Saudi Arabia and Israel

I want to talk about two different porcelain insulators this month, one coming from Saudi Arabia and the other from Israel. Most of this information was given to me by George Cowan of Houston, Texas, a young single fellow 24 years old, who went to work for General Electric two years ago right out of college and was given a work assignment in Saudi Arabia lasting several months. During his off periods George had time to look around a bit, which was very much to his liking, because he is a real history buff. He is also my son Mark's best friend, so of course he knows I collect foreign insulators. It also occurred to me that maybe he was afraid to come home without them! Good thinking!! 

The first one you see pictured below is a white porcelain and comes from Saudi Arabia. George helped himself to four like this with the permission of the telephone company in the city of Riyadh. There were several of these with wires still connected just lying on a dump heap. They had been taken off an old telegraph line and were no longer being used.

Incuse marking: 54-12 

Reminding you again that George did well in history class he had this to say when I asked him if he could tell me anything about them:

"In 1517 Arabia began to be occupied by the Ottoman Turks, and remained under the Ottoman Empire until World War I. The Ottoman Empire was allied with Germany and Austro-Hungary in World War I, and lost much of its territory as a result. Their loss of Arabia was due to combined British-Arab efforts, in which T. E. Lawrence, better known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', played a great part, as did British General Edmund Allenby. After World War I the Arabs, left to work out their own fate (but under English protection), became united under Ibn Saud, resulting in the nation of Saudi Arabia.

"My first thought is that these insulators are possibly of German or Austrian make and were installed on a telegraph line during the days of the German-Ottoman alliance, but I cannot be certain. The insulators came from the area around Riyadh, the present capitol, located in the central part of the country.

"The present day Saudi telephone system is maintained and operated under the direction of Canadian nationals, for reasons unknown to me and to the various telephone company employees I contacted while in Saudi Arabia."

Here I must add a few comments of my own. Since the only markings on the insulator are a series of incuse numbers, it is almost impossible to tell its exact origin. However, its general shape is typical of those found in Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Turkey, Denmark, or Russia, indicating that one of these countries may have supplied insulators to Arabia. One thing is certain -- they are unlike those manufactured in England, the country that afforded Arabia protection during the 1920's. 

The next picture shows two white porcelain insulators, nearly alike, from Israel. The one on the left came to Houston in George Cowan's suitcase! During another off period he had taken a run through Israel! This insulator, too, has only incuse numbers on the crown and no other markings. The general shape looks very German to me, or even Japanese, except that you almost never see a Japanese insulator without a manufacturer's logo or a "Made in Japan" marked on it somewhere. 

The insulator on the right belongs to Lu Farin of Decatur, Texas, and was a gift from a friend who brought it back to her from Israel. It has no markings at all.

Left insulator incuse marking: 4491 

Quoting George Again: 

"The insulator from Israel was taken from a steel power pole in the city of Tiberias. Tiberias lies along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee and is mentioned in the New Testament. Tiberias was built in 18 A.D. by Herod Antipas in honor of the Roman Emperor Tiberias. It was at different times a Roman, Arab, Crusader and Turkish city, but is now, of course, Israeli. The pole was lying on the ground about 20 feet from the water's edge and had apparently been knocked down. There were identical poles still standing, but there were no lines being supported by them."

This insulator from Israel is really very special to me because of where it came from, not that it would have any great stories to tell, but it's just the idea!