What determines if an insulator should be classified as foreign? Simply put, it's a matter of perspective -- global perspective. For example, the insulators contained in the trucks shown below would not be considered foreign by American collectors, but they would by Brazilian collectors.                                                         

WHITALL TATUM Co. 
215,000 Glass Insulators for Automatic Electric Co. 
Chicago, Illinois to Rio De Janeiro, South America

The widely accepted definition of a foreign insulator is this: to a collector in any given country, an insulator with its point of manufacture outside that given country is considered foreign. If you are a strict adherent to this widely accepted definition, you may find yourself at odds with this month's column. Under certain circumstances, I believe the tried-and-true definition could use a bit more flexibility. Read on if you're interested in seeing a few examples of what I refer to as "foreign hybrid" insulators. My definition of a foreign hybrid is an insulator specifically intended for use outside its country of origin and unusable within its country of manufacture. 

Throughout my collecting career, I have frequently been surprised to find foreign insulators mixed in among items that once graced the sample shelves at the Whitall Tatum/Armstrong/Kerr glass factory in Millville, NJ. To date, insulators from Greece, England, Canada and Mexico have been documented as prior residents of the sample room. Some of these had been sectioned to reveal their inner profile. (See top picture, next page) Others, like a CD 162 SM-2 identical to the one pictured in the December 2002 issue of Crown Jewels, were intact and unused. Why were these pieces in a New Jersey glass factory?

With the appearance of vital plant engineering and production documents over time, an answer to this question slowly began to appear. As the Millville glass makers reputation began expanding in insulator circles, they found themselves being contacted by a variety of international concerns with regard to producing items specifically intended for use outside of U. S. borders. 

One of the earliest requests of this nature came to Whitall Tatum's New York City office in late September 1928. The Commonwealth of Australia sought prices for producing two styles of insulators (as shown below and next page).

When these drawings were shown to plant engineers in Millville, they immediately took exception with the thread cavity. From a letter dated Sept. 25, 1928:

"If the consumer of these insulators could be persuaded to adopt the conventional form of screw thread used by the W. U. Tel. Co., W. E. CO., [Western Electric] A. T. & T. Co. and the various other users in the U. S. they would be getting a much stronger thread section, there is some question as to how a Vee thread of such small pitch is going to stand up in glass..."

That reply, partly provincial but also partly pragmatic, nevertheless did not convince the Commonwealth of Australia to change their standards.

Wood models of both insulator styles were sent out in October 1928, along with an estimate to produce 200 insulators in each style. There, the document trail ends, and it cannot be determined if these insulators were produced. If they exist, I would consider them to be perfect examples of a foreign hybrid.

A quarter of a century later, we find Whitall Tatum's successor, Armstrong, altering the thread cavity of their CD 128 CSC insulator to accommodate the requirements of the Egyptian State Railway. The blueprint on the next page is the only document to surface in regard to these specialized CSC insulators, but it is quite informative. Notably, plant standards dictate that the notation "Record" on the print means that this screw peg was actually machined. The exact dimensions achieved in the fabrication process have been physically checked off on the record copy. We cannot infer from screw peg existence that insulators were successfully produced, but if they were, I feel they present yet another example of a foreign hybrid. Millville glass documentation is not and cannot be the sole focus of a hybridized foreign insulator theory. Witness this fragment of a Brookfield-produced gingerbread man found by Dave Wiecek at the site of the former Brookfield factory. It features a non-North American thread pitch.

More recently at the Brookfield site, David Sztramski unearthed a small cache of CD 152 Brookfield units with an Australian thread pitch. Both of these discoveries were almost certainly intended for use outside of this country, and are clearly unusable here. Two more solid candidates to place into a foreign hybrid category? I'll let you be the judge. 

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???
Fragment of a gingerbread man found at a former Brookfield factory