THE "HEMINGRAY 42" HAS BEEN ELEVATED!

In the history of insulator collecting, one of the most maligned insulators has certainly been the lowly Hemingray 42. Probably only the HK Porter shares a similar place in collecting history, but at least the HK Porter has an excuse -- it was a replacement insulator! The Hemingray 42 was original equipment. On a few occasions, the Hemingray 42 has risen above its lowly status. In the late 1960's, a handful of Carnival 42' s were taken off the line in northwestern Indiana. (Yes, there are some "real" carnival Hemingray 42's. I know the collector who took about two dozen of them down. Don't be fooled, though. Most of the ones you see today are recent carnivalizations.)

The Hemingray 42 got another boost about that same time with the arrival of the "MR Hemingray" embossing. If you aren't familiar with this insulator, a large embossed "MR" appears above the regular Hemingray - 42 embossing. To the best of my knowledge, only a handful of these have been found, and only in clear glass. 

The dump diggers of the early seventies also turned up a few white milkglass Hemingray 42's at Muncie. These were experimental pieces that appear to have been made out of the same material that is seen in the CD 128 Hemingray E-14B opalescent piece. However, all of these got too much chemical, and as a result, they have a very soft, fragile and "bumpy" surface like some of the solid white milk CD 128's. These are quite scarce, and were really the last interesting thing that happened to the Hemingray 42.

Well, it has been a long dry spell for the Hemingray 42. Most of them get stuck in boxes in the back of collector's garages. They never even rise to the level of making the $1.00 box under a sales table because "they are too heavy" and "nobody will want to buy them anyway." Things are about to change. Never again will the Hemingray 42 have to hang its crown in shame. 

Thanks to the persistent work of Darin Cochran (with the able assistance of Roger Lucas) at the old Hemingray plant site in Muncie, Indiana (see last month's article for some other interesting finds), the Hemingray 42 has a new reason to hold its dome up high. Apparently, Hemingray had grand things in mind for the Hemi 42. Please review the pictures on the following page carefully. 

On the left is a CD 233, Hemingray E3. On the right is Darin's new find with the following embossing: (F-Skirt) HEMINGRAY (R-Skirt) No 42. We can only imagine what the "ears" on the newly found Hemi 42 would have looked like, but it clearly has many of the characteristics of the CD 233. The glass surface has been treated in some way to give it a brown, almost metallic quality. It appears to be a permanent treatment, and intentional, not something that resulted from being buried in the ground. I would certainly be remiss if I didn't mention the sharp drip points on the specimen. That feature has never been found before on a CD 233 style. Clearly, this find brings the phrase "Hemingray 42" to a new level in insulatordom, Believe It or Not!