NATIONAL - Cleaning Your Insulator

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", September 2000, (Insert) page 13

Russ Frank, McHenry, Illinois
NIA Award for General

There are may different ways to clean insulators. For just plain dirt you can just wash it off with soap and water with a Scotch Brite or similar pad. For sticker residue, a solvent like GOOF OFF (xylene) works well. But the problem for most people is usually train smoke, that gray haze or black coating that covers all, or part of the insulator, particularly the underside where it's not regularly washed clean by rain. There are two basic cleaning choices for train smoke, soot, tar, paint and the like: ; acid or base. Either can be used to effectively clean glass and porcelain insulators. The most popular cleaner is oxalic acid due to its availability, economy, and safeness and excellence in cleaning ability. The most popular base is lye. It is more dangerous, but will remove some deposits the acid won't touch and is safe for carnival glass (unlike an acid solution). 

Russ says: I've been collecting for about 5-6 years. I don't have a specialty, just a general glass collection. Rick Soller, a fellow Greater Chicago Insulator Club member, has helped me in deciding what type of display to put together for the National. The cleaning solutions used on insulators and their effect interested me. All the dirty insulators used in the display were provided by Rick Soller. The best cleaning agents used were oxalic acid and the base lye.

I would like to add anything from Chicago or Illinois to my collection. . . especially Electrical Supply Company, Chicago's, Surge, S.S. & Company, etc.