EC&M 
in bright cobalt.

G-Mold EC&M in apple green. 
This one surfaced in a garage sale a 
couple years ago in Ashland, OR.

CANYONVILLE'S MAGNIFICENT MULTI'S

MUD found its way to Canyonville, too. Some of the porcelain insulators created quite a stir. They seemed to have everything going for them: extremely rare styles, large sized multiparts, and great glazes. .

Mike Spadafora writes about them...

"Two examples of the Thomas M-4710 (top pictures on page 40) were recovered by Ron Yuhas from the yard of a long retired lineman in central Montana. The lineman, now deceased, retired more than thirty years ago from Montana Power. As best as Ron could determine, the man had the insulators for more than fifty years as yard decorations. Both specimens appear to have been installed in a substation, and were not used a regular line insulators. From my own personal research, I suspect they were once used in either the Great Falls or Butte substations on what was essentially a suspension line."

In the inset picture, compare the size of the insulator to Bill Rohde, who steadied it on his tailgate for Crown Jewels to take a photograph. (With the pins still cemented into some of these giant insulators, they wouldn't be stable enough to stand upright on their own for picture taking.)

Regarding the insulator in the middle, Mike writes, "The M-2996 Thomas is believed to only have been used in two locations. One was on a transmission line from the Tacoma powerhouse to Silverton, CO. The other was indoors to support the bus work in the Madison River powerhouse in Montana. I recovered two specimens from the Colorado line, and eight from the Montana plant. Interestingly, all the original lines in the area of the Madison plant only used glass Muncie's or #1 Provo's."

Catching a lot of "oohs" and" ahhs" was the porcelain cross top shown in the bottom two pictures on page 40. Mike fills us in on the discovery, "The M-4338 Victor cross tops, marked with the R=00 insulator logo, were found in a dump behind the Tacoma power house near Durango, Colorado. One mint original and several damaged specimens were recovered from a total of nineteen insulators that were originally used in the plant substation.

"The insulators were installed as part of a pair of three phase disconnect switches. Three insulators were used for each phase. The center insulator had the switch blade mounted on its crown, and had a special pin with brass bushings which allowed the switch insulator to rotate ninety degrees thus opening the switch. No surviving complete examples of this switch assembly are known to exist.'

The Canyonville show replaces insulator and bottles shows previously held in Medford, Oregon. Canyonville will play host again to more great porcelain and glass in mid-October.