"Go-Withs" come in many forms for the insulator collector.. From
insulator hardware such as metal pins... to bottles made by the same
companies that made insulators... to postage stamps depicting telegraph lines or insulators...
there are many interesting and
inexpensive ways to "spruce up" an insulator collection.
Collecting advertising from older magazines is one of them. The cover of this
month's magazine is from the November 6, 1943 Saturday Evening Post. Western
Electric placed the ad. The text read, "Circuits of Victory! That's what
this lineman and his comrades in the Signal Corps are providing. They're
building and keeping open the telephone lines that help coordinate attack and
defense in every battle zone. Mile after mile they'll push forward, often under
fire, till their Circuits of Victory reach 'round the world."
The scene
gives the appearance of troops advancing through France, probably because of the
French-style insulators on the pole. Western Electric paid for some 18 similar
advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post. This was the only one to depict
insulators in use.
Their ads plugged the company as "In peace... source of
supply for the Bell System. In war... arsenal of communications equipment."
The ads also encourage readers; "Won't you help him... by turning your
dollars into fighting planes, tanks, guns and ships? The more money you invest
in War Bonds... regularly, week after week... the sooner the Axis will be
crushed."
A couple of other ads, of approximately the same vintage, are shown on pages
28 and 29. The American Telephone and Telegraph ad is from the Atlantic Monthly;
and shows the construction of a long distance telephone line. The pole in the
background has at least three cross arms of bearing ten insulators apiece.
The Shredded Wheat ad honors hard working linemen. While the ad contains
interesting detail of the worker, the depiction of the pole, crossarms,
insulators and wire is oversimplified and inaccurate in many ways. The ad is
apparently from a magazine called "The Country Life Press".
Two of the
ads were given to us, and the item reproduced on the cover was purchased for
three-dollars. So who says it takes money to create an interesting collection?
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