THIS ONE'S AUTHENTIC, FOLKS!

It has come to my attention that "someone" out there in "readerdom" has questioned whether or not a certain specimen of U-2725 should be considered a genuine and legitimate collectible insulator. I personally think it should be and I stand 100% behind its authenticity. Since I was not told who "someone" is, I sincerely hope that he/she is reading this article and will come forth to discuss it with me in daylight. I will tell you what I know about this insulator and if anyone else has some thoughts to add, positive or negative, please let me hear from you. I'll listen and will be happy to include your responses in my next article, which will appear in the April issue. I'll need them by February 24th.

The particular U-2725 under suspicion was made by AI (Allied Insulators) Industrial Products Ltd. at their plant in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It stands 4-1/4" tall and has a skirt diameter of 5-5/8". The insulator is glazed a lovely soldier blue from the top of its crown down through the wire groove, where it meets a 1/2" band of pinky mauve, and then blends into a light blue gray from there on down to the base of the extended petticoat. Both front and side views of the insulator are shown below (how I wish you could see it in color!). In the second photo you can see the" A I" logo and the date of manufacture, indicated by the numbers 3-90, or March, 1990. AI came into being in 1959 with the merger of two older insulator manufacturers in England, Bullers Ltd. and Taylor, Tunnicliff & Co. Ltd. In addition to the U-2725, the company produces several other styles of low and high voltage insulators for telecommunications lines and electric railways. 

Here's the story on the U-2725: In late 1989 a British collector, who had long admired the lovely two-tone blue glaze he had seen on larger AI power insulators, went to the factory and asked if they could include a few U-2725's the next time they were applying that blue glaze to the larger pieces. (U-2725 was his favorite style and he knew that various glaze colors could be applied to the insulators, depending on the wishes of the particular user.) Since this was to be a small order, he gave his word that he would buy them. They were willing to cooperate and promised to call him when they finished the next batch of blue insulators. It was March of 1990 when they finally notified him and he was true to his word. I do not know how many he took home but he did share a few with other collector friends in England. He sold me a total of five, one of which is in my collection, and four that quickly found homes with other collectors here in the States. 

On the following page you see the U-2725 alongside one of the larger blue power pieces, which came from an earlier batch of AI insulators produced in February of 1989. The next photo shows the AI logo and date on that larger one. I got this insulator from a different source. Ross Huth of Porterville, California (whom we all miss, bless him) traveled to England with his church choir sometime during 1989 or 1990. Being a collector, he also admired the pretty blue insulators up on the lines.

He wanted one but didn't have time to track it down, so someone there promised to get one for him at the factory. That effort was successful and the insulator was hand-carried back to Ross the next time this friend made a trip to the States. Knowing my passion for foreign insulators, Ross brought his treasured blue insulator to the 1994 NIA National Show in Houston and gave it to me as a gift! If you knew Ross, you were aware that he couldn't do enough for his friends. 

Both of these insulators are dead mint and have never been used on a line because they came directly from the AI plant. Shall we call that a "no brainer"? A threaded metal thimble is cemented into the pin hole of each. The U-2725 was specifically ordered in a blue glaze by an individual admirer, while the taller one was part of a much larger batch ordered by a utility company, one of which ended up in the hands of a California admirer. Question: Would you consider the blue U-2725 a genuine collectible insulator? May I have your comments?

HOW IS YOUR ARABIC?

"Glass Insulators from Outside North America" lists a CD 128 in light sage green embossed with a strange looking symbol or trademark, which we guessed might be Arabic. We had no real leads, but because it was a fairly modern style and in really great condition, we figured it couldn't be very old. It certainly wasn't from North America. Woody says Corning was the only company producing the CD 128 from about 1923 until the late 1930's, and these all had ridges down into the skirt. Other U.S. companies began making them at a later date, and European manufacturers even later than that, probably in the 1960' s. Woody faithfully traced the embossing so it could be included in the book, and we've been hoping ever since that someone would recognize it and come forth with some information on this insulator. There wasn't a squeak from any direction until about mid-November of '95 when I received a call from David Sztramski (Cranford, NJ). He tried to describe a strangely embossed CD 128 in straw that his mother had found in a local antique shop, but it didn't sound like anything we had seen before, so he agreed to let us borrow it. As soon as I opened the box I saw that it actually was the same embossing as found on the sage green one, except this trademark had more parts to it and some pretty different squiggles underneath it. The first one had not really been complete. This was exciting! This new version of the marking began to look more and more like Arabic, so I called on my daughter Margaret, who teaches English to foreign students, including those who speak Arabic, hoping she could help us solve the puzzle. 

Shown on the previous page are the two trademarks along with a photo of both CD 128's.

Here is what we have been able to learn. With the help of Shahid Khan, a student from Pakistan, we know that there are three stylized Arabic letters joined together in script inside the circle. These letters are "I F L", if you read them left to right as we do in English. However, Arabic letters are meant to be read right to left, so to anyone speaking that language, they become "L F I", with an "E" implied between the "L" and "F, or "LEFI". In English we would pronounce the word as "Lef-eee", with emphasis on "Lef". This is actually a name and it most likely indicates either the glass manufacturer or the utility company that ordered the insulators for use on local telephone lines. The squiggles underneath the original version of the trademark turned out to be mold number "11" and those under the new, more legible version are for mold number "24". Oddly enough, Arabic numbers are read from left to right, just as we do in English. How's that for inconsistency? 

Until we know the actual name of the manufacturer or user, it will really be hard to pinpoint a country of origin because the Arabic language is spoken in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, United Arab Emirates (little states or rulerships), parts of Israel, etc. Since Arabic is the official language of all these Middle Eastern countries, the insulators could have been found in anyone of them. Dave had an interesting suggestion -- maybe someone brought his insulator back from the Gulf War??? This story has a very happy ending -- we made a good fair trade and the CD 128 now lives on Oak Bend Drive in Houston. But readers, please don't be afraid to loan me an insulator for closer inspection because I won't run off into the hills with your treasure.

DRAWINGS CAN BE WORTH 1,000 WORDS

Every porcelain insulator, regardless of its style or country of origin, will have one unglazed surface somewhere on its body. It might be on the dome (crown top), base rim of the skirt or petticoat, or inside the pin hole. Have you ever wondered about this? Look at some of the porcelain pieces in your collection. The unglazed surface is called the "rest". I found this set of drawings in a November, 1900 issue of Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, which is a German Electrical Journal, and thought it would be of special interest to new collectors. Each of the drawings shows you a different part of the insulator that will not be glazed during the firing process because it is "resting" on some sort of flat surface. The accompanying photo shows a U-1692, which is nearly identical to the typical European style used in the illustrations. Its rest is on the base rim of the skirt. B & G (for Bing & Grondahl of Denmark) 1915 is ink stamped on the top of one ear.