ELEKTRIKA!

Do you remember this porcelain enamel sign that was pictured on the front cover of the May, 1987 CROWN JEWELS OF THE WIRE? It belongs to Hans Kettenburg (Anchorage, AK) and was included in his article, "High Voltage & Power Company Signs," beginning on page 13 of that issue. He wrote: "Not sure what language Elektrika is -- anybody?"

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Well, as luck would have it, I found an almost identical sign at the Fresno National on Chuck Irwin's table. Clarice Gordon found it first and hailed me. Bless her!

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Both signs are 10" x 12", but there are slight differences as you can see from the two pictures. The sign belonging to Hans (left) has 12 lightning bolts, while mine (right) has only 11. Also, there are variations in size of bones, fullness of skull, shape of teeth and placement of fist. Different artists' interpretations! My sign is red, white and blue and was put out by the Ready Made Sign Co., NY. The other, sporting colors of red, white and black, came from the B.S. Co. with factories located at 166 N. State Street, Chicago and Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

A bit of research showed that the word ELEKTRIKA means "electric machine" or "electricity" and comes from the Slovak language. Slovak is one of the two official languages of Czechoslovakia, the other being Czech, which is the more highly developed of the two. I would guess that these signs were used here in the States in an area heavily populated with people of Czechoslovakian descent and where Slovak was the principal language. Such an area exists in and around La Grange, Texas -- about 85 miles from Houston. Anyway, these signs are neat, neat, NEAT! And isn't a picture like this worth a thousand words? Would you proceed any further if you saw this wallop of electricity promising certain death?

FRUIT JARS AND THINGS

As you may have gathered, I do like to pick up a few "go-withs" for my foreign insulator collection. So, as I was going by Bernie Warren's table at the National, I scarfed up this beautiful one quart size amber fruit jar marked AGEE Special. The word AGEE also appears on the zinc lid. The jar goes nicely with a CD 423 A.G.M. insulator of the exact same color, as the photo below was intended to show. But you are looking at a black and white version, so you'll just have to use your imagination! Both pieces were made by the Australian Glass Manufacturing Company. The fruit jar, being older, was produced before 1948 at the company's Sydney location. The insulator came from the plant in Hobart, Tasmania, and was made after 1950. Bernie brought several fruit jars and many beautiful insulators back from a recent trip he made to Australia.

So, what else did I find on his table? All three insulators you see in the photo below are purple and are marked AGEE. Once again, they were made by the Australian Glass Manufacturing Company in Sydney sometime between 1931 and 1948. Is the insulator in the center a CD 421 or a CD 422? The crown is more round and full than either of its Aussie cousins and so it doesn't fit either classification. Bernie knows of only about 2 or 3 like this one and it seems like it was not just a case of a collapsed crown on a CD 422, but that it was an intended mold variation. We may never know for sure but "Woody" has made his pronouncement about the piece and has given it a new CD number -- CD 421.1. It is a welcome addition to my collection of Australian insulators.

A BABY POTHEAD

Robert Chiantelli (Monterey, CA) had this little white porcelain fella in his hand when he came to the National in Fresno. He has relatives in Italy and he brought the insulator back from a trip over there not too long ago.

While we often refer to this particular style as a "pothead," it is actually a dry spot insulator. It has two holes for the lead in wires, similar to U-1935 (see page 40, WORLDWIDE PORCELAIN INSULATORS, Albers/Tod, 1982). The purpose of this design is to provide a "dry spot" on the lead in wire and thus prevent wet weather shorting.

This little pothead is quite a bit shorter than most examples of this style that I have seen. It stands only 3-7/8" tall and we most likely will assign it a separate U-number.

The marking, which is under glaze green ink, spells out the word GINORI. It appears both on the crown and on the shoulder of the insulator. Richard Ginori is a modern factory in Milan, Italy, that not only manufactures a complete line of electrical insulators, but porcelain dinnerware as well. It was exciting to find this insulator!

A PRIZE LEFT BEHIND IN GUERNSEY

Let me share with you a part of a recent letter from my good friend, Keith Neal of Guernsey, Channel Islands:

"Just seen in CROWN JEWELS (May, 1987) your pictures of the VEGLA style insulators, page 31. I enclose one taken off a house here in Guernsey which had been out of use for a long time. My excellent friend, Mr. Le Page, head of Telecom, had his "gang" remove it and there is no doubt it is German -- put up during the occupation of these Islands in the '39 to '45 War. Several were spotted by my lady valet and I looked at them, then found several more. All on "State houses." I expect the German Occupation Museum will be wanting an example. When Mr. Le Page got some down for me he said, "they are not ours -- probably German Occupation." He was right. I can, in fact, remember vaguely seeing them in Guernsey years ago. The ones in Guernsey are CD 597. I have also spotted what I believe are CD 448's. The ones Mr. Le Page got down were all on swan-neck brackets -- the insulator strongly cemented onto the bracket and the bracket strongly cemented into the brickwork. So his gang has a hard time chipping away the brick to get them out and then making good the damage. There is now no doubt they are German and used on certain private lines put up during the Occupation in addition to the regular Telecom System they took over."

Thanks, Keith, for sharing this story. Your CD 597 N 80 VEGLA is shown below in the photo. The 1/4 size drawings of both CD 597 and CD 448 VEGLA were done by Jack Tod. You may remember that we recently found out what the word VEGLA stands for, as reported in that same May, 1987, issue of German glass manufacturer with factories in Rheinland, Aachen and Cologne.

Incidentally, Keith tells me that, if his health permits, he is going to try to make the trip to Houston for the NIA National Convention in July, 1988. By way of gentle persuasion, shall we tell him that we have our fingers crossed and that it would be a real highlight of the show if he were here? Consider it done -- he's reading this just as you are!

Look for Don Fiene's 1987 Soviet Insulator Report coming out in the February issue of CROWN JEWELS!