Those Were the Days, My Friend! Part II

Part I appeared in January 1995 issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire.

Subsequent years were great for insulator collecting, as I will briefly highlight later in this story. Collecting activities on my behalf were conducted in a more proper manner, nonetheless. During my earlier heydays (1961 through 1967) my favorite pastime was following line crews around the city I lived in, often spending the entire day talking with them and watching the linemen work. I was able to acquire a lot of insulators this way and I made some good friends with those folks, who were very receptive to my collecting endeavors. In addition, another larger investor-owned electric company nearby and the municipal, town-operated utilities in my area also were very kind and inspirational as I pursued to gather as many types of insulators as I could.

I had already acquired a keen interest in "go-withs" during the early 1960's which included porcelain box-type fuse cutouts and street lighting fixture and I enjoyed peering at them as they resided along with their neighboring insulators. Needless to say, these insulator-counterparts came in a close second to my insulator collecting (and still do to this day!) These items were not quite as obtainable as insulators, however I managed to amass a nice collection of them. The linemen I knew and area municipal electric utilities were indeed quite cooperative in providing discarded and obsolete gear of these types, too. 

About 1965 I was in the midst of graduating from scaled down sized pole lines that went around the perimeter of our back yard to a more full size version which was situated in our yard's rearmost corner. This consisted of an eight foot pole with one crossarm outfitted with pins and insulators, some go-withs and a house current powered 100 watt mercury vapor street light. Within the following couple of years I had much pleasure spreading my display out a bit, adding more insulators, wire and go-withs. My parents were quite patient, indeed! They really did not mind my showmanship as long as it was kept neat and relatively out of immediate sight. In fact, I remember a few complimentary words about how my active street lighting display made for nice security lighting! 

Cooperation, acceptance and encouragement form my elders and others who were instrumental in helping me in my early days collecting pursuits made me quite a happy young boy as I approached my teen years. They provided all of the necessary ingredients which developed me into a most enthusiastic insulator collection.

In addition to the linemen, I knew from my areas, a lot of enthusiasm and support came from numerous pen pals. These were not insulators collectors; rather, these individuals primarily were customer/public relations people at several of the porcelain insulator manufacturing companies prominent at the time, notably General Electric, Lapp and Ohio Brass. My correspondent at O-B and others there were so impressed with me and my determined, relentless hotbloodedness and zeal for insulators, that they did a full page advertisement in the late 1966 issue of Electrical World magazine titled: "What, Beatles? This Young Man Has Eyes For Insulators Only!" This write-up spoke about my insulator collecting endeavors and my visit to O-B in Mansfield, Ohio during the summer of 1966.

Exchanging letters on an ongoing basis with insulator company representatives and receiving occasional production samples and catalogs added extra spark to the momentum and to the spirit of my insulator collecting. Maintaining regular correspondence with these individuals was most enjoyable, too and enabled them to learn much more about the technical background about insulators. Mutual friendships evolved which led to eventual meeting in person. 

Most exciting was our family trip to Washington DC in the summer of 1965. On our way back home arrangements had been made so I could meet the lady at General Electric's Insulator Department's public relations office and manufacturing facility in Baltimore, Maryland (see picture below). I had been exchanging letters with her for nearly two years by that time and upon visiting them I was treated to a tour of the insulator factory, which was truly amazing! A second visit took place in the summer of 1967 during another trek to the Washington DC area. 

Touring insulator plants and eventually meeting my correspondents at each of the companies, I was writing to really enhance my interest and zeal for insulators. I wanted to learn all about them, from A to Z. On another family trip to visit relatives back in Quincy, Illinois, which took place during July 1966, I had the opportunity to meet another one of my most well respected pen pals, who worked in the administration department of the Ohio Brass Company in Mansfield, Ohio. My visit included a first-class tour of their insulator manufacturing facility in nearby Barberton and even a personal introduction to the company's president! Spending the day with them and meeting other representatives there prompted O-B. to print the aforementioned article about my insulator hobby in Electrical World later that year. 

Also, while enroute back home I had arrangements to meet with a couple representatives in the engineering department at the Lapp Insulator Company in LeRoy, New York, Like at O-B, I was treated like a king; got a fantastic tour of their plant and received production samples, too. Not bad for a fourteen year old!

Up until 1967, I pursued insulator collecting on my own. That is, I never even dreamed that anyone other than myself would collect such things. That all changed early that year when I received a letter from my friend at Ohio-Brass. Enclosed with it was a copy of a letter the company had just got from another young collector inquiring about the insulators O-B made. This fellow was from Seattle, Washington and although our correspondence lasted for a short duration (can't remember why) I was thrilled with my very first encounter with another insulator collector! 

About June 1967 another great discovery took place, thanks to my insulator company correspondents: sources of the earliest writing pertaining to insulator collecting were sent to me. In fact, this material was researched and written by other insulators collectors. "Wow, I can't believe this! !" I remember exclaiming. I immediately followed up on their leads and it was like being in heaven when I received The Glass Insulator in America, 1965 Report by N.R. Woodward, and the May and June 1967 issues of Western Collector magazine, which featured a two-part article titled "The Insulator Story" by the late Claire McClelland. This early material contained well written descriptive information about insulator and their origins. Reading this fascinating literature opened a magical door that thrilled me about insulator collecting to what I thought had no end! Previously I had known nothing about the history of insulator manufacturers, nor anything about the enticing colors, styles and markings as described in the literature I had just received. It was upon this learning adventure when insulator collection had must more meaning to me. As a result I was hot to acquire as many variations as I humanly could, since I knew they were out there waiting. 

My first real insulator collector correspondence began during late June 1967 with Mrs. McClelland and it was shortly thereafter when regular letter writing began with Mr. Woodward. I continued to maintain contact with my correspondents at O-B and General Electric. Every word Mr. Woodward and Mrs. McClelland sent me describing their collections and the insulators they knew about. fascinated me beyond belief. It was quite a discovery and interesting, for example, when Mrs. McClelland wrote: "I know that some Brookfield insulators have been located with the 1865 patent date and Cauvet name lettered on them." Not having anything in my collection anywhere like that stimulated lots of excitement, giving me one more "exotic" insulator type to look for.

In earlier correspondence with Mr. Woodward concerning my curiosity and inquiry about some of the insulator styles that were new and intriguing to me, which I had been reading about (i.e. the "Liquid Insulator" in Western Collector), Mr. Woodward responded with this advice: "Most of the insulators you described are unusual and rare. However, they will eventually be found; and in the most unexpected places". Upon receiving this letter, I took Mr. Woodward's words of wisdom very seriously and my earnest quest for elusive insulators designs and colors began at once. As I look back upon the last 27 years of the insulator hobby, I have found that truer words have never been written!

It was not long before I realized that Mr. Woodward's advice was for real, for sure. During July 1967 I wrote the Armstrong Cork Company in Millville, New Jersey describing my hobby and I stated that I would like to add any out of the ordinary production samples to my collection. They responded that other than the common, clear pintypes they were making then, the only items they could help me with were a few clear "earlier, obsolete" insulators in their archives. I could have these for free, they said. I promptly replied stating that I was most interested. A couple weeks later a package was delivered to my house. Mailed form the Armstrong people came two very different insulators. These were two CD 240.2 in clear. One had a brass saddle grove and brass-lined pinhole, the other had only the brass pinhole thimble with an all-glass crown. I was most excited about my two newest acquisitions! It wasn't until the 1970's when I realized how rare these two pieces really are. (See Mac's Believe It Or Not!" column in December, 1994.) 

During their trip to Millville in the mid-1970' s, Marion and Evelyn Milholland also were given one of these insulators and they were told less than 200 were ever made. Little additional information is known about these insulators. I suspect that their brass crown/pinhole combinations were prototypes for reducing power line radio interference. I still own my two CD 240.2 gems and the only other one I know of the Whitall Tatum finds is in the Milholland collection.