Good News!

No more wild guesses (and goof awards) for me. Jack Tod has just put together a new book called INSULATOR PATENTS, 1880-1960. This is a publication of his entire personal file covering 695 insulator patents -- a gargantuan effort involving thousands of hours spent in research over the many years he has been involved in this great hobby through his CROWN JEWELS column, his books, and an ongoing correspondence with several of us who refuse to throw away his letters because they contain more valuable information than a whole set of encyclopedias!

I heartily recommend this book to all collectors. It's the "meat of the coconut"! What a boon to those of us who want to know how a certain insulator was used (and who hasn't?) or who need to look up and identify a "whatisit". 

To be sure that you receive a copy of this new book, you'll need to contact Jack in advance of the printing to be made on July 8, 1985. The price is $20.00 plus 80 cents shipping. 

THE KOOLERY

This unique insulator, known to us only as the "koolery", has been a real puzzle to collectors for a long time. It is pictured on page 181 of Milholland's book MOST ABOUT GLASS INSULATORS, third edition, and page 213 of his fourth revision. It has no CD number and apparently was found in Terrace, B.C., Canada.

Laura Van der Endt (Sydney, Australia) tells me she has that insulator, and that it is an older type lightning arrester used on the overhead electrical distribution system in Holland, where she grew up. She says it was made by a company called Siemens, and that there is a Siemens in both Germany and England, but it is not clear where the insulator was made. Her guess would be England, as the glass part is clear with a greenish tint, which would be similar to that made by Pilkington Brothers, where such glass was made for high voltage insulators. This plant formerly operated at St. Helen's, Lancashire, before it merged with Sediver of France. 

Laura says the insulator has a copper base and that the marking is not on the glass, but rather on the metal plate underneath the top skirt. The sketch at the right, while not to scale, gives you an idea of how the marking looks. 

"The more I think about it," she says, "the more I tend to think it was made in England. Siemens is an electrical concern in England that also exported insulators with metal parts and telegraph poles to Australia."

Laura is sending me some of these insulators, and then I'll be able to tell exactly what they look like -- whether they have threaded pin holes, etc. But in the meantime, I don't even have a photo of the insulator other than the one in Milholland's book, and it doesn't show the "guts'.

I don't know how many there will be, but I may decide to trade any extras, so if you are interested, you may write to me. At any rate, I'm pleased that the mystery is cleared up, and that we have the facts about the Koolery.

DON'T THROW STONES!

In my last month's CROWN JEWELS column (January), I told you about meeting David Hibbert, who is from Herts, England. He and his friend Dominic Allen had come to Gatwick Airport to meet my husband and me before we continued on to Guernsey to visit Keith Neal.

One very happy result of some trading David and I did was that I acquired one of those curved "pole plates" that used to be attached to telephone poles in England. The one I have is the second from the left in the photo shown below. Both of the plates to the left are made of heavy cast iron with raised letters, and the others are made of a vitreous enamel. VR is for Queen Victoria, and GR is for King George V. David tells me the cast iron VR pole plates are reproductions, but molded from an original. I'm very proud to have one of these, but am resisting the temptation to attach it to a pole, for fear someone else will think it is neat, too, and walk off with it!

David also shared with me the following picture of his personal collection. What a great selection of Langdons, Cordeaux's, Potheads, Varleys and oil insulators! And even though the season is past, I wanted to show you how he incorporated five of his Langdon telegraph insulators into an attractive Christmas arrangement! Thanks, David.