Starting this month we will no longer use the long familiar pole line drawings for the Porcelain Corner page. These drawings have been supplied by Robert Winkler for the last several years. Robert has spent many hours making detailed drawings of various pole line construction styles from early years to the present. I want to thank him for allowing us to use these and for the drawing of the spirals that appears in the new header for this column. Bob and Ken Stephan have been tracing down the history of the spiral for a number of years and will soon be able to tell us what they have uncovered as well as pictures of one in hand.

I had a quick visit last summer with Jeannie and Joe Bridges (NIA #1027 & #647) of Marysville, WA after meeting Jeannie the previous weekend at the Snoqualmie Pass Tailgater. I really enjoyed the informal and friendly get-together. I took the opportunity to visit several collectors in the area and could not resist a chance to see Jeannie's "fat friend" (U-275) that we featured in October, 1985 CJ. I enjoyed seeing their fine collection of glass and porcelain insulators.

The brown glaze on one porcelain insulator really caught my eye as something that I have seen before. It looked like it was from Imperial's late production from 1901 to 1904. Even though the glaze was thick, you could make out parts of the Imperial crown logo and glimpses of the rest of the Imperial markings. This is a new style never reported and the most significant find of the year since it is a new style for Imperial. Jeannie made a shadow profile drawing with dimensions (see description of this method in December, 1984 CJ) so it could be given a U-#. This style was assigned U-771 and is pictured below.

The U-771 was sold by Knowles for Imperial and a cut from their catalog can be found on page 124 of Gerald Brown's book Collectible Porcelain Insulators -- third edition. I would appreciate anyone who could tell us which catalog that the U-771 appeared. Since it was not in the 1902 edition, I would guess that it was in either the 1903 or 1904 catalogs.

They also have a very beautiful unmarked cemented two-piece porcelain power type. It is thick bodied and, from the lily shell design, it must have been made in the early 1900's (see the photo above). The most amazing part is that it has an incredible turquoise colored glaze. An absolutely beautiful insulator of classic design. I took a picture of it on slide film and was very disappointed at the result. Apparently the polarizing filter on my camera affected the color reproduction. Sadly to say, after I got home and had the film developed, the slide showed the insulator to be gray.

There must be other unreported insulators out there somewhere, possibly sitting on your shelf. Why not take a good look at your collection and send me a shadow profile drawing with dimensions and/or photo of your insulators that you think may not have been reported, or tell us about your unusual and seldom seen insulators. Your questions, new reports and letters of interest will be printed here.

While we are on the subject of Imperial Porcelain Works, this would be a good time to show you a few ads that I found. The following ad from the Electrical Review dated 1-19-1898 is very important in that it indicates that all insulators made by Imperial after July 15, 1897 bear the crown trademark. Of course, most of these also bear the date of manufacture, but this indicates that all other units without the crown were made before that date. The only exception that I am aware of is a U-938. It has a brown glaze with only the No. 2 Imperial marking. The brown glazed units were first made in late 1901. Naturally, units could and were made before that July 15 date that do bear the crown logo. For example, a U-934 dated 7-7-97 bears the crown logo and the typical Imperial marking No. 3.

This is the earliest Imperial ad that I could locate. It is from the Electrical Review dated October 10, 1891, the year Imperial was founded.

This next ad is from the Electrical Review dated February 20, 1892 about three to four years before they started to manufacture high voltage insulators for Fred Locke.